Tin Sheds

Tin Sheds was founded in 1969 by artists Donald Brook, Marr Grounds and his wife Joan Grounds as an autonomous and informal venue on the grounds of Sydney University. The name was given because the workshop occupied some old CSR sheds in the university grounds.{{cite interview| first=Marr| last=Grounds| title=Interview with Marr Grounds| date= 30 March 2015| interviewer-first= Deborah| interviewer-last= Edwards | url=https://www.datocms-assets.com/42890/1614405141-groundsmarrinterviewv2018-12-11.pdf| format=transcript| series= Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive: Balnaves Foundation Australian Sculpture Archive Project|others=Balnaves Foundation|publisher= Art Gallery of NSW| quote=This is an edited transcript of a recorded interview.}} Officially designated as a place for students to study and practise the methods of the old masters, the founding artists and other tutors encouraged students of the arts, architecture, and engineering students (and anyone else) to dream and create all manner of artworks; it was a "nursery for conceptual art. They tried to understand and define the notion of art, and stayed open 24/7. There was a radical element that intimidated some of the other students.{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/hindsight/the-hothouse-art-and-politics-at-the-tin-sheds/3241670|format= audio (55 mins) + text|first=Lorena| last=Allam |title=The Hothouse: art and politics at the Tin Sheds |series= Hindsight |website= ABC Radio National| publisher= Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=24 June 2007 |access-date=28 January 2023|others=Guests include Donald Brook, Bert Flugelman, Guy Warren, Joan Grounds, Michael Callaghan, Chips Mackinolty, Marie McMahon, Jan Fieldsend, Roger Butler.}}

Renowned sculptor Bert Flugelman was coordinator of Tin Sheds from the beginning until 1973.{{cite web | title=Take 5: Optronic Kinetics - FUMA | website=Flinders University | url=https://www.flinders.edu.au/museum-of-art/collections/take-5/optronic-kinetics | access-date=29 January 2023}} He became a lifelong friend of Brook.{{cite web| url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/donald-brook/biography/| website =Design & Art Australia Online| title=Donald Brook b. 8 January 1927|first= Joanna |last= Mendelssohn|date= 2018}}{{cite web | title=Herbert Flugelman | website=Art Gallery of NSW | url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/flugelman-herbert/ | access-date=19 January 2023}}

Bernard Smith was involved with the workshop, and wanted to change the name to Fine Arts University Workshop.

Some experimented with computer graphics and other forms, leading to the emergence of Optronic Kinetics{{cite web | first1=Stephanie |last1=Britton |first2= Janet |last2=Maughan | title=Donald Brook 1927-2018 | website=Artlink Magazine | date=22 January 2019 | url=https://www.artlink.com.au/articles/4737/donald-brook-1927E280932018/ | access-date=28 January 2023}} in 1970.{{cite web | title=Optronic Kinetics Collective. | website=Australian Prints + Printmaking | url=https://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/artists/8395/ | access-date=29 January 2023}}

The Earthworks Poster Collective was based at Tin Sheds for the whole of its existence, from 1972 to 1979.{{cite web | title=Earthworks Poster Collective | website=Australian Prints + Printmaking | url=https://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/artists/2558/ | access-date=28 January 2023}} During this time, Tin Sheds was officially known as the Sydney University Art Workshop.{{cite web | title=Chips Mackinolty - 1978 Sydney University art workshop | website=National Gallery of Australia | url=https://searchthecollection.nga.gov.au/object/84106 | access-date=28 January 2023}}

The School of Architecture, Design and Planning was always a supporter of the workshop, and from late 70s the Tim sheds offered courses recognised for credit by the Fine Arts and Architecture departments of the university. In 2004 Tin Sheds moved into new purpose-built workshops and a gallery in the school, at 148 City Road, Darlington.{{cite web | title=About the gallery | website=The University of Sydney | date=17 January 2023 | url=https://www.sydney.edu.au/architecture/about/tin-sheds-gallery/about-the-gallery.html | access-date=28 January 2023}}

A few medical and engineering students began to use their expertise with computer graphics, and to experiment with electronics and movement; Brook encouraged them to push the boundaries, and Flugelman introduced them to sculpture. This experimentation gave rise to the sculpture collective known as Optronic Kinetics in 1970, which used science and technology to experiment with art.

