FNQ Farnaquar

Interview with Neil Parker (aka Orange Peel) and Nicola Bryars together they formed a joint collaboration known as “Nikapeelian”. Interview carried out during September 2005.

September 2004 saw the beginning of what is now a very successful collaboration between two local artists. Nicola Bryars and Neil Parker they joined together and created the label known as Nikapeelian,
An exhibition held at the “HOUSE Art space” (local den for artists) was a total success and due to this great beginning both artists were able to continue on as full time artists, both dropping former areas of work. This opened them up as a collaborative project and as individual artists to many areas of the Cairns arts community.

Monique-
 It’s one year now since that exhibition at the HOUSE Art space. You are both still going strong tell us about your experience

Neil-
Nikapeelian exhibition was the first stepping-stone; it is what launched us into the public eye more than anything else. We gained so much recognition here in Cairns from that joint effort and it was directly responsible for commissions and other mainstream work that we were offered.
Most of the work that has come about has been by word of mouth, from that first show.

Nicola- I run my own little market stall in the Cairns area. We came up with an idea to make some money and this was to design velcro Thai fishing pants and t-shirts.
Our clothing items are all 100% cotton easy and wearable in the tropics. It is a total side line to my business as an artist and a way as an artist to create some designs with Neil and get them out there to the public, so that’s how the Nikapeelian label was started. So then we thought we should really do an exhibition together.

Neil- We would like to keep the clothes and t-shirts more underground.

Nicola-It’s great to do an item of one off clothing and see someone walk away in it. We are open to commissions in all art forms, if anyone wants to contact us or discuss their ideas we are completely open to that.

Monique- Nicola would you tell us a little on your background and training as an artist!

Nicola- In 2000 I graduated from a fine arts degree in Sydney, the final year I participated in an exchange program that relocated me to Austin Texas. There I completed my major in printmedia and my minor in sculpture. I love the hands on side of artwork, the process and journey, like taking 60 to 70 hours to complete just one piece of artwork. You don’t know what that piece will end up looking like, the final outcome! It may start out as sketches and end up breaking or something happening to it, something going wrong, but it happens in its favour and I continue from there.

Monique- Really organic ways of getting the art out, through different mediums, exploring and developing as you go?

Nicola- Yes, my work is very aesthetic. I like working with colour and textures. The biggest thing about our collaboration as artists is the balance of our styles, my aesthetics and Neil’s conceptual mind.  Neil can see the finished product, the completed art piece from the beginning. He can sketch it in his head and see how it will be when it is finished.  I tend to go on that whole journey of like “ooh the paint feels nice moving around here”; I just go with it and get lost in it.

Monique- Tell us about your background in art Neil.

Neil- I have always been interested in art, I have sketched and painted most of my life. I have also been involved with music for years and through my work as a spray painter I began to express my art through doing custom paint jobs on cars and motorbikes and race car designs and through my music I designed album covers, posters and flyers and tickets for gigs.
Through doing work for other people and mixing it with my own stuff in and around the music business, I guess I was always exploring my art but it was never really my job to be an artist as such.
I never went to Art College, but in the last twelve months I have taken the actual steps to be able to work as a full time artist, getting my designs and ideas out there into the community.

Monique- Where did the name Orange Peel come from?

Neil- The Neil Orange Peel label come about in the playground at school, it hung around me.
I didn’t like it at all, the kids even made up a song about it.
When I was a 15 year old I started a spray painting apprenticeship, when you do a bad spray job it is referred to as orange peely, so once again I became Orange Peel due to some of my dodgy jobs early in the trade.
Then I started Djing in 1982/83, I was like well I’ll call myself orange peel and it has now become my social name as well as my performance one and I sign my art work with Orange Peel, people remember it.
I turned what was a negative in my life around, and now it works for me. It is a name people recall and my business cards reflect the name so they stand out, more than using my real name Neil Parker which I’m sure people would have forgotten in no time at all.

Monique- You both formed this collaboration so how has the creativity come to fruition in this union?

Neil- Nicola has been the catalyst that has brought everything together and given me the confidence to do it, she has been my muse over the past two years

Nicola- Ditto same for me totally.

Neil- We both sold pieces on the night and we both received so much spin off from that in one way or another. The idea for the show was that we both wanted a solo show but the space was large, so we split the space and joined together. It was a busy night and the exhibition ran for a month at the House Art space in Grafton Street. At least 80% of my work was created for the show with a few retrospective pieces from past exhibitions.

Nicola- I created a whole body of works for the Nikapeelian exhibition

Monique- What were the ideas behind your body of work Nicola?

