Tai Snaith
Tai Snaith is an artist, author and broadcaster. She tells us about her unwavering passion for her work and how she’s fortunate to find joy in almost anything.
Photography: Bri Hammond, Theresa Harrison & Matthew Stanton
‘As artists we are often taught that we need to be very identifiable, simplified and stream-lined or else it won’t work. I think this is bullshit,’ says Tai Snaith. Photo: Bri Hammond
Impossible Bouquet – a contemporary ‘intervention’ into the domestic setting of the Heide Cottage. by Tai Snaith. Photo: Theresa Harrison
Collected Walks – Royal Botanic Gardens & Metro Tunnel creative programme commission. Photo: Matthew Stanton
H&F: Hi Tai, tell me about your journey to where you are today…
Tai: Sometimes I have to remind myself that there has been a journey and I’m not still 11 years old! It all goes so quickly.
I grew up as a kid between the country and the city with horses and cows and mudbricks with my dad on the farm and fast cars and fancy stuff with my mum in the city. I guess that says a lot about where I ended up! After finishing art school I met my partner architect Simon Knott and we have slowly built a house and a life on the banks of the Merri Creek in Northcote- it feel like we’re almost in the country but he can still walk into his office in Flinders Street. We designed our house together and have two boys who are now 8 and 11. They’re really my biggest achievement.
My work has slowly grown and changed as I have and through motherhood etc- it’s an ever-evolving thing, speeding up and slowing down again. My practice has always been 3 dimensional, I was told early on by a lecturer that I ‘think three dimensionally’ even though I also paint, draw and make collage. Even with my picture book illustrations I ‘build’ them. As I have got older my confidence in myself and my work seems to have grown and settled and now I feel like I am taking bigger steps and being asked to submit much more ambitious ideas for much bigger projects and I am excited about that.
Have you always been creative?
Yes, for as long as I can remember. In my first house I remember my mum and dad actually allocated a whole wall that I was allowed to draw on, because I was writing my name and drawing on everything – it must have driven them crazy. I remember winning a colouring competition in the paper at about age 5. I also remember painting all the shells of the snails in our garden with different coloured nail polish at about age 7.
What does a ‘normal’ day at work look like for you?
I always walk the boys to school and then continue with my dog Wally (he’s a Scottish Deerhound/Coonhound cross) along the Merri creek till it reaches the Yarra and then back home for about an hour. Walking is really important to me. I tend to do emails and admin over a few coffees first and then I work in my home studio for the rest of the day until the boys need to be picked up or taken to afterschool activities. However some days I do actually put on makeup to do a photoshoot or go to meetings or whatever, but the majority of days I spend at home alone and I love it. I usually make lunch and eat it in the garden. I often listen to podcasts while I work in the inside studio and I generally make all my ceramic work outside when the weather is nice. I am very much guided by the seasons and my home/garden. I also often find myself seasonally adjusting my practice to fit in seed planting, harvesting etc. I just spent 3 days making quince paste!
Is there a common misconception people have about your job?
I think people assume that artists are dreamers and kind of hopeless when it comes to business. It’s actually the opposite if you want to make any kind of living. It’s hard! I’m super organised and spend a lot of time hustling and strategising as well as dreaming.
What did you study at school – do you think it’s influenced how you work today?
I studied fine art at VCA in my later school years – but I definitely think my early art and especially literature/english teachers in my early years had a huge impact on my becoming an artist. I also spent a lot of time in nature and with animals on the farm. That is really formative for a kid.
Uncertainty Index from the Impossible Bouquet exhibition at Heide by Tai Snaith. Photo: Matthew Stanton
Open book detail by Tai Snaith. Photo: Matthew Stanton
Open book detail by Tai Snaith. Photo: Matthew Stanton
Pivot and forage from the Impossible Bouquet exhibition at Heide by Tai Snaith. Photo: Matthew Stanton
“I love that it (my work) is very much inseparable from my life. I really do live my work. I love that I make my own schedule and my own rules. I love that I can inspire others by what I love doing, especially kids. It’s powerful.”
Collected Walks – Royal Botanic Gardens & Metro Tunnel creative programme commission. Photo: Matthew Stanton
‘My work has slowly grown and changed as I have and through motherhood et –- it’s an ever-evolving thing, speeding up and slowing down again,’ says Tai Snaith. Photo: Sarah Gardan
Open book detail by Tai Snaith. Photo: Matthew Stanton
What keeps you interested and inspired?
Everything! I’m never bored really. I love people and conversations and have recently made this a big part of my practice with my podcast – A World Of One’s Own. I am also hugely inspired by nature – the creek, animals etc. But I am also a big old obsessive collector (I used to say hoarder until a PR person for a project I was working on encouraged me to start using the word ‘collector’ instead…). I visit op shops weekly as part of my practice. I find joy sparking away all over the place! Even broken things spark joy for me. Marie Kondo made zero impact or sense to me.
How do you balance the work/life juggle?
Just make them all the same thing! Ha. No seriously, I try to not take my phone upstairs to bed with me. Otherwise I’m pretty much at work all the time. Lucky I love it.
How do you navigate through each of your different roles as artist, writer and broadcaster… and make it all work?
That’s actually a tricky one. Over the years I’ve really struggled with my many hats and titles, even been ashamed of some of them or the fact that I have so many. In the last few years I made a bit step in owning them all and being equally proud of my roles and how they combine to make me very different to anyone else. As artists we’re often taught that we need to be very identifiable, simplified and stream-lined or else it won’t work. I think this is bullshit. All the things I do help keep my interested and inspired with my work. It also broadens my reach and my breadth of knowledge and skills. I have A LOT of energy and I need to do many things in order to use it all up!
What’s the most important piece of advice you would give someone turning their dream project into a full-time job?
Don’t give up! It takes a long, long time. It’s a LONG GAME. The reward is not success, money and recognition straight away (if ever). The reward is doing what you love with other people you respect.
Tell us about your current exhibition at Heide – what inspired this body of work?
It’s called Impossible Bouquet and it grew out of my life and practice over lockdown in Melbourne. The term comes from a process the Dutch still life painters used in order to paint a bunch of flowers from all seasons before there was photography or hothouse flowers grown out of season. They would paint each bloom in the bouquet as it came into season, so the paintings would take over a year and often you can spot caterpillars and pests and signs of decay as the flowers wilt etc. I loved this analogy for the way I work in my life also. I’m a mother, a writer, a partner, an activist, gardener, broadcaster, etc. It all comes together slowly over time, but is almost impossible to discern as it happens and also to juggle!
The work I made was a series of 35 black ceramic vessels that tell visual stories. They are functional (can hold flowers) but also are very poignant symbols from my life. Some are organic and abstract and others feature creepy, almost nightmarish eel-like bodies, snails and pests. The work is currently installed in the Heide Museum of Modern Art cottage until May 29. I’m very proud of this body of work. I see it as both celebrating the beauty and also the darkness of domestic life. The essence of lockdown for me! I have sold about half of the works to private collectors and I would love to find homes for them all.
What’s coming up for you this year?
I’ve very excited to be launching my new picture book published by Thames & Hudson in late August (which I also worked on over lockdown) called Wonders Under the Sun. I will hopefully have an exhibition of the originals and run a whole lot of public workshops alongside this too.
I’m also applying for a bunch of bigger public art projects, so fingers crossed one of them comes through!
