Adelaide-based artist Sue Ninham talks candidly about design, Fringe and her little monsters.
What does it mean to have your design on the 2012 poster?
I’m an Adelaide-based artist, have been for 15 years, and I’ve been exhibiting here since 2000. I’ve always had studios in the city, so I just feel really honoured and excited to be the artist behind the 2012 Adelaide Fringe poster.
Have you entered the competition before?
This is the third time I’ve entered, although I think about it every year. This year I was encouraged by a few people and I knew it was the right time to enter. I’m at that certain place in my career where my work is flowing from me easily. I’m inspired and have lots of energy and I am enjoying my art. I figured this was a good position from which to design the poster. As a result the design is fun, upbeat and energetic – and I was feeling like that.
What was the creative intention behind the design?
I’ve been creating in a way recently that is really experimental and monsters and creatures have been starting to appear in my work. My usual process of working is to make accidental marks in my work, so the results are often quite unexpected. And then I just had this brainwave one afternoon of putting all the monsters together. I put them on the floor and looked at them and saw the buses, and the train lines. I looked at them and I thought: They look as if they’re going places.
What was the process of creating the monsters?
Each monster is an original artwork - watercolour on paper- taking about a day to create. Over the past 18 months I’ve created at least 60 monsters which are now owned in private collections locally and in Sydney.
What was your reaction when you found out your design had been chosen?
I couldn’t quite believe it really, I was very excited because Fringe Director Greg Clarke and Belinda Redman (Head of Marketing and Business Development) were excited too. It occurred to me what a great opportunity it was for me to see my monsters throughout Adelaide. I was pleased for me, and for my monsters. I had to have a Bex and a lie-down.