Nicola- I fell in love working with and screen-printing onto rice paper, I love that rice paper looks so delicate, yet is so strong. I went on a whole exploration of building sculptural pieces that hung on the wall or from free hanging ceiling space, some pieces were two dimensional that hung upon the wall and were put together with hemp and bamboo. I worked with the notions of cycles and ley lines and the intricacy of how our web gets woven together, all sorts of forms.

Neil- Half my pieces were retrospective and the new body of work was called ‘Elements.’ It consisted of 5 pieces the centre piece, Take a Look at the Square you Live In, that shows the mess we are making of our world in which we live in and which reflects my sadness on these issues. The other four pieces are the elements in different mediums. Also a small collection of rainforest fairies, done in a similar style, using acrylic and 2pack paint.

Monique- What were the most exciting aspects of the exhibition for you?

Neil- Being on the telly! on the channel nine news program. It was a bit scary doing the interview got my mucking words fuddled a few times. Not to mention it being controversial due to them honing in on my sculptural piece called “Weapons of Mass Affection”, at the end of the news they just did a close up and faded out from that.

Monique- Can you tell us about the sculptural piece Weapons of Mass Affection

Neil-All the news on weapons of mass destruction and it all being such a farce and all the war and killing that is projected through the media is just tolerated; everyone seems to just tolerate it.

Monique- You mean de- sensitised to the actual horror of events?

Neil- Yeah like you can borrow a game or hire a movie and it is full of killing and or degrading to woman. What I show or state with Weapons of Mass Affection is big oversized bag filled with ecstasy pills that make most people feel wonderfully happy and generate those feelings of affection, yet they are banned and linked to death and destruction but alcohol and tobacco kill more people and are readily available, I’m not saying there are no casualties from e but so much less than war, tobacco and alcohol which are perfectly legal, accepted and generated by politicians. So I made a sculpture that is a 1.5 metre high missile, with its top unscrewed and its payload is an oversized bag of ecstasy pills.

Monique- Woo - was there a reaction or any feedback from the exposure on the news?

Neil- The only feedback I have received has been positive and if anyone has not liked it they have not spoken directly to me. I may have received a certain look by someone while they are viewing it but no one has said anything.

Monique- What about the commission to paint and develop butterflies on cars?

Neil- This is a commercial job doing airbrush painting of 2metre square Ulysses butterflies onto recreational vehicles for a local company here in Cairns. Every butterfly is unique and individual on each single vehicle. This is an on going job.

Nicola- The main thing I gained from the collaboration was that neither, Neil or I had ever seen that much of our work displayed in one space before. So for those viewing our works, we found they could stroll through and get a real sense of what we are both like and what our styles are as artists.
From our point of view it was great to have the opportunity to negotiate the curating of our art and how to work a space together, also to see all our work up there gave me a better sense of where I am at as an artist.
Another positive was the confidence we gained by having to discuss the pieces with potential buyers or clients, so much more depth was released by this alone.
Neil and I did not write a lot of explanations about the pieces, we left them open to interpretation from the audience. Hearing the feedback was priceless it opened creative avenues.

Monique- Rusty markets has been in operation for 30 years, it has been through tremendous changes and the new venue had many locals worried, mainly due to the   obvious lack of organic atmosphere and ambiance not to mention all that concrete.
The murals that Nikapeelian have painted, have lent a real beauty to what was otherwise only a concrete bunker.
Each mural tells us a story about the markets and its stalls, while keeping in with the tropical and reef themes asked of them by management. So much heart and soul comes through in these paintings, please tell us about the experience!

Nicola- The markets have been an institution of Cairns.
I remember from my childhood, every Saturday my family would take me there it was so much more than just a buying experience, you just knew it was about community interaction and support for the local produce growers and marketeers.
I have had my own stall for two years, since the move into the Gilligan’s site I had felt a change in my energy levels it was hard going, so I started nagging management and saying things like we need murals, colour, lots of colour and other marketeers got behind me. Saying things like “I could have big pineapples, where I sell my pineapples to make my stall stand out” amongst other comments.

Monique- What was the first mural completed?

