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A collaborative project by Lucas Ihlein and Ian Milliss investigating the work and influence of PA Yeomans.
Yeomans was an Australian farmer and engineer who developed sustainable agriculture systems.
In the early 1970s, Australian conceptual artist and activist Ian Milliss became interested in Yeomans. Milliss believed that the work that Yeomans' agricultural experiments far exceeded in importance anything that was being produced by contemporary land artists.
Milliss proposed an exhibition to the Art Gallery of NSW, which would have showcased Yeomans' research within an art context. The exhibition was scheduled for 1976, but was later deemed unsuitable for the gallery context.
In 2010, Ihlein and Milliss began working on a revisitation of this project.
The new version consists of:
- a blog
- a newspaper (edited together from the blog) (alternative newspaper link here)
- a series of offset lithographic prints published at Big Fag Press
- an exhibition including Yeomans books and plows
- and field trips to farm properties being managed following Yeomans' principles.
In 2011, Yeomans Project was presented as part of Power to the People, curated by Hannah Mathews at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne.
In late 2013, Yeomans Project was finally presented at the Art Gallery of NSW.
The exhibition included a newspaper published from edited Yeomans Project blog entries. Alongside the material about PA Yeomans, the exhibition also displays the art gallery's Trustees Minutes Book from 1976 which notes the decision not to go ahead with the show at that time.
More info about Yeomans Project
The Yeomans Project print series won the 2012 Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award, and the print portfolio has been acquired for the City of Fremantle Contemporary Art Collection.A review by Darren Jorgenson of the Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award exhibition, including coverage of The Yeomans Project, is here.
The Yeomans Project was shortlisted for the 2014 Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize.
An article by human ecologist Asha Bee was published in UN Magazine 6.1, 2012.
Ian Milliss and Lucas Ihlein spoke about Yeomans Project at Re-Programming the Art Museum, at AGNSW, September 2011.
Ian Milliss and Lucas Ihlein presented Yeomans Project at the Waterwheel Conference in March 2012. Video of presentation is here.
Ian Milliss was interviewed on The Architects, on RRR radio, Melbourne, October 2011.
Art Gallery of NSW press release, 2013-14.
Lucas Ihlein was interviewed by Leah Haynes on Eastside Radio radio, January 2014.
Lucas Ihlein was interviewed by Madeleine Hinchy on FBi radio, December 2013.
Short review at Sydney Art, January 2014.
Lucas Ihlein, "The Yeomans Project: Peri-Urban Fieldwork", in Axon Journal, special issue on Creative Cities, Issue 8, 2015.
Jennifer Hamilton, "Labour", in Environmental Humanities, (2015) 6 (1): 183–186.
Catherine Speck & Joanna Mendelssohn, "The 1970s: Curators Framing the Avant-Garde in Writing and Rewriting Art History", in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, Vol 17, No. 1, 2017.
Acknowledgements:
Ian Milliss thanks Daniel Thomas, Frances Lindsay and Peter Laverty of the AGNSW and Rebecca Meier for their support in the development of the 1975 exhibition proposal; Lucas Ihlein and Big Fag Press for collaboration, ideas, support and friendship; Hannah Mathews for the exhibition's resurrection at ACCA Melbourne in 2011; and Wendy Carlson for rescuing him in time to make it all possible.Ian and Lucas thank Stuart Hill; Allan Yeomans and Trevor Carter of Yeomans Plow Company Pty Ltd; Wendy Yeomans and Julie McGrath for dialogue and archival materials; Ben Falloon of Taranaki Farm; Kirsten Bradley and Nick Ritar of Milkwood Permaculture; Diego Bonetto; Andrea Lane of (f)route; Zero, Meg Ulman, Patrick Jones, Woody and Zephyr of Artist As Family; Darren Doherty; Louise Kate Anderson for her superb organising and design skills; Mickie Quick for excellent pre-press and printing on Big Fag Press; Michael Brown and the install crew at the AGNSW for custom paint work; and Joel Mu and Anneke Jaspers for making sure that this time it really happened.
Lucas Ihlein thanks Lizzie Muller for support and advice; Sue Muller for taking care of us all during the install period; The School of Creative Arts at University of Wollongong for research funding; and Nick and Kirsten from Milkwood for the introduction to Yeomans.
Videos in the exhibition were kindly supplied by: Gary Caganoff from Lysis Films; Jill Cloutier and Carol Hirashima from Sustainable World Media; Mark Russell & Nate Mitchell from Adventure Artists; and Geoffrey Booth from Keyline Archive.
More about Blogging as Art.
More about re-enactments.