David Watson
Born 1957 Melbourne
I swim most mornings in Sydney Harbour with whiting, bream, leather jackets, mullet, garfish, and schools of tiny prawns. On land I savour the immersive joys of placing one foot after another. My words and images seek to distil the contemporary predicament of an ancient continent still settling. I am interested in 'progress' - in what is being lost, overwritten and erased - and how photography might resuscitate and remind. In recent years I have mounted five solo photomedia exhibitions in Sydney and participated in group shows at home and abroad. From 2005-10 I lectured in photomedia at Sydney College of the Arts (SCA). From 2009-16 I helped create socially-engaged exhibitions and publications with the Williams River Valley Artists' Project, an environmentally-alarmed artist collective opposing coal and CSG. In 2012 I completed Wild Ryde, a doctorate in photomedia at SCA woven from the experience and memory of a meandering walk and return swim across suburban Sydney. From 2016-19 I worked as an arts-activist to draw attention to the impending social, environmental and public health threats of WestConnex (the southern hemisphere’s largest urban infrastructure project). With Denise Corrigan I continue to research, record and piece together a personally-inflected history of the Rozelle street in which we have lived and raised a family since 1991. With our musician/video-maker son Luca Watson (drummer with Sydney post-punk trio Shady Nasty) Denise and I are currently artists-in-residence @ 44 (our Rozelle home studio/gallery), where we plot intermittent exhibitions and events. In 2022 Denise launched quietworks, a site showcasing some of her recent image-making + a selection of artist cards/prints. An expansive free colour e-catalogue for our 2016 exhibition Made in Callan Street (with video, audio & PDF links) was published in August 2023 … view/download it here. It’s also now accessible on State Library of NSW’s indyreads platform (featuring 10,000 e-Book and e-Audio titles by independent publishers) to all municipal library card holders. In April 2024 we opened our upgraded gallery space 44 to the public for unentitled, featuring new work by Denise and me @44_rozelle. Further info @ 44 News.
2006-12
PhD Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) [Photomedia]
University of Sydney Postgraduate Award 2006-08
Dissertation Wild Ryde http://bit.ly/1tPDL1m
2003-05
Master of Visual Arts SCA [Photomedia]
University of Sydney Postgraduate Award 2004
Dissertation Precious Little: Traces of Australian Place and Belonging
http://bit.ly/10qYuvL
1993
Graduate Diploma Visual Arts SCA [Photography]
1978
Bachelor of Arts [Communications & Mass Media] Macquarie University, Sydney
EXHIBITIONS
2024 Koala Inn (online exhibition sparked by Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s Global Nature Positive Summit in Sydney) unentitled 44, Sydney
2023 Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize (finalist for Firetides #3, 2023) Manly Art Gallery, Sydney
2022 North Sydney Art Prize (finalist for In the Woods, 2022) Coal Loader, Sydney
2021 Wake up! (hand-written postcards beseeching 112 federal Coalition politicians to act on climate change) Parliament House, Canberra Jerrys Malfunction (online exhibition to coincide with NSW’s Upper Hunter byelection)
2019 Curbed & Gutted (group show) Salon Callan, Sydney Dear Gladys (solo intervention) Inner-west post-holding boxes, Sydney PISS OFF WESTCONNEX (collaborative intervention) Ex-Tigers’ site (Rozelle), Sydney
2018 Liquorland Gallery (collaborative intervention @ RMS-acquired premises) Ex-Liquorland site (Rozelle), Sydney
2017
GreenWay Art Prize (finalist for Rozelle Book Club’s Book Blocs, 2017) Art Est, Sydney Sensitive Receivers: Rejecting WestCONnex (group show) Salon Callan, Sydney
2016
The Sky is Falling… (group show) Bondi Pavilion, Sydney Transitional & the myth of progress (group show) Pop In Space, Sydney
Fieldwork: artist encounters (group show) Sydney College of the Arts
Made in Callan Street (group show) Salon Callan, Sydney
2015
SubLiminal (group show) Leichhardt Town Hall, Sydney
The Motor Show 2015 (group show) Articulate project space, Sydney
HarbourSculpture (finalist for Abbott-Proof Fence, 2015) Clarkes Point, Sydney
