Studio Artist Interviews: David Spooner
2021
David Spooner is a Brisbane-based multidisciplinary artist who draws inspiration from the natural and unnatural worlds.
David graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honours from the Queensland University of Technology in 2003 and in 2008 completed a Masters in Visual Arts at Griffith University (Queensland College of Art). A recent show featured 52 drawings in response to running over Brisbane’s Story Bridge 52 times. David’s latest project involves creating one drawing every day over the course of this year and numbering it accordingly. He has exhibited nationally at Boxcopy Contemporary Art Space, Metro Arts, Next Wave Festival, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, The Walls Art Space and Wreckers Art Space. He has collaborated with the artist-run initiative The Wandering Room and with the artist David Creed in a collaborative duo known as David/David. David has been a visiting artist in the Sculpture Department at Australian National University, Canberra, and was the recipient of the Cathryn Mittelheuser Travel Grant, studying in Paris and London. He was recently a part of major group exhibition at the QUT Art Museum in Brisbane where he showed his textile installation ‘Quartz Quilt’.
David has recently been involved in the Out of the Box Children’s Art Festival at QPAC and with children’s art activities at QAGOMA. David is also involved with Brisbane’s refugee community, with whom he regularly collaborates on projects.
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Tell us a bit about your practice—what do you explore in your practice and why?
Lately I have been creating a drawing today. I have done this for the last 3 years. This was a way to keep me disciplined and make me make work everyday. To keep practicing as an artist. This might sound way too broad but my art is about my life. It’s just about being alive and representing how I feel about that at time or what I am obsessed about at that point in time. I like stories and I like telling them and hearing them.
What do you hope to achieve by making art?
I hope to have a more exciting and fun life by making art.
What are you currently working on at the Outer Space Studio?
I painted two large paintings last year as part of a commission and then went on to paint bags as part of ‘Making Art Work’ for The Institute of Modern Art under the label ‘Bags by the house of D.S’ for the Institute of Modern Art. I think I would like to continue the ‘House of D.S’ project and see what else I can make that people can wear around Brisbane city and the world.
