Queen Street Studio blog

Todd Fuller is one of our hardest working artists currently in residence here at Queen Street Studio… well, at least, he’s in the studio an awful lot! Currently preparing for a show at Deakin University and a solo show in Sydney later on in the year, Todd is a young, vibrant artist who has achieved huge things in a very short time. Definitely one to watch!

Your CV is very impressive for such a young artist. When did you realise you wanted to practise art full time?

I have always loved art but it was not until I did the HSC intensive studio program with the National Art School that I realised how doable the art life is. I realised quite early into my tertiary studies that to make it as an artist your most important weapon is a strong work ethic, but I am still in shock that my bills and groceries are being paid for by something I enjoy so much.

Upon returning from the NAS after the HSC program we had some very serious family discussions. Until then, more realistic career options such as Law and Architecture had been on the table. The HSC program showed me a spectrum of role models who were making a living from art and doing so in wonderfully interesting ways. This was not necessarily visible to me in the country town I came from. My parents had both done nine to five jobs that they did not really enjoy and I decided that this scary less stable but clearly enjoyable life was for me.

Your work includes sculptures, drawings and animation, you’ve curated exhibitions and directed various projects and campaigns, and you teach as well… do you think you’ll ever settle into one particular aspect of the art world or will you continue to juggle these different roles?

I’m the kind of person who does not just make art, I live it. When I am not in the studio I am usually doing something art world related, the exception is of course when I am sleeping but even then I am still meditating on a drawing, film or sculpture. It’s nice to wake up in the morning and be able to decide whether it’s an application, curatorial, writing, film editing or art making kind of day. There’s a freedom in this way of bouncing from one field to another.

All my different roles feed into and strengthen one another. I rarely find myself satisfied by just one. I am really loving curating at the moment, it continues to take me to new places and people that I would not have the opportunity to meet otherwise. Actually I am really thriving on teaching at present as well, sometimes I think my students are actually teaching me more than I am them (just don’t tell them that!). Never the less I could never put down my clay and charcoal, I just love it all.

You just spent some time in Paris at the Storrier/Onslow Cite Des Arts. What was it like to work and live in such an amazing city with a rich artistic history?

I continue to struggle every time I am asked how was Paris…

Paris was Paris!

It offered far more than I could have ever expected in every area of my life. It was my first time outside of Australia and I faced a daily assault of amazing art. It was immobilising, overwhelming and wonderful in all the right ways. Almost two months on I am still trying to process everything I saw, experienced and did.

Words do not do justice to the city or the cité where I stayed. My studio had a view of Notre Dame Cathedral. The Louvre, Pompidou and Musée d’Orsay were all within a thirty minute walk or even quicker by metro. People were not dismissive when I would declare that I was an artist, they were genuinely interested and respectful. The general public took notice when I would work plein air and be very careful not to interrupt my sight line while drawing. They were even more interested when they realised I was Australian!

I owe so much to the National Art School, Friends of the National Art School and Annette Onslow and Tim Storrier for the experience.

And, you’ve got an exhibition coming up at Deakin University. Tell us about the show.

The show was the prize at the Walker St Gallery emerging artist awards last year. I was lucky to receive this exhibition alongside Melbourne artist David-Ashley Kerr. Our works are quite different in many ways but at the same time there are some powerful similarities. We both have a recurring motif of isolated figures but for very different reasons. The exhibition is titled ‘in solitude’. I only returned from France a short while ago so it was a really intense period of art making when I returned in order to bring this show together (it did not seem feasible to create ceramic figures in Europe and ship them home). The results have been surprising and I am really enjoying the direction my work continues to take me down.

In this show there will be a series of my hand-drawn films and 15 ceramic figures which are representations of the characters from my animations. My Diaries will also be exhibited, these are such an important part to my practice and life and I am quite excited and quietly petrified by the thought of them on display. My diary is with me at all times, I sketch people in the street, it is next to me at night in preparation of dreams, I use it to test ideas, and dissect my work and its origins. It is very personal and never intended for display but I feel it is really important to be generous as an artist so I am really exposing myself far more than usual with this. I am curious to see how they go on public display.

The figures I depict are all male, not just physically, they also have a typically male psychology and emotional condition. However they are quietly and privately exposing their vulnerabilities, their loss, their sorrow, their disharmony with the world they occupy. Sitting quietly they are the subject of pity, of schadenfreude, and hopefully of love. They are plump, absurd and quirky. Some are flocked and soft while others are cold and granite like, all are in need of a good hug.

What’s next for you this year? What will you be working on in the last half of your residency at FraserStudios?

I have a series of competitions, prizes and projects I am working on but the most important is a solo show with Brenda May Gallery in August. It will include a mix of the type of work I am known for alongside some new and exciting more dramatic pieces. I have some new characters I encountered overseas that will be joining my ensemble, my men in bunny suits and fat men in tutus will be sharing the limelight with a toy robot and a miner and an array of other unlikely male misfits. I am dealing with some new fears and concerns and am in the process of resolving a new film or two.

It is very exciting, it’s like a writer starting a new book not entirely sure of where it will go…

Nerine Martini (in the studio next to you) tells me that she thinks you might sometimes talk to your sculptures … do they talk back?

…It appears my secret is out. I talk to them all the time! They are such sad lonely characters you just have to try and cheer them up. That said I have caught other people having a serious chin wag with my men but the conversations are sadly always one sided. As I walk out I always say goodnight and tell them not to fall or break or move. I am glad they don’t talk back though, they would probably be unhappy that I rarely give them clothes or about the fact that when I do they are usually absurd anyway. They would probably ask me to stop singing and tap dancing when I think I am alone in the studio.

Click here to visit Todd’s website.
Photos courtesy of Arunas Photography.