Instruments of Democracy (group show) Cementa15, Kandos - Williams River Valley Artists’ Project (WRVAP) performance + installation
The Night Parrot (group show) Delmar Gallery, Sydney
2014
The Walks (group show) Australian National University School of Art, Canberra
2013
Lost and Found (group show) Articulate project space, Sydney
Leave It in the Ground (group show) Articulate project space, Sydney - WRVAP anti-coal exhibition
HarbourSculpture (finalist/stipend for swimming home, 2011) Deckhouse, Sydney
North Sydney Art Prize (finalist for Wild Ryde | swimming home, 2011) Coal Loader, Sydney
Habitat (solo show) Salon Callan, Sydney
2012
Redlands Westpac Art Prize (finalist for Wild Ryde, 2011) National Art School, Sydney GreenWay Art Prize (winner for Floor Waste, 2011) Art Est, Sydney
2011
Wild Ryde|swimming home (PhD show) Sydney College of the Arts
Riparian Rites (group show) Maitland Regional Art Gallery - WRVAP exhibition considering future of Williams River Valley after shelving of proposed Tillegra Dam 12/10
2010
Cry Me a River (group show) Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney - WRVAP exhibition protesting the proposed Tillegra Dam
Williams River Valley Artists’ Project Tocal Homestead, Paterson - exhibition protesting the proposed Tillegra Dam
2009
Williams River Valley Artists’ Project Muswellbrook Arts Centre - exhibition protesting the proposed Tillegra Dam
Document|a King’s Lynn, England - works from Walking With Cars shown in international group show
Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture Tweed River Art Gallery - finalist
2008
Walking With Cars (solo show) Brush Farm House, Eastwood
2007-08
Current and Recent PhD Students from SCA Nova Scotia School of Art & Design; York University, Toronto; Delmar Gallery, Sydney
2004
Wulumay Close (MVA) Sydney College of the Arts
The December Group Gallery Barry Keldoulis [Waterloo], Sydney
Terror Australis (solo show) Gallery Barry Keldoulis [Chippendale], Sydney
2002
Sexdecim 2002 (group show) Groundfloor Gallery, Sydney
2001
New Work (group show) Salon Callan, Sydney
2000
New South Wonderland (solo show) Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney
1999
Sydney Sub-urb (group show) Museum of Sydney
1992
Sydney: Seven Years’ Stranger (Grad Dip show) Sydney College of the Arts
1990
Full House (group show) Slide installation/back-projection, Glebe Festival, Sydney
1989
Finale (group show) EMR Gallery, Redfern
1983
Edinburgh Festival, Scotland
Portfolio Gallery, London
1979
Nimrod Theatre, Sydney
EMPLOYMENT
2015-25 Postgraduate Examiner, UNSW Sydney | Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture
2018 Public Art Assessment Panel, Gadigal Wangal Wayfinding Project, Inner West Council, Sydney
2005-10
Lecturer [Photomedia], Sydney College of the Arts
2001-03
Cinémathèque Consultant, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
2002
Judge, TAFE Art & Design Prize
2002
Consultant Curator (surf movies) ScreenSound Australia
2000
Consultant Curator (art/cinema/sport) Cinemedia, Melbourne
1999
Manager Communications and Cultural Development NSW Film and Television Office, Sydney
1989-99
Project Co-ordinator: Cinémathèque Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Co-Curator: (with Denise Corrigan) TV TIMES: 35 Years of Watching Television in Australia (1991); (with Brian Doherty) Paul Winkler: Films 1964-94 (1994); (with Peter Callas) Phantasmagoria: Pre-Cinema to Virtuality (1996). Commissioning Editor: The Dawn of Cinema: 1894-1915 (Barrett Hodsdon 1996), Something Secret: Portraiture in Warhol’s Films (Callie Angell 1993). Editor: Australian Movie Map (1996)
1984-88
Senior Researcher, Exhibit Co-ordinator, Photographer, Museum of the Moving Image, British Film Institute, London
PUBLICATIONS | ARTICLES | PROGRAMS
Made in Callan Street 101 pp e-catalogue inspired by a 2016 exhibition @ Salon Callan in Rozelle, published August 2023 (with Denise Corrigan). With an introductory essay by writer/curator Ann Finegan + clickable downloads (3 videos, 3 audios, 3 PDFs) via Inner West Council Library’s archive module … view/download it here. In December 2023 the e-publication was made digitally accessible via the State Library of NSW’s indyreads platform (which provides access to a statewide collection of over 10,000 e-Book and e-Audio titles by independent publishers) where it can be borrowed by all municipal library card holders.
