Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/wendy-mills

Birth Place

Sydney, NSW, Australia

Biography

Wendy Mills is an Australian visual artist whose practice has included temporary installations, interactive computer works and commissioned public art. Much of her artwork is characterised by an underlying geometry and the use of translucent and reflective materials, water and light. Mills was born in Sydney in 1950 to a fifth generation Australian family with British and French heritage. With her two older sisters and brother, she spent time as a child in her father’s fibrous plaster factory, where she saw sheets of plaster being made and decorative ceiling cornices being cast. These early experiences, combined with the family’s love of camping, led to an interest in materials and temporary structures. Between 1967 and 1970, Mills studied full-time, then part-time, at East Sydney Technical College, Sydney. At the age of twenty-one she left Australia to travel through Europe then overland to India, extensively broadening her understanding and knowledge of art. Her travels and first-hand experience of significant buildings stimulated her interest in architecture. She was specifically interested in religious architecture and in the psychological effect that spaces built to a specific geometry could have on an individual. This interest was the seed of her later artwork. Mills returned to Sydney, worked as a graphic designer, recommenced part-time art school and became involved in Buddhist meditation and studies. This latter activity led her to move to Brisbane in the mid-1970s. She once again commenced art training and by 1979 had graduated from the Queensland College of Art (now Griffith University) with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Sculpture). The core of her future work – an obsession with parallel universes interpreted through an overlap of religious traditions and science – developed during this time. After graduating, she quickly gained recognition for her temporary installations and was invited to exhibit in the Mildura Sculpture Triennials and the Australian Sculpture Triennials. Mills’ installations of translucent polythene sheeting, lighting, water and stainless steel reflected her interest in spirituality, geometry and architecture. During the 1980s, Mills produced both indoor and outdoor temporary installations for regional and state art galleries. Transience, a work commissioned by the Queensland Art Gallery in 1984, was typical of this period. Mills preferred light to matter, and by the beginning of the 1990s she had abandoned producing physical artworks to embrace digital technology and virtual environments. Between 1990-92, Mills was awarded an Australian Network for Art & Technology grant to attend their Summer School, a Queensland Government Fellowship and an Australia Council residency in Tokyo, all of which allowed her to pursue her interests in art and technology. In 1993-94, she gained computer-imaging skills at Mississippi State University’s Art Department and Engineering Research Centre, USA. In addition to new skills, her time in Tokyo had increased her interest in using video and working collaboratively with dancers and musicians. From 1990-96, she produced interactive installations of projections and interactive on-screen computer artworks. An example is Antarctica (Thawing of Memories) produced in collaboration with Zen Zen Zoh Physical Theatre and choral composer Stephen Leek of VoiceArt. Other composers, musicians and performers Mills collaborated with were Graham McConkey, Carla Thackrah, Morrice Shaw, Eion Meades and Greg Fearnley. In the late 1990s, Mills returned to working with physical materials after being invited to produce public artworks involving water. She had long promoted the value of artists producing work for public spaces and this was an opportunity for her to be commercially involved in the process. Mills has been commissioned to produce numerous works for public spaces and in 2004 was awarded a Year of the Built Environment Award from the Queensland Government for her contribution to public art, and the development of public art in Queensland. Mills’ public artworks are site specific. Some show the influence of her working with three-dimensional grids from computer modelling software and also her continuing interest in parallel universes. Concentric Intersection, commissioned in 2001 for Roma Street Parklands, Brisbane, typifies these influences. Another aspect of Mills’ work is irony. This is typified in the Sweet Justice pool in the heart of the legal and insurance district of Canberra ACT. Mills’ work was produced by fabricator, Haylock Sheetmetal, and water design done by Joe Palumbo of Techno Water Designs. On this Auspicious Occasion (1999) is one of Mills’ best-known public art pieces, being prominently located in Brisbane City Council’s Queen Street Mall Redevelopment. The 21m long work comprised three slumped glass tables with 'tablecloths’ of water and nine high-backed, stainless steel chairs down one side. Although widely published (for example, Artlink 2000) and serving temporarily as an icon of Brisbane, it was removed after six years due to technical problems and Brisbane’s water restrictions. After committing her practice solely to public art Mills rarely participated in exhibitions. An exception was 'Tekhne: Collaborations between Artists and Architects’ in 1999, curated by Glen Henderson. Here, she teamed with Brisbane architect John Grealy of Davenport Campbell to collaboratively produce a 4.5m spiraling column of nine hundred and fifty dinner plates in the foyer of the RAIA (Royal Australian Institute of Architects) Building, Brisbane. In addition to being a practising artist, Mills has taught art: as a sessional teacher in the Queensland College of Art (1987); as a tutor in Drawing, Painting and Sculpture with the Australian Flying Art School (1988); a tutor in Drawing and Installation with the Brisbane Institute of Art (1987-96); a sessional lecturer in Sculpture and Drawing at the Academy of the Arts, Queensland University of Technology and at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University (1990-96). She has also been an artist/design consultant for Sculpture at the Griffith University, Brisbane (1991) and artwork consultant to Gillespie Asia Pacific Architects for Redevelopment of South Bank, Brisbane (1998). Mills has collaborated with Warren Dunne, lighting designer, on several projects. By 2009, Mills was solely occupied with producing concepts for public art projects. Writers: De Lorenzo, Catherine Note: Perng, Teresa Note: Date written: 2009 Last updated: 2011 Status: peer-reviewed

Born

b. 1950

Summary

Wendy Mills is an Australian visual artist whose practice has ranged from temporary installations, to interactive computer works, to commissioned public art. Much of her artwork is characterised by an underlying geometry and the use of translucent and reflective materials, water and light.

Gender

Female

Died

None listed

Age at death

None listed