The very busy & very nice Erin Forsyth

Erin Forsyth creates in many forms; as an an artist, curator, collaborator, project developer, artist space manager and cultural cartographer - a right whirlwind of creativity. MORPH was intrigued and managed to nab a few moments with Erin to find out more...

(you can view Erin's personal work over at MORPH's Portfolio here)

1. You are involved in a number of creative practices, can you let us know briefly what these are?

At the moment I am working at The Depot as an intern on a project called the NZ Cultural Genealogy Mapping. The project looks at the relationships between different creative individuals, their environment/influences and how those relationships have contributed to our unique cultural heritage. My role is a mixture of project co-ordination, research and development and curation.

I am the director of a shared studio space on Upper Queen St called Method and Manners, which is home to about 12 artists from varying creative disciplines: fashion, painting, installation, graphics etc. It is also where I work on developing my own creative practice which is a mixture of painting, illustration, sculpture and some film work.

My sister/friend/busy nice partner Leah and I have another company called The Busy Nice. Together with our friends we organise, curate and promote exhibitions, publications and earlier on we even produced a few installations.
Good to be busy, best to stay nice!

I also got to be the Arts Editor for a magazine called The New Order for its first three issues and wrote bits and pieces for blogs too. But my style is purely colloquial or popular as I have no formal training in anything, whatsoever.

2. Personally, is making art a profession, a passion, a calling or something else? Ie. Why do you do it?

For me being involved in the arts could closely be described as a vocation. But, yep all of the above. And why do I do it? For myself, for my friends and for my family. Because I am the only person that can do what I do, even - or perhaps especially - the work that doesn’t work out! Despite its often fickle attributes it has been the only thing that makes sense to me for a looooooooonnnng tiiiiiime…

3. How do you describe your style? Does ‘street-art’ fit? Illustration?

Street art is a funny one. I’d probably say I am a multi-disciplinary artist, with a penchant for the candidly dark, the humorous debaucheries, the folly of youth and a notable attention to detail.

4. What are the physical and thought processes you go through to make art ie. how do your ideas formulate and how do you go about translating that into a physical ‘thing’?

Pretty much the same no matter what the medium: draw out the bones, then sing over them songs of flesh.

5. Are you inspired by a particular artist or art movement and why?

Friends like Josh Solomon, Josh Paki, Josh Slater, Shannon Peel, Joseph Allen Shea, Capilli Tupou and Jeff Burch for their work ethic and straight technical skill. So many others…

6. In terms of your accomplishments, which do you consider to be most significant?

For me success is a verb so you have to keep going in order to be successful. You can’t just drop off or achieve one thing and then think you’ve cracked it or you’ll be in danger of forever reliving your ‘glory days’. Talking to people for me is the biggest challenge and the most significant thing I think I’ve achieved and I keep achieving every day (well most days). I had a graffiti store for three years in my youth that introduced me to a lot of interesting people and last year The Busy Nice worked with a team of neuro-scientists and local artists to produce an exhibition called Do You Mind. Both very different projects, both good times and significant in terms of self/public perception.

7. What are your resources, and who is it that keeps you supported?

I have little to no financial resources but I am supported by several amazing communities. Getting a discount from my boys at Gordon Harris and The French Art Shop is always a bonus (what’s up Aaron?). Having a studio to work in surrounded by amazing artists like Henrietta Harris is always motivating. Revel and Allelujah café for letting me tick up a sandwich or a coffee when I am broke. Feedback and news from my friends overseas helps me stay focussed and see myself in a bigger picture. Me mum, the rest of my family and peeps. The lovely people here at the Depot...I am very, very lucky I have the people I do around me.

K’Rd, Surry Hills, Melbourne, New York, San Francisco, Berlin and Los Angeles are the playgrounds of my favourite Peter Pans and to be honest they’re only a plane away.

8. How do you find the arts scene in NZ, what are its strengths and weaknesses?

I think it helps to think about who you are making work for and what you want to get across no matter where you may be based. There is such amazing work being produced here all the time but it is often poorly marketed - we often use our geographical location for not emailing press releases overseas, which is just kind of lazy. I know I’m guilty of it.

It can be difficult to get into dealer galleries too if you haven’t been through art schoo, as lazy gallery directors will treat their grad shows like supermarkets and there’s not much trolley space. But yeah, politics is something I don’t care too much for and, like everywhere else in the world, it plays a major place in the arts industry; so I should probably shut up.

We make good work…tick…we are (majoratively) good people…tick…and we get to live here…also tick. This is an exciting time to be based in New Zealand as how we choose to present ourselves individually as artists to the rest of the world is ‘what you make it’, and we’ve always been good at that (DIY).

9. What is your vision for your career?

To create archetypes and mandalas. To venture from figurative to abstract. To make work when I am old and grey, when my eyeballs are old and grey and to know that none of it matters, but that’s ok.

10. Tell us a secret….

Discipline is more important than talent.

Avocado and Marmite on toast are amazing.