Tania Ingerson - Creative Photographer

Tania Ingerson is an Art Gallery Guide and Creative Photographer.

Details about the exhibition

Inspired by……… an exhibition by 26 volunteers at AGSA 

(Art Gallery of South Australia)

Light Square Gallery, 39 Light Square, Adelaide 

https://www.tafesa.edu.au/adelaide-college-of-the-arts/light-square-gallery

Wed 5th August - Friday 21st August 

Monday to Friday - 10.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m. 

Official Launch:   

Jason Smith, Director, AGSA 

Thursday 13th August, 3.00 p.m. - 5.00 p.m. 

Music is original music by David Innocente 

"One Thing Led to Another"

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome to Inspired by Art and Volunteering and Exhibition with me, Tanya Ingerson. This podcast, well for me it's quite a different experience because it's actually me, Tanya Ingerson, that is being interviewed by Sue Morley. And it was really interesting to be on the other side of the microphone. And well, I hope you enjoy it. Please forgive us for the bit of background noise that appears in places. But I really hope you enjoyed it and I I really enjoyed the opportunity to talk about art and the things that I'm passionate about. So sit back and enjoy the chat that Sue had with me, Tanya Ingerson.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Tanya, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:57

I'm good. This is a very unusual situation for me to be the person being interviewed.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Yes. All right. Well, this is a new experience for me as well. So now I'm going to ask you about your involvement in Inspired By, and I'd like you to start by perhaps telling our listeners that you're on the working party and what you do on the working party.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Oh, yes. Um we've just been talking about how the working party is so much fun, but we get things done as well. So it's it's been pretty intense and we've learnt a lot. So it was so nice. So you um called me that day and said, I'm thinking we should put on an exhibition. I'm like, that'd be great. And if you remember, I think it was two years ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Something like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Yeah, and as soon as you said that, I went, Oh yeah, we could do that in a couple of months. And I remember you pulling me up going, um, no, Tanya, I meant next year. Well, yeah, sure we can do that too. So um more the marketing and um I suppose I bring to the committee experience being involved in the marketing and having our own gallery and being involved in lots of exhibitions. So at the moment, um predominantly focusing on marketing and making sure everybody knows about this incredible project of volunteers at the gallery who are so passionate about art. And we've got artists, these volunteers who are successful practicing artists, artists that have semi-retired, I suppose, from their art and their careers, emerging artists, and some who may be the first time they've ever exhibited. So I just want to make sure that everybody, as many people know and come to enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

It is, it's very, very exciting. Yes. Okay, so can you tell me a little bit about what you do here at the gallery as a volunteer?

SPEAKER_01 2:53

I'm glad you said volunteer because I also work here as a casual as well. Um, as a volunteer, I'm a gallery guide, and I remember the first time that I came in the front doors of the art gallery to to meet everyone and yourself because we um trained together for that year, and this really strange sensation almost when I came through the front doors and went, I'm home. Like it felt wow, really like almost a bit emotional, like this feels home. And I think one of the amazing things, art is so it just opens up all the senses, I think, of you know, tapping into how people feel and just the skill of all of the art as well. But you leave your life behind at the front door and you pick it up on the way out.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

That's a lovely analogy, that's great. Yeah, and there are lots of senses that we all experience when we're looking at art. Some of it is positive and some of it is negative, but it's all there.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

I know. So we talk about that too sometimes because we have a few pieces in the art gallery where people are a little disturbed by it, but that's art, it is, isn't it? It's it's not just the that is a beautiful sunset or a beautiful stream or landscape. There's some really serious social topics that are talked about, and it can be hard. It can, indeed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

So how long have you been a volunteer here at the gallery?

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Oh, I'm terrible at maths. So um was it 2018? We finished out. We finished. So 2017 we started, um, and it's quite a process. Um, I think some other people on this podcast have talked about it, but we do train for a year. And when do we all remember when we first have to go on the floor in the gallery and we have to research one piece of artwork, and we have to talk to our cohort that's all training for the first time. We all think there is no way we can ever do that. And our particular cohort had this wonderful man, Max, who is just a beautiful presenter, and he presented first. I think we all looked at him and went, That's a high bar. That's it, I can't do that. And here we are, all these years later, that um I'm feel really confident that I know enough about a lot of the works and passionate about the gallery in itself that I can I can construct a tour when I first meet the group. Yeah, and that's a great feeling.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Oh, it's fabulous! Yeah, it's wonderful to see everybody's confidence growing since we trained, and now we've been around a little while, so that's really great. And what is it that you love about being a volunteer?

