December 23rd, 2023Artists of the Central Highlands
with Eve lamb
From his childhood in rural America, Ryan Kennedy (aka RFK) moved to New York City and worked in the fashion industry including textile design and runway installation. From there he pursued his own creative studio practice in Brooklyn and in 2009 hosted a tour group of Australian art educators, curators and collectors which led to him accepting an Artist in Residency at Melbourne Girls Grammar and a solo show at Forty Five Downstairs. Since his 2014 immigration to Australia RFK’s work in performance, installation and sculpture have won accolades including the 2018 Lorne Sculpture Biennale Land Art Sculpture-scape Award. Currently RFK is deeply ensconced in the Glenlyon landscape, where he resides and where his creativity continues to enrich the wider community and to inspire communal thought ‘outside the square’.
Eve: Hi RFK, Is that an American accent I detect?
RFK: It is. Yeh. I was born in Virginia on the East Coast. It’s known to be for lovers, Virginia. Where I grew up we had the Appalachian in the backdrop.
Eve: So how long have you been here, in Australia?
RFK: In Australia permanently, at least ten years now.
Eve: And what brought you here?
RFK: Work brought me here and love kept me here.
Eve: Did you meet an Aussie?
RFK: I did. Yeh (laughs).
Eve: That’s great.
RFK: Yeh. I initially came over as I’d been living in Brooklyn at the time and I had a tour group of Australians from the art world come through my art studio and the head of art at Melbourne Girls Grammar offered a month long residency.
Eve: So what is your area of work exactly?
RFK: I mostly work in performance, sculpture and installation. I call it PSI and the ratio of those three elements varies with the work itself. I mainly work these days by commissions and I take my time with the works. The last work was about three years in development.
Eve: And the genre?
RFK: I’d say I’m in the avant-garde. I like to really work with relationships whether that’s between ourselves and our history or the landscapes. They’re very site-specific these works. For instance, with the last piece I was asked to do a piece that celebrated the creators of the Great Ocean Road so I went down to the Great Ocean Road, began research….
Eve: Was that part of the Lorne Foreshore Sculpture Show?
RFK: Yes.
Eve: So can I ask you a little bit about what you’d rate as some of your career highlights as an artist?
RFK: The Lorne Sculpture Show was definitely a big one for me. I’ve worked with White Night, in Melbourne, which was a lot of fun and then I’d say my residencies, whether they’re at schools or libraries. I really enjoy engaging with youth as well as the general public.
Eve: What materials are you typically working with?
RFK: I almost always use found materials. I try my best not to buy them. I also came from fashion and was a bit disheartened by the amount of waste that was there. There is something really special about the stories that come with those materials. And no matter what subject matter I’m working with I do try to project a sense of a hopeful future.
Eve: Do you have a particular exhibition or show coming up that you are working towards at the moment?
RFK: Radical Fieldz. It’s an exhibition taking place in Glenlyon for myself and other artists, also involving several community groups. It uses a six-month timeline. It began in October and culminates on March 16 with our end of season harvest event.
Note: You can read more about the Radical Fieldz project that’s unfolding in Glenlyon in a separate article in The Local.