Air Quality: What We Are Breathing and What We Can Do About It Public Meeting, Hannaford Centre, Rozelle, August 2018 2 pp flyer https://issuu.com/madeincallanstreet/docs/air_quality_public_meeting_25_august Noel Child Road Tunnels: Air Treatment & Ventilation Considerations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6mO7dp-UOA Wendy Bacon & Luke Bacon Smoke, Mirrors & Air Quality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg60LKs1AMA
Bottleneck! Co-edited 20 pp activist newspaper published by Rozelle Against WestConnex (RAW), August 2017 (with Peter Hehir/Denise Corrigan/Wendy Bacon/Andrew Chuter). 60,000 copies distributed to doorsteps across the inner west. Wrote ‘Arts Activism’ review, p 17. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51c92269e4b0f05142535297/t/6566d2e181eee0230586a18f/1701237483055/Bottleneck%21.pdf
Sensitive Receivers: Rejecting WestCONnex 80 pp e-catalogue for anti-WCX exhibition @ Salon Callan in Rozelle, June 2017 https://issuu.com/madeincallanstreet/docs/sensitive_receivers_catalogue
Rozelle Against WestConnex (RAW) Website for local resident action group (with Peter Hehir/Denise Corrigan/Gary Warner)
Walking as Knowing Essay re artist Lesley Punton (see below) re-purposed for online magazine Visual-Bind Issue #1 2015
http://issuu.com/visualbind0/docs/visual_bind__no_1_of_2015
The Night Parrot Delmar Gallery e-catalogue compiled by exhibition/gallery curator Catherine Benz (March 2015), 8-27 https://issuu.com/delmargallery/docs/night_parrot_exhibition
Swimming Home Illustrated article for NSW State Library's SL magazine (September 2014), 24-27
https://shorturl.at/iBIOP
The Stuttering Frog #2 Co-edited, co-authored 20 pp newspaper/catalogue for Williams River Valley Artists’ Project’s Leave It in the Ground @ Articulate project space, Leichhardt (November 2013). Wrote ‘Power Walk With Me?’ (pp 18-19)
http://bit.ly/1pGlzAl
Power Walk With Me? Article for Artlink Magazine, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2013 online
Walking as Knowing Essay for artist monograph Lesley Punton - mountains without end (London: ROOMBOOKS, 2013), 18-24
http://bit.ly/1pWoHIy
The Pace of Place: David Watson’s Wild Ryde 30-minute feature on ABC Radio National's Off Track (Joel Werner), February 2013
http://ab.co/1z2DV6S
swimming home 2 pp invitation to morning tea with Callan Park Bushcare to mark completion of 14km swim down Parramatta River, April 2011. Salon Callan (March 2011)
Wild Ryde Illustrated essay for Special Issue of SAGE Publications journal Memory Studies, Vol. 4, No.1, January 2011. Guest-edited by Swinburne University (Institute for Social Research)’s Maria Tumarkin (Los Angeles, London, Singapore, New Delhi, Washington DC: Sage Publications, 2011), 88-106. Extended from a paper presented at SCA Photomedia’s May 2009 symposium Field Trip: Conversations Around Landscape and Photography
The Stuttering Frog #1 Co-edited, co-authored 16 pp newspaper/catalogue for Williams River Valley Artists’ Project’s Cry Me A River at Tin Sheds Gallery, The University of Sydney (September 2010). Wrote ‘Who Cares Wins’ (pp 14-15)
David Watson: Walking With Cars 12 pp exhibition catalogue with essay by Anne Ferran: ‘Walking to Water’, Salon Callan/City of Ryde (November 2008)
http://bit.ly/1wbIppy
Terror Australis 4 pp exhibition catalogue with essay by Richard Dunn: ‘David Watson’s Terror Australis’, Gallery Barry Keldoulis (March 2004)
http://bit.ly/1pWprgH
PRIZES
Harbour Sculpture 2013 stipend for swimming home (2011)
GreenWay Art Prize 2012 for Floor Waste (2010)
Venour V Nathan Postgraduate Prize 2011, The University of Sydney, for ‘Wild Ryde’ (awarded for an essay re Australian or Imperial history)
