Margaret River artist Christopher Young was one of six applicants to receive funding in the latest grant round of the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund administered by Country Arts WA.
Country Arts WA’s Investment Director, Philippa Maughan said that the injection of funding would provide valuable opportunities for artists in regional and remote communities to develop their artistic practice and build cultural networks that stretch from within the artists’ communities, out across the world.
The applications were judged by a panel of arts and culture community leaders with Regional Arts Fund chair Sonya Dye saying there was a record number of applications.
Young said the funding offered him a uniquie opportunity to build on what he had already learned from previous projects to develop a compelling body of work.
His project - ‘Eight’ - will be a new body of photographic work that will look at end-of-life cultural experiences; how people respond to such experiences; and the environments and institutions they encounter.
Young said despite death being inevitable and universal, it was not something people freely discuss.
“It is often seen as a taboo subject, especially intergenerationally,” he said.
“The passing of a loved one can be further complicated by the foreignness of the experience. This is particularly the case with ‘stoic’ men, even more so those in regional communities.”
Young is seeking locations across the South West that seem from a different time, so they are akin visually to his own experience and have the capacity to provoke memories in viewers.
He will also be recording interviews with people who have lost someone close to them, ideally three to five years ago.
The interviews will be transcribed and presented anonymously in an eventual exhibition.
Anyone - particularly men - who might be interested in being interviewed or who has tips for locations is welcome to email Young their details via zebrafactory@gmail.com