Neil and Nicola- It was the rainbow on Sheridan Street, this was implemented to make the place inviting and give it colour. Followed by the stereotypical Cairns rainforest mural which sits behind the fruit- sellers, it has cassowaries, butterflies and a rainforest waterfall scene.
The management wanted tropical scenes and a reef theme, after we completed the reef mural they gave us artistic licence, they said, “you guys seem to know what you are doing”.
We asked a lot of the store holders what they wanted and took their ideas into our development of certain aspects of the murals.
The banana man wanted monkeys hanging from trees. The coffee people did not have much wall space but we negotiated an idea with him and for the pasta man we did a 1960`s Rivera scene.
The crystal man has an amethyst crystal cave that looks out onto a luscious waterfall, dotted with fairies and on the back of a pillar is a poem about them being the guardians of Rusty's and how they work their magic at night looking over the markets while no one is there.
The largest of the murals is a sunset beach party scene, it reflects the party atmosphere of Gilligan’s and it also depicts the fun and frivolity of our parties here in Cairns. Following the style of some of the banners I have painted for different events here in Cairns, like Dreamscape, Northernbeats and parties by Taste-y productions. The sunset beach scene has a few people in it from around the Cairns scene if you look closely at the characters on the dance floor I’m sure most people will recognise a few of them.

Monique- That brings me to the question about the Cairns art community and the different emerging arts collectives what are your opinions?

Neil- To me there are two sides to that, Cairns is full of some of the most talented and creative people I have ever met in my life. That is the artists! flip side of that is the arts community which I find to be most of the time a complete wank.

I think the Upholstery have taken the wank out of art. When Charlie and the others started at the Blue Room his vision and intent was to break down a lot of barriers and take the fear out of art.
They did not call the openings “art exhibitions”, they were known as happenings where you could come and set up and express your art forms. These Happenings involved so many aspects and forms of expression like multi-media, vj`s, dj`s, performance art, circus and so much more.
Then there is Kickarts, the collective has been around for a lot longer and has a fancy new building but it’s not exactly contemporary.

Neil- You do have to make contacts in the business side of art, as much as I don’t really like it or enjoy it, one has to do it for the sake of art and getting it out into the community.
I have slowly learnt that I can do it my way and I don’t have to sell out or stick my head up some ones bum in order to be understood or recognised.

Monique- What is your favourite thing about living in Cairns and being an artist in Cairns?

Nicola- For me it’s a few things but mainly it’s the mountains that are around us and they continually make me feel like I’m being hugged by the beautiful surroundings. Each week I visit the rainforest or a waterfall if I don’t get out into the rainforest I can become quite stir crazy.

Monique- For you Neil what is your favourite thing about being here?

Neil- For me being a Manchester lad it’s just this! right now!, being surrounded by lush greenness, birds in the trees singing away and sitting on my back deck like now drinking champagne, good food and lots of gorgeous people. We are really stirring things up as artists coming from this tropical city far up north and making an impact down south.
Artists like Daniel Wallwork from the Upholstery are really doing a lot of legwork for this town and it is bringing us lots of recognition from cities like Brisbane and Melbourne.
The cities seem to be always jumping on the new wave of what’s in, what’s hot and then sort of doing the same things as each other. We are not as heavily influenced by what’s in down south; we just do what it is we want to do up here.
I don’t have a clue what the other artists are doing up here, we socialise and we discuss our ideas but it is not predatory like it can be in the cities.
We are all just frothing around in the surf having a good time we don’t have a clue what the next fucken  wave is (giggles). David Broker from the Institute of Modern Art (IMA) in Brisbane is always blown away with the level of art coming out of Cairns as I’m sure are most people.

Monique- Neil what would be your favourite piece of Nicola’s art and your own and why?

Neil- My favourite is “Breath” and it represents twelve months of my life in the spray paint industry, I depicted the time by displaying all my breathing masks from that year, and I’m never going to use them ever again!, that piece means so much to me. My favourite of Nicola’s is the one in our lounge room, it has not been exhibited, it is called Mr Pumbardies, I just love it, I even made a poem about it, it’s a totally free formed piece it must have come alive on the canvas. I love it it’s such a happy piece.

Nicola- It’s really interesting that Neil picked that for his favourite piece, my favourite work so far that I have done, would be my rice paper light boxes, “Synergy Emotion and Bliss”,.
With the light boxes I was working with different size circles and I enjoyed the construction side of making them as well as wrapping them up like a Christmas present and using the natural transparency that rice paper has when you put a light behind it.
Perhaps the next direction I would like take with my work is in large panoramic scale light boxes that have a myriad of lights behind them that could work in a gallery space.
My favourite piece of Neil’s is one he made for me called “Daintree Dreaming”. Last year when he went away to visit his family in England he gave it to me before he left, it means a lot to me.
The piece that he made for me is set in the rainforest with a golden glow coming out of it with vines cascading down in front and if you turn there is a holographic type image, when you first look you can’t see the fairy standing behind the golden glow but as you move your head you can see the fairy with wings shinning in the background.

