I love empty rooms, in fact I prefer them to those that are furnished.

Whilst I know this is impractical, their lack of clearly defined purpose allows me to be free for a while. I don’t have to do or be anything in an empty room.

This series of photographic collages emerged from a three-week ‘isolation residency’ undertaken at BLINDSIDE Gallery in June 2020; the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inspired by the architecture of the gallery as empty room, and its close proximity to the Metro Tunnel excavation, these works embody my experience of the site during the residency.

Over the three weeks I passed the time by meticulously inscribing the room’s corners, walking its perimeter and looking through its seventh-floor window at the hive of quarrying activity below – exposed earth and the void of the excavation far beyond its surface.

At the conclusion of the residency I attempted to put the room back together by digitally layering and rotating snapshots taken during my perimeter walks. Through this process the collages appeared.

Scan the QR code below to access Notation 3 Isolation Residency, the online publication completed in August 2020 as part of this project.

Simone Nelson is a visual artist who lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne. Informed by a background in modern dance and choreography, her drawing practice explores the body’s relationship to architecture, place and space through processes, actions and the performativity of documentation. Her works often take place outside traditional artistic settings and includes site-specific drawings, drawing installations, works on paper and online publications.

Recent projects include online publications, Notation 3: Open Studio and Notation 3: Isolation Residency, that trace the development of Nelson’s site-specific drawing at BLINDSIDE gallery, Melbourne, during the 2020 COVID-19 restrictions. In 2019 she undertook a residency as part of the Matsushima Bunko Museum Project on Matsushima Island, Japan and exhibited a site-specific commission for ‘Architecture as…‘, curated by Alex Walker and Sebastian Haeusler, to mark the demolition/re-purposing of The University of Melbourne’s Union House.

Website: simonenelson.art

IG: @simone__nelson