The Dark Tea Time of the Soul is an artist run project space located in
Cumnock NSW. It is a joint venture between Alex Pye and Yasmin Smith, both
visual artists, who moved to the area recently from Sydney. This move was
motivated by the struggle to fund a sustainable artistic practice in Sydney due
to its rising cost of living. They lived on a sheep and cattle farm for 6
months before moving into a house in Cumnock, a small town with a population of
about 200. The Project is in its first stages of development with renovations
taking place on the house and the garage/ studio/workshop.
The Dark Tea Time of the Soul will commence its program in September 2012.
This will include a low cost residence for artists and creative’s, a venue for
one off arts and cultural events such as film screenings, health retreats, music
events and workshops and an evolving and dynamic project space that provides an
alternative to artist run initiatives in large cities.
Directors Bios
Alex Pye is a visual artist who graduated from Sydney College of the Arts
with Honours in 2011. Her practice incorporates painting, sculpture, performance
and installation. She has exhibited at numerous artist run spaces in Sydney such
as Kudos Gallery, Peloton Gallery, Eastern Bloc and At the Vanishing Point
Gallery. In Sydney Alex worked in radio as the breakfast presenter for the
community station FBi 94.5fm from 2008-2011.
Since moving from Sydney to Cumnock in regional NSW Alex has been creating
works as a study of displacement – the movement of something from its place or
position and the consequent trauma or anxiety that this may evoke.
Yasmin Smith completed her masters of visual arts at Sydney College of the
arts in 2010. Yasmin works mainly with ceramics, sculpture and object making as
well as watercolour drawing. She was a co-director of the artists run initiative
Locksmith Project Space located in
Redfern, Sydney between the years 2007 and 2010. During this time the directors
of the space self-published three issues of the serial art publication Locksmith Project. Locksmith Project Space provided a rent-free
exhibition space for visual artists as well as a space for the monthly music
event Space habit.
Yasmin has exhibited in Sydney galleries including Firstdraft Gallery,
Peloton Gallery, MOP, and Kudos Gallery. In 2010 she participated in Structural
Integrity at Nextwave Festival in Melbourne which brought together members of
different artists run initiatives from around Australia and Asia for a month
long residency, finishing with a group exhibition. She was also a member of the
Mattress Box Collective in Berlin in 2007 where she lived in a shopfront with
seven other Australian artists creating and exhibiting work over a period of
three months. Yasmins experience with Locksmith Project Space, Structural
Integrity and Mattress Box Collective has influenced her to work further in
creating alternative structures of ARI’s that can foster the development of
emerging and mid career artists. Yasmin is represented by the Commercial
Gallery, Sydney.
