Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

Mish Meijers and Tricky Walsh
'Re-inventing the System: On Making 'The Distiller''

About Mish and Tricky

Mish Meijers and Tricky Walsh have been collaborating for several years on large scale projects and installations. Many of their collaborative works have revolved around their fictional creation ‘The Collector: Henri Papin’, but they have also participated in other installations and group projects, notably ‘The Holy Trinity.’

Tricky’s solo practice is concerned with conceptual relationships between mysticism and scientific reasoning. Her work focuses on concepts and devices that allow for the development of systems of discovery and invention. Although her work is largely spatial in practice and based in installation and sculpture, she also creates paintings and comics.

Mish’s solo practice is based in sculpture and explores processes that set one material against another. She disrupts the perceived worth or significance of her objects through references to popular culture, gender and functionality. Her installations consist of sculptural tableaux but she also creates two- dimensional works through drawing, painting and other methods and mediums.

About ‘The Distiller’

‘The Distiller’ was commissioned through the Tasmanian Government’s Art Site Scheme for the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) Redevelopment Stage 1 in 2012. It is a site-specific work that combines references to large-scale museum practices of display with organic structures and forms. ‘The Distiller’ is Mish and Tricky’s first large-scale permanent public artwork.

Film

In this video Mish and Tricky talk about making the ‘The Distiller’. They discuss their collaborative and individual practices, their approaches to ‘systems’ and the thrills and challenges of making and installing a large and complex artwork in the museum.