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\u201cI thought, it\u2019s interesting that nobody can work together at the moment, but could we flip that so that everybody could work together in some way, because all bets were off and everything had changed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put up a post on social media saying, I\u2019m running a project called Random Co-Lab, all you do is put your name down, you\u2019ll be randomly matched up to somebody else that wants to play, and you have seven days to create something and post evidence of its creation on the Co-Lab page.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople that didn\u2019t know each other could see there was somebody in the exact same situation as them, sitting in a studio, wondering what they were going to make today.\u201d<\/p>\n
As soon as artists volunteered, some \u201crandom and chaotic\u201d connections were made, and in turn, new ideas.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the terrific combinations we\u2019ve had was between Melissa Jane Wilson and Steven J Nimmo,\u201d Trembath said.<\/p>\n \u201cSteven\u2019s a graphic designer who works in China. He was coming over to visit his family at Christmas and got stuck in Australia, and Melissa was just getting back to some art practice after having kids.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth of them were a bit out of the loop, got together and did some extraordinary work, with one as a graphic artist and one as a creative.\u201d<\/p>\n African harp and banjo players have connected, bread and furniture makers have made a \u201ccosy COVID video,\u201d guitarists have challenged each other to play without touching the strings, and photographers have worked together, apart, looking at the built and natural environment.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been come really interesting collabs where people have come into it really open-minded to see what happens next,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n With photography skills in common, it was a coincidence that Lynden Nicholls was paired with Ros Pach.<\/p>\n \u201cRos had done double exposures before, and so I thought that made sense, as I\u2019m in Ballarat and she\u2019s in Thornbury,\u201d Nicholls said.<\/p>\n \u201cI took pictures of buildings up here, and she took pictures down there of the bush, because Thornbury is near the Darebin Creek Reserve. It was a city person taking bush pictures and a country person taking building pictures.<\/p>\n \u201cRos put them together. It\u2019s a bit symbolic of nature taking over manmade structures. Our world might end up looking like that if we\u2019re not careful.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicholls said Random Co-Lab was a creative motivator, she had fun meeting someone new and finding an opportunity to communicate with another person about their respective artistic styles.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the restrictions, I was making excuses to not go out and take images, and then when this project came up, I had to because I was committed.<\/p>\n \u201cThis project got Ros out of her zone a bit, too. Ros and I think we might enjoy working together some time in the future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For Trembath, the initiative has brought some faith back to the arts community in Ballarat, and further afield. \u201cSometimes it can get a bit lonely, but the Random Co-Labs have allowed people to go back to the moment when they were a teenager at art school and anything was possible, you were open to all ideas and happy to meet and work with people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s let people come out of a bit of tunnel vision in their practice, and develop some friendships at a time in Australia where \u2018the strange\u2019 is frightening.<\/p>\n \u201cSuddenly the blokes that play heavy metal are working with the nannas who knit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" RANDOM Co-Lab is generating unusual artistic work by linking strangers together. Created by musician, Mick Trembath during the COVID-19 lockdown, the initiative took off to encourage teamwork at time where many artists otherwise would have been working alone in isolation. \u201cI thought, it\u2019s interesting that nobody can work together at the moment, but could we […]<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/06\/IMG-0146-300x225.jpg\")
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