The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) and Landcom have today announced their 2019 C3West arts projects in Western Sydney - The Plant Library with Lauren Brincat and Hasta La Bella Vista Baby with Tina Havelock Stevens

Established in 2006, The MCA's award-winning C3West initiative extends artists' practices beyond the Museum. Over the past 13 years, the MCA has developed authentic and ethical partnerships with Western Sydney councils and organisations, delivering uniquely creative and far reaching outcomes for local communities.

MCA Director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE says, “C3West is a ground-breaking initiative for artists, local communities and local businesses alike. This initiative places contemporary artists at the core of these projects, giving voice to local issues and encouraging new collaborations with the business sector. We greatly value our partnership with lead partner Landcom and supporting partners Blacktown City Council and Hills Shire Council which make these vitally important projects possible, and we are very excited about the two we are announcing today.”

Between 21 September and 2 October, C3West and Landcom will present Lauren Brincat's The Plant Library, an exchange of living art, encouraging participation and solidarity amongst the residents of Tallawong. Brincat has created a pair of sculptural greenhouses which catalogue the diverse range of edible plants and plants with cultural uses, grown in the suburbs around the new Tallawong Metro Station. For this project, Brincat has collaborated with local community gardeners, plant enthusiasts and experts, discovering dozens of plants encompassing both Darug cultural practice and plants grown by the area's current communities. The Plant Library will be open to the public, adjacent to the station, where commuters will be encouraged to share their stories with Brincat in exchange for a seedling.

On her project, Lauren Brincat says, “The Plant Library is a direct response to Tallawong and its surrounds. These greenhouses are a way to speak to the local community, a place to exchange stories about, and experiences of, local plants and ones that have been introduced to the region. Plants you can eat and use on a day-to-day basis. Plants that have always been, plants that are effectively immigrants that Australia has absorbed into its culture. People care more for a place if they have a connection with it.”

On the evening of Saturday 30 November, C3West and Landcom will present Tina Havelock Stevens' multi-art form event, Hasta La Bella Vista Baby near Bella Vista Metro Station. Audiences will enjoy a rambunctious and inventive portrait of the communities of the Bella Vista area, the result of a five-pronged community engagement program. Havelock Stevens has been working in Bella Vista since November 2018. In the lead up to the event she will interact with shoppers in a television style talk-show at Norwest Marketown shopping centre, accompany a local Bollywood group dancing through the streets of Bella Vista and she will work with local drummers, guitarists, martial artists and writers. Havelock Stevens' project will be a generous and transformative gift to, and reflection of, the multiple communities of Bella Vista.

On her project Tina Havelock Stevens says, “The project at Bella Vista is a meditation on the relationships between each other, the places we inhabit, and ourselves. I like to inhabit a place tuning into frequencies and histories to create visual and sonic portraits. Using my DIY punk aesthetic, I take on unpredictable experiments in sound, performance, video and print to unearth participants and create something new.”

This is the fourth time that the MCA has worked with Blacktown City Council and the first time with the Hills Shire Council. Anne Loxley, MCA Senior Curator C3West says, “Both Lauren's and Tina's projects are distinguished by extended periods of exchange and engagement with people living in the Tallawong and Bella Vista areas. Both also culminate in public events, one over ten days, the other is a fun Saturday evening event. Gathering together in a public space is both powerful and empowering – especially when it is a cultural offering created alongside the generosity and creativity of the local community.”

This is the fourth and fifth C3West project Landcom has supported, but the first time Landcom are a lead partner. CEO of Landcom, John Brogden says, “Our long association with the MCA's C3West program is testament to our belief that artists working with local communities make extremely positive and lasting impacts on the communities with which they interact. Lauren Brincat and Tina Havelock Steven's projects form part of Landcom's Placemaking program in and around the new North West Metro stations and we look forward to seeing local residents interact with them.”

About the Artists

Lauren Brincat:

Lauren is an artist who works across diverse media from video and performance to sculpture and installation. Her work explores non-verbal modes of expression through narrative or ideas. By distancing us from a logical, direct, language-based-understanding, her work opens doors to multiple perspectives and interpretations. Her recent work includes sculptural forms that can be activated by participants. Brincat has lived and researched in Mexico City, Berlin, Tokyo, Paris, Stockholm, New York; assisted artist Johanna Billing in Euorpe; and was mentored by Yoshua Okon and Cuauhtemoc Medina in Mexico City.

Tina Havelock Stevens:

Tina uses cinematic conventions and performance as a means of responding to personal histories and specific environments with audio-visual installations. Most recently she was featured in The National 2019 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. She won the 65th Blake Prize (2018), and the 55th Fisher Ghost Prize (2017). Fusing her sensibilities as a documentary-maker and musician, she creates immersive art experiences, dwelling on loaded sites and tuning into the frequencies and history of place.

About C3West

One of the MCA's key programs, C3West is based on the idea that artists can bring unique value to situations beyond the gallery. C3West creates contexts in which artists work strategically with communities, businesses or non-arts government organisations, and arts partners across Greater Sydney. Since 2006, it has developed more than a dozen partnerships with companies and communities in the local area, including in Penrith, Liverpool, Fairfield, Goulburn, Blacktown and Hurstville.

C3West places contemporary artists at the core of these projects – giving voice to local issues and collaborating with the business sector in new ways. C3West business partners work with us to define each project's scope. Furthermore, the business partners' knowledge of participating communities is of great value to the commissioned artists.

With a number of major arts awards under its belt, C3West has established a reputation for developing ethical partnerships with Western Sydney partners and communities, delivering uniquely creative and strategic outcomes.

About Landcom

Landcom is the NSW Government's land and property development organisation. We are a State Owned Corporation working with government and the private and not-for-profit sectors to deliver exemplary housing projects that provide social and economic benefits to the people of NSW.

Landcom helps the NSW Government achieve its urban management objectives by taking a lead role in improving the supply, diversity and affordability of new housing. Our mission is to create more affordable and sustainable communities.

Sydney Metro Northwest Places Program

Landcom and Sydney Metro are working together to plan new places for communities to live, work, shop and play with the easy convenience of the Sydney Metro Northwest stationsright nearby.

Place making

Creating early attachment to places is one of the keys to unlocking a sense of ownership and belonging for existing and future communities. Landcom is working with partners such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, local councils and community groups as part of the Metro Northwest Places Program to deliver:

• A program of ongoing events and activities for local communities and businesses to enjoy in these new spaces.
• Public art across site hoardings at Tallawong, Kellyville, Bella Vista, Hills Showground and Cherrybrook.
• Interactive art projects in partnership with local artists and cultural organisations.
• Local pocket parks where you can meet friends, enjoy shade or take time out from your day, in particular at Tallawong station now and Bella Vista station towards the end of 2019.

Media images accessible on Dropbox here.