A COLLECTIVE ARCHIVE
 
archive - an accumulation of historical records or the physical place they are located.
 
If it were possible to establish an archive of Albany at this point in time , store it in a capsule and jettison it into outer space, what exactly should we include? Surely, reference to Albany’s Entertainment Centre, the National ANZAC Centre, the wind-farm, the coast line, the harbour, the agricultural economy, and maybe some music by the Waifs - all commonly known attributes that the “person in the street” may consider important. However, artists do not necessarily consider the obvious or tangible. The work in this exhibition, from 24 artists of MIX Artists Inc. bears this out, their vision hones in on concerns otherwise forgotten or barely considered. Each artist has discovered an area of very particular and specific interest to themselves. These interests range from the very personal, socio-cultural, historical and ecological.
 
We met regularly in the year or so leading up to this exhibition, and during an early discussion, it was decided that each artist would be given a square wooden box 50 x 50 x 7cm reminiscent of a display box one may see in a museum. Not only would this provide some cohesion to such a diverse body of work but the exhibition, as a whole, would then become “an Alternative Archive” itself.
 
As always, the MIX artists have collectively presented a show that demands close inspection. It has been a rare pleasure to work with these artists and observe individual works evolve into this Alternative Archive of Mix Artists Inc.
 
 
 
PAUL MONCRIEFF
ARTIST / CURATOR March 2019