The group's founding members included Julie Ewington (then a fine arts student, later a well-known writer and curator), and electrical engineering students David Smith (b.1945{{cite book| url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1466775872/view?sectionId=nla.obj-1635574609&partId=nla.obj-1472763596#page/n73/mode/1up| via= National Library of Australia| title=Annual report |author=Australian National Gallery |date=1980|page=72}}) and Jim McDonnell (b.1948). Along with Flugelman, the students created "conceptually ambitious and humorous works" such as Cubed tree, Feathered office, and Flashing boob. Other works included Electronic colour organ and Reflector. Feathered office' (1971) was described by Brook thus: "One Monday morning I was delighted to find my own room transformed with chicken feathers... set with their quills in an obsessively regular grid, as if the room had sprouted them, to its own astonishment, out of its own naturally tidy follicles".{{cite journal | last1=Green | first1=Charles| first2=Heather|last2= Barker | title=Flight from the Object: Donald Brook and the Emergence of Post-Studio Art in Early 1970s Sydney| website=Index Journal | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282664197| doi=10.38030/emaj.2009.4.2 | issue= 4 |date=2009

| page=8| doi-access=free}}

A collection of Optronic Kinetics' work was gifted to Flinders University Museum of Art (FUMA) by Brook, as Emeritus Professor at the university.

The Tin Sheds Gallery hosts exhibitions and issues publications relating to national and international architecture, art, design and urbanism.

Tin Sheds was the only experimental art workshop at the time; Inhibodress, founded by Mike Parr and Peter Kennedy, grew out of it, and soon other alternative venues proliferated.

Others involved with the organisation of Tin Sheds include:

• Vivienne Binns, tutor in painting and drawing at Tin Sheds in the late 1980s{{cite web | title=Vivienne Binns :: biography| website=Design and Art Australia Online | url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/vivienne-binns/biography/| first= Penny |last= Peckham|date=2011 | access-date=20 January 2023}}
• Chips Mackinolty (Earthworks Poster Collective)
• Marie McMahon (Earthworks Poster Collective){{cite web | title=Marie McMahon | website=MCA Australia | date=26 February 2021 | url=https://www.mca.com.au/artists-works/artists/marie-mcmahon/ | access-date=28 January 2023}}{{Cite book| title=Under a hot tin roof : art, passion, and politics at the Tin Sheds Art Workshop| last=Therese.|first=Kenyon|date=1995|publisher=State Library of New South Wales Press |isbn=9780730589334| location=Sydney| oclc=36180987}}
• Frances Phoenix, researcher of the history of women's needlework, tutor in women's needlework
• David Saunders, architect, tutor (later appointed professor of architecture at the University of Adelaide in 1977; second president of Australia International Council on Monuments and Sites from 1978{{cite web | last=Brine | first=Judith | title=David Arthur Lewis Saunders |website= Australian Dictionary of Biography | date=11 December 2012 | url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/saunders-david-arthur-lewis-15756 | access-date=28 January 2023| quote=This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 18, (Melbourne University Press), 2012.}})

Artists who took courses at Tin Sheds include:

• Barbara Campbell (born 1961), Super 8 course, 1987{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/andrew-frost|title=Andrew Frost |website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2020-04-01}}
• Michael Riley (1960–2004), photography course{{cite web | title=Michael Riley | website=Art Gallery of NSW | date=2014 | url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/riley-michael/ | access-date=8 August 2022| others=Original: Jonathan Jones in 'Tradition today: Indigenous art in Australia’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2014| first=Jonathan| last= Jones}}

• The Print Circle
• Australian poster collectives

{{reflist}}

• {{official website|https://www.sydney.edu.au/architecture/about/tin-sheds-gallery/about-the-gallery.html}}
• [https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n96113236/ Tin Sheds Art Workshop] at WorldCat

{{coord missing|New South Wales}}

New South Wales

Category:1969 establishments in Australia

Category:Studios in Australia

Category:20th-century Australian artists