Article – Mike Leggett

The Orchid and the Painter

2018

Mike Leggett

“Arthur Boyd grew up in Victoria in the 1930s, one of the extensive Boyd family of painters, ceramicists, architects, writers and musicians. He found his fortune in England where he lived from the early 1960s onwards. His work sold so well that ten years later he was able to add to his property portfolio, a farmstead on the Shoalhaven River in NSW. A prolific painter, drawer, printer and ceramicist, he and Yvonne relaxed only when they made the annual pilgrimage to the Shoalhaven, travelling by sea in both directions to and from Britain. Ensconced by the River, he would often work in the landscape, en plein aire, responding with paint and gesture to what he saw in front of him.” Orchids appeared often in his work, one of which the painting above being known as the Nodding Greenhood orchid. The editor of Australian Orchid Review in which this article appeared thought it more likely to be the Rusty Hood orchid (Pterostylis rufa)

New Dance at the ACME Gallery

1978

Mike Leggett

Jackie Lansley and Rose English made some dance at the ACME Gallery on the 4th March (1978). The approach to this form of movement was new to me. At the time, contemporary dance was redefining itself in practice, being described in publications such as New Dance and Readings, being developed in studios at Butler’s Wharf and ACME. The article was written at the time and edited in 2016.

Brief Message….the Great Highland Bagpipe

1975

Mike Leggett

I first encountered the films of the Scottish filmmaker Margaret Tait in 1971 at the Ricky Demarco Gallery in Edinburgh; together with Ian Breakwell I was showing film work as part of the Edinburgh Festival. The Gallery were screening a program of her films which, in a word, entranced, one of which had a voice singing in phrasing that complemented in an unsettling way, the images. Later, I learnt the composition was a particualr adaptation of a pibroch piece for bagpipes. Ricky gave me her address which, as it was in the far north of the country, prevented an immediate visit. In 1975 I was to meet Margeret and visit her in Orkney with my good friend and fellow filmmaker, Annabel Nicolson.

Found Sounds

1978

Mike Leggett

A visit in 1977 to Mexico, an intensely visual culture, includes an audio landscape that was unanticipated. I spent most of the three weeks in Mexico City where the sense of immersion was at its richest. The article (PDF at left) documents five encounters with soundscapes, created in the meeting of people and their machines, buildings, musical instruments and pea whistles, used with a blend of intention and outrageous fortune.

The London Filmmakers Co-op (A History)

1979

Mike Leggett

The catalogue (edited by Rod Stoneman) listed films funded during the 1970s by the BFI. Though I had never been funded through them, the editor had recently worked with me on a chapter, Film Related Practice and the Avant-garde, about my recent work for SCREEN journal, another BFI publication. We had also, with others, formed a sub-committee of the Co-op to produce a paper for the 1978 AGM proposing changes to aspects of its Distribution operation. The article was based on this paper and was not well received by a faction within the LFMC Committee.

A Digital Crisis

1998c

Mike Leggett

An article about the adoption of digital tools and their adaptation in the making of traditional artforms. Reference is made to the Virtual Cermaics (1993), the CyberCeramics websites and the work of K. Inoue and Robin Best. (NB I have mislaid where an exactly when this appeared – TBC)

Waxweb : Photo-images Buzzing on the Wires

1995

Mike Leggett

“There is plenty to be done in the new areas of digital art distribution, primarily with CD-ROM and the World Wide Web.” The prophetic article for Photofile No 45, published by the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney, examines innovative approaches taken by David Blair to “image-processed narrative” using internet browsers, at a very early stage of the internet’s development into an artistic and public medium.

The Pneu Life

The Pneu Life was commissioned by Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, editors of the remarkable publication,CANTRILL’S FILMNOTES, published between 1971 and 2000 in 100 issues.
Written not long after migrating to Australia with partner and child from England, it sets out to survey idiosyncratically the theory and practice of moving image making at that point in time, predominantly of my own professional practice but also reflecting on that of others. There are ten sections in the PDF (at left): The Immigrant, The Student, The Teacher, The Filmmaker, The Editor, The View, The Critic, The Film Viewer, The Theoretical, The Installation. For reasons that were never quite clear to me, several artists in Melbourne were upset by the article.

1989

Mike Leggett

Art Demands a New Breed of Programmer

1996

Mike Leggett

The article written for the Sydney Morning Herald on the 23rd April 1996 centers on the work of Gideon May. As a commercial programmer based in Holland, he was attending the new media conference organised by the Australian Film Commission, having worked extensively with artists, including Sydney-based artist Bill Seaman. The article – top left – refers to several artists, the Burning the Interface exhibition at the MCA and ZKM Centre in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Julie-Anne Long at Bundanon (Video essay)

Performer Julie-Anne Long describes with Virginia Baxter, the experience of being an artist-in-residence at the Bundanon Trust studios, on the banks of the Shoalhaven River in New South Wales Australia. Together they discuss the process of preparing a new performance work involving character, costume, movement and music. Photographs by Heidren Löhr. (10-minutes)

2009

Mike Leggett