Neil- That type of art work is a direct result from my partnership with Nicola, my art has always been a concept to creation I knew the big picture before I began, now I get to the creative and I’m all oh you look very inviting, I have really opened up and just enjoy the adventure and the exploration of myself in my art.

Nicola- I think Neil’s first job and all the creative developments that came with that job as a spray paint artist on cars was fairly rigid, due to the car finish having to be perfect and with a set criteria to follow.

Monique- Has this freedom with your art also overlapped into your personal life and how you deal with things Neil?

Neil- Yes, I guess I am stereotypical Taurus I am a stick in the mud and I really don’t like change hey! I like to know where I’m sleeping and what time this and that is going to happen. Nicola has brought out this freedom in me; it is right now this is all we have so lets enjoy it as often as possible.

Monique- Nicola, could you tell us about any artists that have and still do inspire you?

Nicola- There is a Yugoslav artist Marina Ambramovic she was born into a military household and lived a very rigid upbringing.
In the late 70s she moved to Holland where all of a sudden all of the boundaries that had made up her life disappeared, no longer was anyone telling her what to do and when to do it. So in order for her to live without boundaries and for her to understand this she became a performance artist.
I remember reading about her at university and thinking oh my god what is this woman doing! Stage performances where she did crazy things like drink 2 litres of red wine., stand on stage and whip herself with a salty whip till she was bleeding and then bathe herself in a pool of honey until someone in the audience decides they’d better check to see if she is okay (groans and moans from Monique and Neil Oh I want to meet her).
One thing that she did along with her partner was to walk along the length of the Berlin wall till they came together in the middle. Or stand on a stage and slap each other till an audience member would suggest or try to stop them.

I’ve also been inspired by artists from the surrealist and cubist movements. As well as installation artists like Andy Goldsworthy and Christo. I’m not really good with names but there have been many an artist that has inspired me. However I would have to say that my greatest inspiration is Mother Nature herself.  

Monique- So Marina Abromovic pushed other peoples boundaries, hence her gaining an understanding of the dissolution of her own tightly instilled boundaries set in her childhood? I guess this pushing of boundaries is what attracts you to her art Nicola and how have you represented this in your art?

Nicola- While in Texas at university I developed a piece involving a fish tank to which I attached blue cellophane and foil to the bottom, setting two base speakers under it. There was an inch of water in the tank, I cranked up the music and took macro photos of the water observing via film what the music was doing to the water.
In the space where I presented it for the sculpture department, I made a plywood wall and placed the actual fish tank into the wall length ways and put a bubbler system into it, projecting the slides onto this set up. It was a study on movement and reactions to it, reactions to people becoming enveloped into the space.

Monique- Neil who and what inspires you?

Neil- I’m not really overly inspired by other artists really! Most things just pop into my head and I have to get them out as opposed to being inspired by an outside influence.
If I had to pick one person that has made me want to get up and do anything it would be Rodger Dean who is an airbrush artist that did a lot of the pop art images in the 60`s 70`s.
Fantasy stuff, he did album covers for bands like Yes and Cream. Very bold, bright and happy art, not much detail with people they are usually depicted in silhouette form.
So you can see in my banners that I’m influenced by this man but my sculpture I’m not sure where that comes from I think it may be slightly influenced by Andy Goldsworthy, I really like his work.
I really enjoy doing things out of perspective. I like Esher and his weird perspective and distortions, he takes simple ideas and works them and enlarges them to get a new vision on things. Like my distorted perspective of my childhood memories in my sideshow pieces, one of which you own.

Monique- I get the feeling that your art is predominantly about just that “Feeling!” When I look into the piece of yours I have at home I feel your excitement and energy as a child at the show, it is very clear to me and touches my inner child, stirs feelings.

Neil-oh yeah I get a feeling and then I sketch it out, I don’t look out and around much it all starts inside me, and then I create it.

Monique- What about the future what can we expect next?

Nicola- we would like to do our own separate shows now. We both have visions for 2006 taking our artwork further a field and also keeping up our work with the Upholstery and other collectives here in Cairns.

Monique- There is so much support and development available for the artist here in Cairns.  Different classes are held in sculpture, painting, drawing, music, dance, theatre and so much more. There are short courses, university level courses and night classes available. Then there is the arts community and the collectives to whom you can extend your works for perusal for exhibitions. There is something for all artists at all levels and by giving support to one another our Cairns based arts community can grow and develop and become a bigger and brighter cultural spot on the map of Australia