Interview with Jemma Cakebread

Melbourne Art Review: Thanks for chatting with us Jemma Cakebread, can you tell us a little about your history and your art practice? Jemma Cakebread: I grew up outside of Melbourne in a not very artistic family, and art wasn’t something I thought of as a career until secondary college where I had a really enthusiastic and excellent art teacher. She really encouraged me to start exhibiting my work and applying for art prizes and made me realise that I could make art a really big and important part of my life. I went to Chisholm TAFE for a year doing an illustration course, then onto The Academy of Design for a couple of years to do my degree. I did my Honours in Fine Art at Monash last year. This year I made the decision to take a non-art job to support my art career and I now work 4 days on, 4 days off as an emergency response operator, and the rest of my time is devoted to my projects. So I’m in a good position now to start seriously making work. At the moment my work is cantered around the body (human and animal), skin, and flesh with a focus on how the materiality of my mediums interact with these themes. I’m currently using oil paint, fabric and embroidery, and getting back into taxidermy. My work is still developing, but the ideas of flesh and the body have run through it for years and are a constant source of fascination. Scientific and medical processes are always inspiring. I find that the process of taxidermy inspires other work. I like old photographs and incorporating bits of them into my work. Lucian Freud is a big influence for a lot of my work. Makes me think of pushing flesh around, manipulating bodies in their representation. For local artists I’ll narrow it down to Deborah Prior, Julia DeVille and Ellie Kammer who are doing wonderful things around Australia. MAR: Tell us about a favourite career memory. JC: Whenever I get to have a good conversation with someone about my work - that always stays as a favourite memory. The Monash end of year exhibition was a favourite exhibition because I set my work up and planned the composition of the space myself, and listening to the positive and challenging responses to the work was great. MAR: What do you find difficult about being an artist? JC: Exhibition fees are always a bit of a pain, and transporting work up to Melbourne can be challenging for me. I struggle to attend my own show opening nights because I’m not a fan of crowds and noise. I’d also say because Australia is separated geographically from other countries, it’s hard to get out and see non-local work, which can make it a bit insular. MAR: What’s the best thing about being an artist, in Melbourne? JC: There’s just so many galleries and places to see work and talk to artists, and they’re usually pretty close together. For someone who lives outside Melbourne, it’s great to plan a day and go see a bunch of shows. You can saturate yourself in art and it’s great. I really like some of the art spaces fitted into old buildings. Places that have a bit of history and that affect the way the work is presented. A lot of ‘white cube’ galleries look alike but in Melbourne we have interesting spaces like Brunswick Street Gallery, fortyfivedownstairs and others that have adapted old architecture into their spaces. MAR: Do you have any advice for younger artists? JC: Make work that you want to make, and not to only create things you think your peers / followers / gallery / curator / buyers will like. For me doing this keeps my relationship with art alive, and produces work that is really truthful and that generally people like anyway. MAR: What are you working on next? JC: I’m going back to taxidermy as a major part of my practice and focusing more on three-dimensional, larger work. Focusing on projects I’ve always wanted to do but haven’t had the dedicated time to focus on – which I do now. I’ve got work in the upcoming Threads: Second Edition show at Brunswick Street Gallery in June. I’m also collaborating with writers, artists, musicians and others in Pink Lemon’s newest project. That’ll be sometime this year… MAR: Thank you! You can “like” Jemma on Facebook here.