We often overlook the true potential of the every day spaces we spend our lives in. For example, most backyards are overlooked as a venue for anything more elaborate than a piss up with mates or a barbecue on a sunny Sunday arvo. Yet I’ve always felt that sometimes, even the most amazing art galleries and creative spaces are missing a key ingredient of what makes our homes so special—the ease and comfort of being in “your space” with “your mates”—that feeling that anything goes. Thankfully the Backyart team felt the same and have spent the last few years concocting ways to bring the wonder and glamour of a great art exhibition into the backyards of Sydney, Australia.
I recently caught up with Art Director and Backyart Co-Founder and Curator Aisha Phillips to have a chat on the lead up to the next Backyart exhibition. This event will be the first since the Covid lockdowns here in Sydney. In this interview we talk about how with a grungy inner west backyard and a couple of good mates, Aisha co-created a grassroots art project that has been building community, moving art out of the white cube and reshaping the way we experience the humble backyard.
Amy: Hi Aisha! Thanks for catching up with me to talk about your events initiative, Backyart. First though, I’d love you to introduce yourself. Tell us about you.
Aisha: I work as an Art Director in film, television, and commercials. The Art Department is responsible for the overall aesthetic of a film, from designing to building and decorating the sets. It can be a wild but rewarding role. I can be sourcing anything from everyday household items, to wrangling industrial objects and everything in between. I’m constantly searching for things.
Amy: So, you’ve developed a good eye for what could be useful down the track.
Aisha: Absolutely.
Actually, the more eclectic your life is, the more it helps with this job because when you are given a script, you’re suddenly recalling a random experience you had 5 years ago.
It’s just a really funny, awesome world to be in.
Amy: I want to pick something out of that. You’re talking about drawing from your past sensory experiences, as an Art Director, to inform your work with commercial film. How does that feed back into Backyart? How are you taking that wealth of knowledge and past sensory experience and what are you utilising to inform Backyart? Are you really curating the sense experience, as part of the events? Does that have a relationship?
Aisha: Yeah, past sensory experiences of mine really help to inform Backyart and the decisions that get made around the curation of the event.
Originally, Backyart started because, I’m constantly working with teams on shoots to transform spaces within the most rapid time frames you can imagine. So, I’m able to see what can happen in a really quick turnaround.
Then, on the side, I’m attending local midweek exhibitions with friends, really enjoying the social side of art but always questioning how it could be done differently. So that became my fascination–what this could look like, how else can art be experienced within unconventional settings?
Then one day, I was standing in my backyard—which as you know was as beautifully grungy as it gets in Darlington—and I was like, “This could totally become a little garden gallery.”
I got the green light from my house mates and called up artists that I’m friends with. I said; “I have this idea. We are going to put your art up in the garden, on the fences. Display it in interesting ways. Are you interested?” And they were all in.
Before we knew it, we were two weeks away from our first event.
Backyart I–Image curtesy of Aisha Phillips
Amy: I’m most curious about how you’re saying it happened really organically and quickly. What lessons did you take from that first event that have gone on to shape how you and the team do the events? Is there anything specific that you’ve changed or adapted?
Aisha: Every event is a learning curve. That first event we were just testing it out and seeing how everything went.
Even with our success, we realised that for future events, we wanted it to feel more legitimate. We wanted to create a more formal way for the artists to have an understanding of what we are trying to achieve and what they can get out of it.
Amy: I love that learning as you go approach. People who just start without having a plan. You speak about having this inkling and then you followed it. Was there an intention of building a community?
Aisha: Definitely. I think that everyone can relate to attending certain art events and feeling a little out of place. So having Backyart in what is essentially a residential space creates a level of warmth and familiarity.
Zoe (Co-Curator) and I actually have a history of running events together. We have been friends since we were about 8 years old. When we were 22, we put on a series of events called, Global Village - informal educational events about what’s going on in the world. Zoe and I have a really nice synergy working together.
Aisha and Zoe–Image curtesy of Aisha Phillips
Amy: Yes. Essentially you’re talking about good collaboration.
Aisha: Absolutely.
Amy: And good collaboration breeds a space for other people to be creative. So what you’ve done is taken your connection and created a welcoming, creative space out of it. It’s almost like together you have these bursts of loving energy that turn into these events.
Aisha: It’s exactly that. Bec, another key person in the team, now across the seas in Amsterdam, is very much a part of the whirlpool of ideas too.
We’ve been throwing projects at each other since we were teenagers, always supporting one another no matter how ludicrous they seem.
Bec, AKA Shady Lady bringing the musical flavour to Backyart I–Image curtesy of Aisha Phillips
Amy: I love that. Staying on the subject of collaboration and community. Have there been any connections, stories or collaborations that have specifically come out of Backyart that you know of? Has it generated any interesting occurrences that happened outside of you guys, with people meeting at the events?
Aisha: Out of every event there has been these really awesome, wholesome connections that have broadened the collective community of Backyart.
For instance, Sam, who we know from an environmental group, came to one of the events and said, “I know this guy Luca, who 20 years ago used to run these underground exhibitions. I’ll put you in touch.”
Luca is now a friend and recently curated a massive exhibition at Carriageworks for the bushfires called RISE. Zoe ended up exhibiting her own art in that event.
