Tin Sheds

The Tin Sheds was the common name of the Sydney University Art Workshop, an Australian art workshop in Sydney, New South Wales, founded in 1969. Its name lives on in the Tin Sheds Gallery at the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning. Groups such as Optronic Kinetics and the Earthworks Poster Collective operated out of Tin Sheds.

History

Tin Sheds was founded in 1969^[1] by artists Donald Brook, Marr Grounds and his wife Joan Grounds^[2] as an autonomous and informal venue on the grounds of Sydney University.^[3] The name was given because the workshop occupied some old CSR sheds in the university grounds.^[2] Officially designated as a place for students to study and practise the methods of the old masters, the founding artists and other tutors encouraged students of the arts, architecture, and engineering students (and anyone else) to dream and create all manner of artworks;^[3] it was a "nursery for conceptual art.^[4] They tried to understand and define the notion of art, and stayed open 24/7. There was a radical element that intimidated some of the other students.^[5]

Renowned sculptor Bert Flugelman was coordinator of Tin Sheds from the beginning until 1973.^[6] He became a lifelong friend of Brook.^[4]^[7]

Bernard Smith was involved with the workshop, and wanted to change the name to Fine Arts University Workshop.^[2]

Some experimented with computer graphics and other forms, leading to the emergence of Optronic Kinetics^[3] in 1970.^[8]

The Earthworks Poster Collective was based at Tin Sheds for the whole of its existence, from 1972 to 1979.^[9] During this time, Tin Sheds was officially known as the Sydney University Art Workshop.^[10]

The School of Architecture, Design and Planning was always a supporter of the workshop, and from late 70s the Tim sheds offered courses recognised for credit by the Fine Arts and Architecture departments of the university. In 2004 Tin Sheds moved into new purpose-built workshops and a gallery in the school, at 148 City Road, Darlington.^[1]

Optronic Kinetics

A few medical and engineering students began to use their expertise with computer graphics,^[5] and to experiment with electronics and movement; Brook encouraged them to push the boundaries, and Flugelman introduced them to sculpture. This experimentation gave rise to the sculpture collective known as Optronic Kinetics^[6] in 1970,^[8] which used science and technology to experiment with art.^[6]

The group's founding members included Julie Ewington (then a fine arts student, later a well-known writer and curator), and electrical engineering students David Smith (b.1945^[11]) and Jim McDonnell (b.1948^[11]). Along with Flugelman, the students created "conceptually ambitious and humorous works" such as Cubed tree, Feathered office, and Flashing boob. Other works included Electronic colour organ and Reflector.^[6] Feathered office' (1971) was described by Brook thus: "One Monday morning I was delighted to find my own room transformed with chicken feathers... set with their quills in an obsessively regular grid, as if the room had sprouted them, to its own astonishment, out of its own naturally tidy follicles".^[12]

A collection of Optronic Kinetics' work was gifted to Flinders University Museum of Art (FUMA) by Brook, as Emeritus Professor at the university.^[6]

Tin Sheds Gallery

The Tin Sheds Gallery hosts exhibitions and issues publications relating to national and international architecture, art, design and urbanism.^[1]

Legacy

Tin Sheds was the only experimental art workshop at the time; Inhibodress, founded by Mike Parr and Peter Kennedy, grew out of it, and soon other alternative venues proliferated.^[2]

People

Others involved with the organisation of Tin Sheds include:

Vivienne Binns, tutor in painting and drawing at Tin Sheds in the late 1980s^[13]
Chips Mackinolty (Earthworks Poster Collective)^[10]
Marie McMahon (Earthworks Poster Collective)^[14]^[15]
Frances Phoenix, researcher of the history of women's needlework, tutor in women's needlework^[15]
David Saunders, architect,^[3] tutor (later appointed professor of architecture at the University of Adelaide in 1977; second president of Australia International Council on Monuments and Sites from 1978^[16])

Artists who took courses at Tin Sheds include:

Barbara Campbell (born 1961), Super 8 course, 1987^[17]
Michael Riley (1960–2004), photography course^[18]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "About the gallery". The University of Sydney. 17 January 2023. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Grounds, Marr (30 March 2015). "Interview with Marr Grounds" (transcript) (Interview). Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive: Balnaves Foundation Australian Sculpture Archive Project. Interviewed by Edwards, Deborah. Balnaves Foundation. Art Gallery of NSW. This is an edited transcript of a recorded interview.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Britton, Stephanie; Maughan, Janet (22 January 2019). "Donald Brook 1927-2018". Artlink Magazine. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
^ ^a ^b Mendelssohn, Joanna (2018). "Donald Brook b. 8 January 1927". Design & Art Australia Online.
^ ^a ^b Allam, Lorena (24 June 2007). "The Hothouse: art and politics at the Tin Sheds" (audio (55 mins) + text). ABC Radio National. Hindsight. Guests include Donald Brook, Bert Flugelman, Guy Warren, Joan Grounds, Michael Callaghan, Chips Mackinolty, Marie McMahon, Jan Fieldsend, Roger Butler. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Take 5: Optronic Kinetics - FUMA". Flinders University. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
^ "Herbert Flugelman". Art Gallery of NSW. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
^ ^a ^b "Optronic Kinetics Collective". Australian Prints + Printmaking. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
^ "Earthworks Poster Collective". Australian Prints + Printmaking. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
^ ^a ^b "Chips Mackinolty - 1978 Sydney University art workshop". National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
^ ^a ^b Australian National Gallery (1980). Annual report. p. 72 – via National Library of Australia.
^ Green, Charles; Barker, Heather (2009). "Flight from the Object: Donald Brook and the Emergence of Post-Studio Art in Early 1970s Sydney". Index Journal (4): 8. doi:10.38030/emaj.2009.4.2.
^ Peckham, Penny (2011). "Vivienne Binns :: biography". Design and Art Australia Online. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
^ "Marie McMahon". MCA Australia. 26 February 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
^ ^a ^b Therese., Kenyon (1995). Under a hot tin roof : art, passion, and politics at the Tin Sheds Art Workshop. Sydney: State Library of New South Wales Press. ISBN 9780730589334. OCLC 36180987.
^ Brine, Judith (11 December 2012). "David Arthur Lewis Saunders". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 28 January 2023. This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 18, (Melbourne University Press), 2012.
^ "Andrew Frost". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
^ Jones, Jonathan (2014). "Michael Riley". Art Gallery of NSW. Original: Jonathan Jones in 'Tradition today: Indigenous art in Australia’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2022.