PEOPLE often think of painters as tortured souls who spend months or years agonising over their latest creation.
But for her exhibition Pressure, Freya Hall did the exact opposite–working in frenetic bursts of energy and completing each painting in a few hours.
It all comes naturally to the Fremantle artist, who finds herself speed walking when she’s out for a leisurely stroll.
• Freya Hall with some of her artworks created under Pressure. photos by Jentina@junemoon.photography
Blaring music
“I had been fighting my instinct to go fast when it came to art because it contradicted what I thought I should be doing: go slow, focus, create a tranquil environment, avoid distractions—after all, that’s how masterpieces are made! I had to deconstruct this thought pattern,” Hall says.
“So I started setting a timer on my phone, propping it up next to my canvas, blaring music through my headphones, then picking up my brush. These self-imposed distractions filled me with adrenaline but also quietened my mind.”
To up the ante even further, Hall booked the exhibition dates for Pressure last year, setting a firm deadline, and was ruthless when it came to finishing a piece.
“I tried to sustain momentum as much as possible, stopping only for tea or lunch breaks. If I had to leave the studio to pick up my son from daycare, that meant the piece was finished,” she says.
“I signed each piece at the end of the session to signify completion and to stop myself from coming back the next day and messing with it.
“Previously, I had been completing my works in the more conventional way, over many sessions, but I felt this led to overthinking and overworking the pieces.”
Given the deadlines, you would expect the paintings to have a manic punk sensibility, and while there is a latent energy, they are surprisingly dreamlike with women and men deep in thought, couched in bright swirls of colour.
Hall is influenced by abstract expressionist artists like Edvard Munch and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and likes to explore the absurdity and joy of being human and the imperfect nature of memory.
She’s an avid collect of vintage and kitsch items, and is working on a series of works called Homecoming, reflecting the nostalgia she felt on returning to Fremantle to raise a child.
Hall grew up in Fremantle, but spent much of her 20s in Vienna, Austria. She originally went there on a three-month student exchange program, but liked it so much she didn’t get on the plane home.
“Vienna is famous for winning ‘the most liveable city in the world’ award, year after year,” she says.
“And I really experienced that: I lived two blocks from The Belvedere museum where Klimt’s masterpieces, including The Kiss, were on display; I was within walking distance to multiple bars, coffee shops, bakeries, groceries, pharmacies.
“The public transport was sensational, the healthcare was great, and I always felt safe. There were more incidental interactions with people. At all times of the year, the parks and the cafes were bustling.”
But then covid hit and Hall wasn’t able to visit her family in Australia for years.
It took its toll and after eventually getting back to Perth for a visit in Christmas 2021, she found her priorities had changed.
“I was so grateful to smell the eucalyptus and swim at the beach and I realised I could not be so far away from my family again,” she says.
Hall moved back to WA and decided to live in Fremantle, because it was the only place that came close to the inner-city buzz of Vienna.
But it’s not all been plain sailing. Austria is in the heart of Europe, bordered by eight other countries.
Going back to the languid burbs in the most isolated capital city in the world was a culture shock.
But Hall is trying to generate some artistic momentum in Fremantle. She secured a studio in the Naval Store and earlier this year organised the first exhibition for the artists based there.
“It was a great success, so many people showed up and showed support and exclaimed that it is what the community needed, it is what the artists needed,” she says.
“Now that I am firmly back in WA for good, I am determined to help improve, revive, and engage with the local community. I am invested in this for the future of my baby, and for baby Freya, who grew up in Freo and has so many cherished memories from here.”
Pressure is at Current @ Naval Store, 141 Queen Victoria St, Fremantle over the Easter long weekend (April 3-6) with opening night on April 2. For more info see freya-t-hall.bigcartel.com.
by STEPHEN POLLOCK