Halfpace Studio is wedged between a piecing and body modification store, and a betting bar.
It’s on the street renowned for Adelaide’s night life – a street that during the day, can look like it is nursing a hangover itself.
Yet tucked away upstairs, Halfpace is buffered from the hustle and bustle that seeps over from Rundle Mall’s Beehive Corner, or the early morning stragglers making their way home after a night out.
When Chira Grasby first acquired the Hindley Street space, she says it was derelict and full of pigeons. After the pigeon droppings were scrapped away and the interior revamped, the studio has become an eclectic, character-rich hub of creativity for Grasby and three other tattoo artists.
Nostalgic sentiment is seen in every corner of the studio, especially the cabinet housing a television box, a VHS player and a collection of video tapes: Agent Cody Banks, Mrs Doubtfire and the original Toy Story, as well as a David Attenborough documentary.
Each tattooist occupies a corner, and the walls behind them are filled with portraits, prints and knick-knacks that say something about them – everything from religious iconography to small toy cars.
“I would say mine is a collection of other people’s work,” says Grasby, referencing her section. “I treat it more like a gallery wall. I spend all day looking at my own work on people and looking at my own designs. I just want other people’s things that I can look at.”
Grasby’s tattoo art is is influenced by classical and renaissance paintings. Photo: Jack Fenby
Grasby is someone who feels “balanced” when doing at least two or three things at once, and, in addition to her tattoo work – which is influenced by classical and renaissance paintings – she is an emerging curator and visual artist. She joined the Guildhouse team this year as an early-career curator and writer-in-residence as part of the ART WORKS program.
Asked what she enjoys about curation, her short answer captures the zeitgeist: “I had an interesting conversation with my old uni supervisor recently where he said I enjoy it because I’m a Virgo (logical, practical, and systematic).”
The long answer, though, gives more insight:
“To some people, curating might sound kind of like a form of event organisation,” says Grasby.
“I see it more as I get to actually influence how people experience that space. I get to influence how works look, because of what they’re next to and what they’re across from. It really affects how you how you view them.
“I just see it as another form of visual art outlet.”
The Halfpace studio offers space for reflection. Photo: Jack Fenby
So far this year in her ART WORKS role, Grasby has curated two shows at Adelaide Town Hall’s Mankurri-api Kuu (Reconciliation room) and First Floor Gallery. The first, titled Greetings From My Living Room, was inspired by the symbolism of a postcard – travel, communication and connection.
“The way that my partner’s family sends postcards is so ritualistic,” she says. “And then they are compiled into this collection at home, and I just think that’s so lovely.”
After speaking to the five artists involved in the exhibition, a clear idea emerged. Through paintings and illustration, they provided glimpses into their lives in a similar way to how postcards give a snapshot of a particular place and time.
“An artist is sending messages to the audience via their artwork, and there’s something so nice about their home being that location, instead of the postcard from a tourist location,” Grasby says.
“It was interesting to see how everyone interpreted that, because it went from like, tiny, tiny details from a house, all the way to things that represented the land and country they are on.”
Greetings From My Living Room featured pre-existing works, but for her second show, Grasby wanted to encourage artists to create original pieces, while also bringing in a three-dimensional element. Soft Hair and Woven Threads, which is showing until November 6, features textile art and is inspired by a theory related to black holes.
The curator references a research paper co-authored by Stephen Hawking, Black Hole Entropy and Soft Hair, which discusses a phenomena called “soft hair” and the theory that when matter falls into a black hole, it doesn’t entirely disappear, with gentle wave particles remaining along the edge of the hole.
“Suddenly the original object no longer exists, and yet at the same time it does – just in a different form,” says Grasby, explaining that it led her to draw comparisons between “soft hair” and the rich history of textile art, in which an artwork “holds within its fibres the memory of its maker, and in turn the memory of textile craft across human history”.
Rosina Possingham’s Ruby Red Saltbush (cyanotype on canvas) in the Soft Hair and Woven Threads exhibition curated by Chira Grasby. Photo courtesy the artist
On top of all of this, as Guildhouse writer-in-residence, Grasby is working with artist Sally Parnis, who makes paper using recycled materials. Together, the pair are creating a zine that will feature prose and poetry, laid out in a format that has visual significance.
“I didn’t want just pages of blocked text, so it’s almost trying to treat the zine booklet like a little gallery that I can play with and curate as well,” says Grasby.
The subject matter of this zine is a response to Adelaide’s architecture, and icons of the city.
“We’re called City of Churches, so it’s like, ‘How do I kind of feel about that?’ or ‘How do I reflect on that?’
“I’ve got one piece that’s structured prose to almost look like a cathedral window, just in how I’ve shaped the words.”
And perhaps the street renowned for Adelaide’s night life, Beehive Corner, or even the pigeon sculpture will make it into the zine as well.
Soft Hair and Woven Threads is showing at Adelaide Town Hall until November 6. Find out more about the ART WORKS program here.
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In the Studio is a regular series presented by InReview in partnership with not-for-profit organisation Guildhouse. The series shares interesting stories about South Australian visual artists, craftspeople and designers, offering insight into their artistic practices and a behind-the-scenes look at their studios or work spaces. Read our previous stories here.
At work in Halfpace, Chira Grasby is buffered from the bustle below. Photo: Jack Fenby
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