http://bit.ly/1rpS7iA
TALKS | CONFERENCE PAPERS
'Wild Ryde|swimming home – a suburban odyssey' Sydney Harbour: Intersections of the arts, sciences and humanities Workshop, Sydney Environment Institute, The University of Sydney (April 2017)
'Wild Ryde|swimming home' Talking the Walk/Walking the Talk symposium, Australian National University School of Art (May 2014)
‘Wild Ryde: swimming home – a suburban odyssey’ Scholarly Musing, State Library of New South Wales (April 2013)
‘Wild Ryde|swimming home’ Sydney College of the Arts Graduate School Conference. Critical Thinking: Research + Art + Culture, Sydney College of the Arts (May 2011)
‘Walking Home’ Field Trip: Conversations Around Landscape and Photography symposium, Sydney College of the Arts (May 2009)
‘Walking With Cars' Emerging Scholars Workshop: Memory, Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne (May 2008)
‘Are We Here Yet?’ Re-Thinking the Past: Experimental Histories in the Arts conference, University of Technology, Sydney (July 2006)
REVIEWS | INTERVIEWS | WRITING ABOUT
‘A SPECIAL GIFT to help our wildlife: Celebrate Xmas by helping to save the koala from extinction’, Darling Christmas Balmain Rozelle Gift Guide 2024, December 2024, p 37
‘Made in Callan Street’, Darling Issue 12 (Summer 2023), November 2023 pp 48-49
‘Piss off WestConnex’, Mark Titmarsh, Art + Australia, Issue Five (55.2): Brutalism, May 2019, pp 146-149
‘Sign Shines Light on Environmental Fights’, Inner West Courier, 5 July 2016
'Innovative, Agile, Disruptive', Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) Community Show, Radio 3CR, 28 September 2015
http://podcast.bze.org.au/pg/download.php?filename=2015-09-28_david-watson.mp3
'Solar-powered Abbott-Proof Fence: Art Shines Light on Climate', Inner West Courier, 11 August 2015
'Building the Abbott-Proof Fence', The Daily, Radio 2SER, 6 August 2015
http://www.2ser.com/component/k2/item/17162-building-the-abbott-proof-fence
'Don't Sit On Fence: Artist's Protest Against Abbott', Northern District Times, 5 August 2015
'Artist David Watson’s Abbott-Proof fence sculpture pokes fun at the Prime Minister’s stand on climate change', The Daily Telegraph, 5 August 2015
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/inner-west/artist-david-watsons-abbott-proof-fence-sculpture-pokes-fun-at-the-prime-ministers-stand-on-climate-change/story-fngr8h4f-1227471321011
'David Watson talking walking', Talking Walking with Andrew Stuck (London, December 2014), podcast May 2015
http://www.talkingwalking.net/david-watson-talking-walking/
‘Performance art shows coal and gas activism’, Mudgee Guardian, 15 April 2015 https://www.mudgeeguardian.com.au/story/3010525/performance-art-shows-coal-and-gas-activism/
Jill Bennett and Saskia Beudel (eds), Curating Sydney: Imagining the city's future (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2014), 222-227
‘Only a step away from what we’ve lost’, Louise Schwartzkoff, The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 November 2008
‘Critic’s Picks’, Dominique Angeloro, The Sydney Morning Herald [Metro], 8 April 2004
Barry Keldoulis and David Watson re Terror Australis, [www.artshub] April 2004
‘Colour and Memory’, Kathryn Millard, Art Monthly (April 2001), pp 27-29
COLLECTIONS
Private collections in Sydney, Melbourne, Munich, Edinburgh, London
Centre for Continuing Education, Sydney University [2005]
GRANTS
Inner West Council Local History Grant: Made in Callan Street exhibition e-catalogue [2016-23]
Leichhardt Council Local History Grant: ‘Callan Street – Now and Then’ [2007-16]