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yes, like um I think a few people have said, I think it's the people that you meet and the friendships, and lovely, I'm talking to you because our friendship's been really special. I've really enjoyed that. I think what else is great as well, and you are one of the people that do does this for me as well, is we're all really passionate about art in different ways. So I've been challenged about some ideas that I had before I became a guide and involved in the art gallery, and so it's opened my mind to other possibilities, and even with my photography, I certainly approach my photography and creative works in a more wider angle, I suppose, because I don't see things through just my lens anymore.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Oh, that's interesting. So, can you give me an example of, say, a phot photograph that you've taken that you may not have taken before you trained? Do you know what?

SPEAKER_01 6:42

This that's really interesting because I've just thought about that instantly, is that probably I've always been really um a really positive person and always looked at all the beauty of the world, and that's been like always like people would see me as that kind of person. And experiencing some different things in the art gallery that are more dark. Um, in fact, through some study, also study at the Uni Art History, Goya, who's a very dark, you know, historical artist, is that he um he would like it's so dark all his imagery. So one of the pieces I'm actually exhibiting in The Inspired By is an example of that, of where I saw something after bushfires in Kangaroo Island actually, where Mother Nature looked really bruised and it was like quite you know, it was actually a really dark moment. So I took that photo where before being at the art gallery I wouldn't have seen that. So yeah, it has definitely broadened. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Excellent, good, good. Okay, um, you've mentioned that you are a photographer, so perhaps you could tell us a little bit more about how you got into photography or why you got into photography.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Well, the reason I got into photography initially is that David, my husband, is an artist and we opened an art gallery in the mall. And we look, I think this is a success story. We actually sold so much of his work in the space that he couldn't keep up with the the workload to fill this art space. So I remember thinking, oh, I've got some photos. I might just frame some of these photos that I'd taken, you know, just randomly. I've always enjoyed taking photos, and so I framed them and put them in the gallery to fill the space and just to make it more engaging for people to come in and look at David's work. And I remember still somebody came in and bought it, and I I I don't know why I did this, but I actually questioned them. I'm like, why?

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Well, you asked the customer why do you want to buy this?

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Um, and it became such a wonderful experience that I then started taking more photos and being more deliberate about it, and then starting to see it as more of a career path. And so eventually, um, over gosh, I don't know what period, a couple of years, I ended up producing my own photography book and um won prizes in different exhibitions. I I don't know how many exhibitions I've done, maybe a dozen now. And my works from that book, The Art of Nature, have been purchased all over the world.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Wow, congratulations! Thank you. So, yes, that's where where it came from. Okay. All right, so one of the things about our exhibition is that we've asked artists to use some kind of inspiration for the works they're going to display. So, what's been your inspiration for the exhibition?

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Mother Nature. Yeah, Mother Nature. And the works that I'm going to exhibit have Mother Nature, as I explained a little bit before, the beauty of I can sometimes imagine that she's got, you know, a paint palette and she's, you know, waving her paintbrush in the sky and painting an amazing sunset or sunrise. But also the colours that are produced that makes us think deeply about how we should really protect our world. And I hope that my photography does that. I enhance I use a lot of um software and I create, I enhance the colours and things that you can see, and when people see my work, they'll see that. Is that I want people to be to stop and look at nature and go, wow, I love nature so much, and maybe they'll protect it more.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Great, good message to be able to put out there. Um, a big question now. What is it that you love about art?

SPEAKER_01 10:51

I think it's so simple for me. It just makes you feel and it's all of those expressions of feeling. It's feeling um, deep emotion, questioning, curiosity, how people present things. Sometimes it's the magic. Have you done that where you walk past a piece of artwork, whatever it is, and you just stop and you look at it and you think, I don't know what it is about that piece of art that makes me feel so connected to it. And that's so clever, it is, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

So, yeah, all of that.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Yeah. All right. Well, look, and I would just like to say thank you for agreeing to be involved in this project because we've had a lot of fun, and I am so grateful for your marketing background and your publicity background because that's a critical part of helping the world out there know about our upcoming exhibition. So thanks, Tanya. Oh, thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Well, that was fun and unusual for me. I hope you enjoyed the chat that Sue had with myself, Tanya Ingerson. It was a great experience, and thank you, Sue, so much for the wonderful interview that you did with me. I just want to remind the listeners that the Inspired By exhibition is held this year as part of the Salah Festival, Wednesday, the 5th of August, to Friday, the 21st of August. And it's being held at the Light Square Gallery in the city. Details are in the podcast, so have a look at that, and there's a link to where it is going to be held. It's all very exciting, and we can't wait to put it on. Also, want to just make um announcement, I suppose, um, and a thank you. The music that is used in this podcast is original music and played by my husband David Inachenti, called One Thing Led to Another, which kind of makes sense for art. So, thanks for listening, and please join me next time when we interview another artist that is a volunteer at the Art Gallery of South Australia who'll be exhibiting in the Inspired By Exhibition. So, until then, bye for now.