It’s hard to know why anyone wants to be an artist. Slaving themselves for a less than adequate pay check, working in a million jobs just to pay for the love and addiction to the craft. I ask myself “why do I do it?” every day. I should have been a public servant, fire fighter, nurse (please insert ‘real’ job here)... I’m always reconsidering.

However, after meeting Tasmanian artist Brigita Ozolins, a performance artist, artist and writer, it all became clear.

Intelligent and articulate, but not arrogant, she is the sort of person I would say,
“I want to be like her when I grow up”.

Brigita has had a fascinating life. Of Latvian origin, she grew up not speaking any English until she started school, believing as a child that everyone spoke the intimate language of Latvian at home and English was language used for the “outside world”. Fascinated with her father’s book she would spend hours in his library pretending to read, sitting, gazing, hoping the mysterious patterns of black and white print would reveal themselves if she stared at it long enough.

This extraordinary relationship with words and language had a strong impact on her sense of self, her passions and her direction.

After studying the classics at Monash University she returned to Tasmania and began working as a librarian for the Glenorchy City Council. She continued there until becoming the Arts and Cultural Development Officer, and later, Founder, of Moonah Arts Centre. It wasn’t until a tragic accident, a fall, altered her life, and at the age of forty, she decided to enrol in a fine arts degree.

“When I went to art school I couldn’t believe how fantastic it was. I was so excited it was like I had forty years of art I had to blurt out. I couldn’t stop making work, it was unbelievable. I have a lot more discrimination about what I make now,” she says laughing.

Armed with a thirst for knowledge and a love for making, Brigita finished her PhD in 2004 and since then has not stopped making, writing and performing.

“My great passion for making art, and most of my artwork, somehow always links back to our relationship with language to books to libraries and the way we sort information as well as a fascination with bureaucratic systems,” she says.

Her most recent exhibition Codex was a powerful installation of 756 convex mirrors written in large cryptic letters on painted black walls of the Carnegie Gallery to spell out the text:

“The history of all man kind is written within ourselves”

This amazing and immersive exhibition was well received by most with some saying that it was of international standard. However, she was surprised at the more creative responses written in the comments book.

“There were a lot of people who hated the work, who cannot stand it at all…I must admit I felt a bit sad…when you have THIS IS SHIT in mirror writing…well you sort of laugh at it…I suppose at least they made the effort,” says Brigita.

If you missed this exhibition, don’t fret, her work is on permanent display in the State Library, the UTAS art school library, and if you are in Latvia she has some work in the National Library - all of which are perfect places to house the work of Brigita Ozolins.

“I think our relationship to language is really paradoxical. I think that on the one hand it is an amazing tool that enables us to describe ourselves and our place in the world and to share our thoughts and feelings to map history and all those things, but on the other hand it’s not a mirror of reality, not an accurate reflection, that language both shapes who we are but also restricts us,” says Brigita.

Her studio is testament to her love of knowledge and books. It looks like a library, with shelf after shelf of eclectic works by the great authors, philosophers and poets, as well as her father’s books.

“I’m a sucker, I need to have the book as an object, and some books are so beautiful”

Brigita Ozolins makes me realise that being an artist, whether that’s a musician, writer, visual artist or performer, is all about the need to express, the thirst for knowledge and the love that cannot be tamed.

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Arts on the edge talks to Sean Kelly Arts & Cultural Development Officer Of Moonah Arts Centre (MAC)

“It’s not an industry, it’s a carnival with a casino attached”

The Moonah Arts Centre is a community based arts centre and is one of those little gems that we all take for granted. It’s been around for a while, first starting as a library that merged into an arts centre as a part of Glenorchy City Council, located just off the main street of Moonah.

This year Moonah Arts Centre promises to deliver a plethora of events, workshops, artist in residencies, music marathons…I could go on and on, but better you go and pick up the MAC program. In fact, if you ever say you’re bored and have nothing to do you may find me behind you ready to slap you with their arts program.

Seriously though, this year Sean Kelly, Arts and Cultural Development Officer at MAC, promises a jam-packed year with a key focus on local youth and community.

“We have a ridiculously busy program, we have up to 14 exhibitions a year, workshops and concerts, we try to cover as many different art forms as we can so it’s not all just crafty, we look for new things all the time...fresh art and fresh ideas," says Sean.

March kicks off with an exciting new project called STIGMA Research Lab. The project incorporates a team of artists in residency at the Moonah gallery, transforming it into a creative hub for the month. Moonah Arts Centre invites anyone and everyone to contribute. The outcome will be a series of site-specific installations in Hobart and Glenorchy.

“The artists who are working on the project will work out in the community but will be based at the centre. That will mean people can come in and engage with what they’re doing, and what they’re doing is around the idea of social stigma, stigma based on were we live. If you come from a housing commission area, public housing area, what does that mean and how do people regard you and how realistic are these stereotypes...you can come in and talk to the artist and give them information,” explains Sean.

The project is collaboration between the University of Tasmania, CAST and the Glenorchy City Council through the Moonah Arts Centre, and of course you, so get involved.

However if you want to get involved in other ways, like setting up exhibitions, putting together workshops or researching and developing projects, MAC are always looking for new and fresh ideas to be injected into the gallery.

“It’s a good way to get skilled in how arts operates, whether it’s arts administration or it’s project management or the physical side of installing and theses kind of issues. It’s a good way to get skilled up and if you want to go on and do more in the arts industry… ahh industry I said that word… like Adam Gopnik said ‘it’s not an industry it’s a carnival with a casino attached’. That’s what it is, so if you want to get involved in the carnival, it is a good way to do it because there is not a lot of courses in these things,” says Sean.

Volunteering is a great way to get involved and get skilled up and confident as well as meeting like-minded people. Get in contact with Sean Kelly or better still get down to the Moonah Arts Centre and chat to one of the many friendly staff.

The Moonah Arts Centre is open weekdays 12:30 - 5pm and on Saturdays 10am - 2pm if desired by the exhibitor.