Brisbane contemporary art duo Clark Beaumont is among an elite group of 12 Australians hand-picked for an intensive residency program like no other.
As part of the 30th prestigious Kaldor Public Art Project, Marina Abramović: In Residence, QUT graduates Sarah Clark and Nicole Beaumont will spend 12 days in a room atop Sydney's Pier 2/3, creating performance pieces the public will help shape.
While the young duo admit they are "somewhat apprehensive" about the prospect of sharing the space with 10 other artists and a rolling crowd of onlookers, Clark Beaumont is enthusiastic about the challenge.
"With Project 30, the viewer is coming in to watch us make art or become a part in what we're making. That's not how residencies normally work," said 24-year-old Nicole Beaumont.
"But interacting with the public is a natural progression for our practice - our performances have been moving more towards public engagement for some time now.
"Everything in our culture is so instantaneous now and we're all so connected. We think it's important to acknowledge this new dynamic - ignoring the audience feels untruthful and 'old hat'.
"We feel incredibly lucky that Marina has given us such a fantastic and unique opportunity to interact with the public."
Experimentation is a key focus for Clark Beaumont, who thrive on playful interaction with viewers and the experiences that generates.
The collaboration is well known for not taking their art too seriously. In 2013 Clark Beaumont spent days on end sitting on a box too small to fit them comfortably.
"Sarah and I 'make' through doing, a practice we learned and experimented with while studying at QUT," Ms Beaumont said.
"We like to consume and create as we go, which feeds back into what we're all doing unconsciously within our culture - consuming things around us."
Clark Beaumont's collaboration began as second-year students and continued throughout their degree, an unusual arrangement the duo said was supported and championed by lecturers in QUT's Creative Industries Faculty.
Kaldor Public Art Project's renowned 13 Rooms exhibition in 2013 put Clark Beaumont on the world stage just two years after the pair graduated.
"Opportunities like that have pushed us to grow quickly, to become sure of what we want to achieve with our collaboration.
"Even on a small scale, it's an important decision to tie your career exclusively to another artist."
QUT visual arts academic Charles Robb said while Clark Beaumont was fortunate to grab the attention of 13 Rooms curators Hans Ulrich and Klaus Biesenbach so quickly, the pair had cleverly used the opportunity to launch a raft of exceptional works they had since exhibited internationally.
"I think that's a testament to their strong motivation and ability to communicate their artistic practice and processes very well to audiences, the media and the industry," said Mr Robb.
"We teach the business side of creative practice differently to most universities, weaving those skills into all visual arts units rather than offering a capstone unit on writing grant applications just before the students graduate.
"We also build collaborative processes into our units right from the beginning of the degree - and students who are comfortable exercising their negotiation skills are often very good at later navigating the organisational structures of the cultural institutions that offer funding.
"Clark Beaumont is a fantastic example of how artists armed with those skills can forge strong careers, driven by their artist-led endeavours."
Marina Abramović: In Residence runs June 24 - July 5.
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Media contact:
Kate Haggman, QUT Media, 07 3138 0358, kate.haggman@qut.edu.au
After hours Rose Trapnell, QUT Media team leader, 0407 585 901.
