Whether she’s creating a “forest congress” to get conservationists and loggers talking or sparking global headlines with her Ladies Lounge at MONA in Nipaluna/Hobart, the artist and curator does not do “quiet”.
Be bold… but be ready to ruffle some feathers
I’ve had to deal with repercussions that were uncomfortable and unpleasant. Take the “Picassos” in the Ladies Lounge [which were fakes, painted by Kaechele but passed off as the real thing]. Not everybody liked that. It pushed a lot of buttons and I had to pay for that in a way. In some ways I was punished and ostracised. But look through the history of art and who wasn’t? Sometimes you just have to accept the fallout.
Get to the heart of a problem
My dad taught me to go to the centre of the problem. How is this problem an opportunity? How is it a benefit? How are things more rich, more interesting? It’s a matter of shifting your perception and also the context. When I moved here, it was very hard to go from having my own identity in the art world to suddenly being arm candy [as the wife of MONA founder David Walsh]. It was weird to be subsumed by someone else’s identity. But it also came with enormous benefits, such as not having to struggle over how I was going to fund my non-profit [24 Carrot Gardens, a food education program that connects young Tasmanians to healthy food]. What an enormous gift.
Embrace the “enemy”
I think very carefully about how to communicate with someone who’s different to me. I don’t want it to result in a shutdown. I had a meeting last night with someone I was afraid of and I spent the first 30 minutes trying to create rapport and warm banter. I was afraid to get to the point. There’s always that moment when it’s like, “Okay, are we ready? Let’s dive into this unresolved space.” If you step out of the culture wars and you play and are welcoming, and you’re actually asking people what they really want, you generally find that the assumptions you held were wrong. If you come out at the so-called “other” with an attack, what do you expect to receive? My meeting went so well and it happens again and again when you take the risk.
Surround yourself with the right people
I’m not a finisher and I’m not a maintainer. I’m an opener. So if I don’t have the right team, there won’t be success. There’s such power in knowing what your role is and what you need to do. An art practice like mine is unwieldy and has many facets. I’m managing a lot of strands at one time. So I need someone who thinks like me on my team. But because we’re so similar, a big lesson for me is not to feel threatened – that’s very hard. I have to put on the big-girl pants and accept that this person is a genius and deserving of credit. It can be a tricky dynamic but the outcome is so much better.