The best part is when you meet friends of friends and they say, “Oh I think I’ve been to one of your events!” It really shows how the event is growing.
Backyart moments –Image curtesy of Aisha Phillips
Amy: You’re feeding into this neighbourhood vibe. You know when you realise you’ve been somewhere years after the fact. Like someone you know lives in a house and you go there for the first time, only to discover that you’ve been there before. And I have a feeling that Backyart is creating these kinds of stories for people. It’s really magical.
Aisha: Thank you. And I totally relate to those stories. It’s such a funny moment when you do meet those people down the track in another context.
Amy: Absolutely. Now, you did an interview with the guys at Grassfires a few years ago and in the interview you said that the more rugged, interesting or quirky a space is, the better you feel it suits Backyart.
Aisha: Yes
Amy: What goes into choosing the spaces themselves?
Aisha: I absolutely stand by that original statement. I think that if the backyard is not just a conventional square, it actually allows us to be more playful with how we present the art.
We are thinking about where someone enters and how they are naturally moving through the space.
As for what goes into choosing the spaces…First of all the owner’s enthusiasm. (laughs) Being like, “I’m really into this and I have a backyard I think you could use!”
Second of all, we try to look for spaces that are accessible or that we can make accessible.
After that, we are considering location. We are definitely aiming to expand across all the postcodes but we keep in mind travel. Can people actually get there?
We also consider our emotional response when looking at a space, and part of the fun is discussing how to curate the art for full impact within that environment.
It’s looking at all those fine details of how it can develop into a really strong event.
Amy: I like that. You’re talking about the space as an opportunity for expansive creativity rather than a limitation. For the artists themselves, you said that you’re finding people you’re connected with. But I’m curious whether you’re consciously curating the art or are you looking at it more as a broad spectrum of mediums to
be represented generally?
Aisha: Consciously curating, while also keeping themes fairly broad, because our events work off of people’s existing artworks, for the most part!
Therefore, we create the theme, which leads to the general direction of the event and then we start to look at the artists we are interested in. Together we start talking about the artists we like, or whose work we have seen that is interesting at a show or on Instagram. We then start to look at the way the artists and their works connect. It’s a natural and intuitive process.
Meeting the lovely Tim Nathan and Sam MacDonald at Backyart I–Image curtesy fo Aisha Phillips
I did a drawing of these two from that night which you can check out here.
Amy: Exactly! After the madness of 2020, with no events and not even being near other people, finally, Backyart is emerging resplendent with an upcoming event. Can you tell us about when it is and what’s happening?
Aisha: Zoe and I sat down at her new warehouse home and we were planning for a Backyart that was going to be in the Rozelle area. We were at thirty people right? That was the limitation.
We were just sitting there, pushing our brains. Asking ourselves, how can we still put on an event with only thirty people? Do we make it more intimate? Do we have a dinner party?
The thing with Zoe and I is that we can get really carried away. Literally, it’s almost like making art itself. The ideas can become very big and theatrical. Usually by the end of it, I’ll be driving home thinking, “What the fuck did I just say yes to?!”
And then usually three days later we realise we need to scale it back.
We were just sitting in her warehouse when the thought occurred to us, “Why not here?!”
Zoe was incredibly excited about that because it’s her new home, this beautiful little Erskineville warehouse. It’s not a backyard but it’s still a residential home and we will be filling it with plants and giving it that Backyart flavour.
The event is called, Behind the Roller Door and it’s happening on Saturday 5 June at 160 Rochford Street, Erskineville. We’ve got six local artists we are exhibiting. This includes you (Amy Gardner), Daniel Bavell, Hal Witney, Manuela Serje, Mike Watt, Morus Quin, Rattus Rat and Riz.
Backyart V: Behind the Roller Door exhibition flyer
Amy: I think this is something that is wonderful about this moment. That even if people’s capacity to create has changed for whatever reason around the pandemic, the impetus and the desire to do so doesn’t stop.
So to close, for anyone who wants to start their own thing, what do you think are your three main ingredients? The things that they need to just get themselves started. What would you suggest?
Aisha: I would say don’t overthink it in the initial stages. You just have to run with your ideas because the minute you start to overthink, it will hold you back. Backyart would never have happened if I felt I did not have enough time.
Once you make a decision everything will fall into place.
I work really well with collaboration. I think building something like Backyart is a testament to friendship and community.
People want to support you. People actually do have an innate sense of wanting to support their friends and get involved.
And have fun! Don’t fret too much. We only live once, or so they say!
Image curtesy of Aisha Phillips
Well I’m stoked. Huge thanks for the amazing chat Aisha. Get yourselves over to Aisha’s website stat to check out her amazing work and give her a follow on Instagram. If you haven’t experienced a Backyart event yet, keep your eye on the magic happening with the team at Backyart via their Instagram and Facebook page.
And if you’re in Sydney on Saturday June 5 2021, make sure you come down and join us at 160 Rochford Street Erskineville for Backyart V: Behind The Roller Door!
At Backyart V, you’ll be the first to see new paintings in my #feelsaccurate series, alongside the work of a bunch of amazing local creatives on the night. All the details are on the Backyart V Facebook event here.
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