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‘Invisibility is the new radical position': artist Rose Nolan on avoiding social media and slowing us down
The Melbourne-based artist Rose Nolan has worked exclusively in a palette of red and white since the 1990s, a decision she describes as 'liberating'. When she stopped thinking about colour, Nolan suddenly found she had more head space for her practice which, over 40 years, has spanned a remarkable range of mediums, from colossal public artworks to small architectural models, wall paintings, banners and flags, and self-published books and pamphlets.
You might have traipsed across her terrazzo-emblazoned floor work All Alongside of Each Other on the concourse of Sydney's Central station. Or gazed upwards at the towering words Enough-Now/Even/More-so on the exterior of Melbourne's Munro Community Hub near Queen Victoria Market.
It was in the late 1970s when, fresh from a tiny Catholic girls' convent, Nolan entered the Victorian College of the Arts and went on to become a driving force behind the now legendary artist-led collective Store 5, an artistic crucible that shaped the work of some of Australia's leading contemporary artists. Between 1989 and 1993 the collective staged 150 exhibitions in the storage space behind a Greek cake shop on Chapel Street.
'It was very sex, drugs and rock'n'roll,' Nolan says of the period. 'Over that four-year period, everybody's work really developed. And we all had so many relationships going on … It wasn't always easy, none of those group situations are, but it was really exciting.
'It might sound inflated but it did feel like we were making history … It was a moment in time.'
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Nolan, diminutive and dressed in black, is curled up on her couch in Richmond. Around us are relics of a life spent immersed in Melbourne's contemporary art scene; works by her friend Kathy Temin and her late mentor John Nixon punctuate hundreds of art books and ephemera. Her two cats, Dennis and Lillee (her partner is a cricket nut), meander between houseplants and climb on to the mid-century furniture.
Nolan's house itself is an artwork: designed by OOF! Architecture, the Victorian-era cottage has been refashioned into a white rectangle that spells out HELLO on its brick facade. When I arrive there are gawkers taking photos of it. It's all over Instagram. 'This happens a bit,' she says.
Nolan is not on any social media. When I ask why, she replies: 'I know myself well enough to know that I could go down a complete rabbit hole, and I haven't got the time. Invisibility is the new radical position – I feel like I'm in a parallel universe not being on it.
'My life is very analogue. As is my practice.'
Nolan's way of working is not only analogue, it's exacting and, at times, exhausting. She has long worked with tactile and humble materials including hessian and cardboard, eschewing methods that might be considered time-saving in favour of cutting thousands of shapes by hand. This method has left her injured, she has even required surgery on her hands. But she believes that the labour embedded in the work transfers to viewers, making them slow down to take it all in. It's clear, from both her mien and her work, that what she's trying to invoke is a sense of presence and connection.
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Hence the title of her new exhibition, Breathing Helps, which is curated by Dr Victoria Lynn, and opens this week at TarraWarra Museum of Art in Healesville. It's an evocative title and a helpful prompt but also a tongue-in-cheek reminder to Nolan to take stock as she embarked on the monumental project.
The exhibition is less a retrospective survey and more an immersive experience that will unfold through the capacious gallery space; viewers are invited to walk through the large-scale works, observe them overhead and even peer down on them from above. It marks the first time these towering works have been shown together, along with some new commissions. Nolan has invited the artist Shelley Lasica to create a series of dance performances that will be staged in the exhibition.
The influence of Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger is visible in her works. Nolan made several trips to Russia in the 1980s and has a longstanding interest in Russian constructivism. She agrees that Kruger and Holzer are in there but says that, unlike their works, her words are not didactic. She plucks text from a dizzying array of sources – a snippet of conversation overheard at a cafe, a self-help book, some art theory. She looks for meandering, gently motivating phrases with a rhythm that might be transformed into an experience that can slow down time.
'The text and the time spent making becomes part of the latent energy within the work,' she says. 'And that becomes an elusive presence that gets extended to the viewer. You can't get in one grab. You have to take the time, you have to slow down.'
Rose Nolan: Breathing Helps is at TarraWarra Museum of Art in Healesville, Victoria, until 9 November 2025
