Waiting (Violin lesson) 2025, Woodford Academy (Figure 2)

 

In February 2025 I began an artist residency at Woodford Academy in Woodford, NSW, as part of its artist residency program run by Beata Geyer.

At a certain point in the residency I noticed I was feeling relief about the building as a place to make art with. I realised it was because it is more like the world we live in than one of the specialist spaces—galleries and museums—that, like most artists, I am accustomed to. Even though Woodford Academy is itself a type of museum, it doesn’t isolate things like museums usually do. There is a familiar continuity between things at Woodford—the door is in a doorway, the cupboard against a wall, plates are on a table, and so on. Instead of museum explanatory panels, everything is mutually contextualised. We are exposed to a different explanation—a physical context—as we walk around the rooms furnished for habitation (although for an earlier period, the time it was actually lived in). This museum’s physically immersive nature ‘sees’ the body as continuous with the mind, as able to perceive and judge in its own way. In recognising the body in this way, the museum gives it value, and extends that value to physical space, which is the environment and existential home of all material things. Even though it took more steps to see what artwork I could make with the place, I realised that what I was grateful for was the recognition of place in the continuous physical wholeness of the Woodford Academy building.

That relief lead to a longer essay, that you can read in full here. Some figure numbers used in the essay are included in captions here. See other figures listed in the essay when you get your copy of the small catalogue—A residency at Woodford Academy—available at an event planned at Woodford Academy 12-4 pm Saturday 20 December 2025 (discussion planned for 1-2pm), or by writing to me at margaretjroberts@proton.me. Pay in kind by engaging with the issues you see being raised in the essay, or by cash/transfer. Copies will be available at Woodford Academy after the event.

left: Waiting (Drip Music) (figure 3); right: Blinky ears (figure 5)

This catalogue is funded by the National Art School, which supports the practice of academic staff and is proud to support Margaret Roberts’ project as part of the Academic Staff Development Grant Program.

 

Download A residency at Woodford Academy 2025 pdf