FR’MANTLE or Freemantle? Hailing from a Portuguese-speaking background, artist Ian de Souza asked how he should pronounce it upon arrival many years ago. The answers were inconsistent, and remain so.
“In defence of the first version I submit the South Fremantle Football Club and ask you to read that name out loud,” he says.
However you say it, Fremantle is synonymous with the arts and, while quite a few artists have been forced out by high property prices over the years, there’s still some close at hand.
The survivors have banded together for an art-walk they’re dubbing From the Monument-al to the Bazaar, because it’s on the same weekend as Fremantle Arts Centre’s Christmas Bazaar, and the studios are all in walking distance of each other and the centre.
Using Monument Hill as a landmark the walk starts in Bellevue Terrace, then heads down to the de Souzas’ Blinco Street abode, before continuing to Chalmers and Holland Streets.
It’s a chance to see where the artists work and what makes them tick, as well as a fresh way to market artworks given galleries are dropping like bees in Kansas.
“People like to know where the works come from,” de Souza says.
His home defies description, walls are fluid and you’re never sure where a room ends and a walled garden begins.
This weekend is a chance to check it out for the first time in 13 years (in 2001 when it featured in the soon-to-be-defunct Open Garden scheme).
• Ian de Souza, Robin Reid, Trevor Richards, Elly Cernohorsky, Michael Knight and John Teschendorff—getting ready for a walk on the arts side.Photo by Matthew Dwyer
Former Silver Street Studio artists Robin and Jo Reid share the de Souza studio for the artwalk.
In their late 70s, the Bicton artists may have slowed down but are still turning out sculptures in clay and metal, including a series of gongs used for meditation Robin Reid has been experimenting with.
“I’m excited at the thought of gongs and how they affect people…there’s an amazing sense of peace.”
Young jewellery designer Elly Cernohorsky will also exhibit at the Blinco Street studio.
Trevor Richards is throwing his Chalmers Street home open, along with his huge garage studio, and visitors can see the eclectic art he’s collected over his years, swapping or buying from artist mates—not to mention some of the most glorious old Italian terrazzo floors in Fremantle.
He’s joined by mates Theo Koning and Frank Morris: the trio makes up what is known amongst friends as the Snooker Boys, who’ve been exhibiting and pocketing balls together for years, Richards says.
“Once a week we headed to the Fremantle Club [on Bannister Street], but we go to the Buffalo Club now.”
John Teschendorff and Annette Seaman can be found on Bellevue Tce and Michael Knight at his Holland Street home.
The walk is on on Saturday December 6 and Sunday 7, 10am–4pm.
For a map head to http://www.facebook.com/artwalkfreo or grab a map from the Fremantle library.
by JENNY D’ANGER