Artist Micah Rustichelli sits down with Metro Arts to provide insight into their latest exhibition That I Should Pray For Angels, the evolution of their practice, 9-week Metro Arts residency and future ambitions.
This exhibition, and actually this whole sculptural shift in my practice, started emerging in 2022 as an expression of my climate anxiety. A lot of this anxiety is coloured by my experience of being raised religious and particularly focused on the Book of Revelation and the end times. I have quite a turbulent relationship to apocalyptic fantasy that has followed me my whole life, so the current climate feels very charged to me.
My 2024 exhibition Vengeance and Mercy at Wreckers Artspace definitely felt like the first realisation of this new area in my practice. Moving to these readymade materials was a big reintroduction of play and experimentation in the studio.
Many of the works in That I Should Pray For Angels, as well as previous exhibitions, are heavily coded in meanings. I draw quite heavily from scripture, pop culture/current affairs and queer existence. I especially love using existing images or creating my own motifs that represent these concepts.
In Angels there’s an immediate focus on camping/prepper gear and hankies, both linking to physical survival and survival of knowledge. looking deeper into the work there’s repetitive use of metal, inorganic fabrics and materials like nylon and tarp, unnaturally dyed leather, fibreglass. This material choice stems from the manifesto of this work, taken from the Book of Enoch, which details forbidden forging skills taught to humans by fallen angels. The use of these entirely unnatural or heavily manufactured elements represents the apex of this consumption of forbidden materials, the things that have led to our downfall, being the materials that supposedly exist for our survival.
My process often looks like this: I begin with an exhibition title, which often emerges from research or reflection, and then work back from there creating pieces under this guiding star of sorts. Once I establish my material motifs and methods, I feel I can imbue each work with a sense of the narrative. I feel that this creates a space where even if viewers are unaware of the links being made, the materials in space carry the meaning.
10,000 Years of Consummation was the first new work I created for the exhibition, for me it really encapsulates the mythology of this project. The work is a series of coloured hankies pinned to the inside of an open sleeping bag. The hankies are arranged to create an image taken from a passage in the Book of Enoch. This particular passage details the fate of fallen angels who mated with and educated humans. The scene is of 7 mountains, 3 to east made of stone, pearl and jacinth and 3 to the south all of red stone, in the centre is a taller one of alabaster with a throne of sapphire at the summit. Beyond these mountains is an abyss, separated from the heavenly firmament, from which columns of fire emerge. Also here are 7 stars representative of the prisons of angels. These angels are to be bound at this edge of the underworld until their “guilt should be consummated, even for ten thousand years”.
I have been drawn to this image for a long time, and when I began to work with the idea of making a flag out of flagging hankies (pun intended), this image naturally started to emerge, so I followed it through. Looking at it after I found a rich narrative in using these hankies, historically used as a queer code for negotiating sexual encounters safely, to create this image of the fallen angels which are punished for beginning forbidden intimacy to humans.
Being an artist can feel very isolating, especially when I’m used to working in my home. I found having the space to work at the MAVA Substation completely transformative for both the work and myself. Sharing the space with Bianca [Tainsh], even when working in silence side by side was an absolute delight, to be able to chat, share ideas, tell stories. I also found myself looking forward to my weekly meetings with the Metro team, they made me feel supported and gave me a chance to air out my studio muck and refresh my vision each week.
It’s pretty hard to go past Angelbiner, a seven-sided “biblically accurate angel” of carabiners, as my favourite new work in the show. While I think the works all speak to each other in a pretty important way, this one feels like a very clear and approachable application of the practice.
In 2022 I made Camp Shower which I always keep close by as a north star of sorts in my process. I think Angelbiner is a close sibling to that, and a talisman of this exhibition. I enjoy its weight and proportions, it feels dense, solid, and can be held like it is either an accessory or a weapon. Not unlike Camp Shower, I find a very queer kind of joy in it being still technically functional as an object but now having this campy, cheeky personality that demands it be acknowledged as more than its original objective form.
It was the final work to be placed in the installation after much deliberation, its home ended up on the floor in a corner, like a little David challenging the Goliath viewer.
Metro Arts assisted me in just about every way. It was so exciting to be working on a project with a team so ready to say “yes let’s find a way” to the big question marks I initially had in this work.
I feel like I’ve been futureproofed by Metro, both upskilling me in the studio and mentoring me on how to move my practice forward. It feels amazing to work with an organisation that are invested, not just in this opportunity, but in my journey going forward too.
Having the opportunity to head out to Perides Foundry with Daniel [Clifford] and Bianca [Tainsh] was a highlight of my time with Metro. Being given access to new knowledge and exploring an entirely new craft and medium was an experience second-to-none. Leaving this residency with a bronze work in this exhibition is something I didn’t previously see a pathway to in my practice, I’m very grateful to have been given that opportunity here.
“Gnocchi Night” was also a wildly fun venture. Bringing the Metro team out to the studio with Bianca and I for a night of silliness and cooking and conversation was a downright delight. Being able to demystify our projects and show the Metro family the works in progress, process and play was joyful and made me feel completely seen and understood by the extended team going into the final weeks of prep and then exhibition.
The big takeaway from this residency is a new set of skills and a reintroduction of play into my practice. Having the time and space to really get stuck into new materials and processes, without the expectation of a resolved outcome, completely freed me to explore and experiment. Fittingly, this allowed me to find numerous works as outcomes and future developments.
I would love to keep expanding this work into larger installations and take it around to new environments. I’d love to see it outdoors, and in different galleries around the country to see how the work responds against varied environments and audiences. I’m excited to continue moving into this practice and expanding the work, in future supported residencies or studio situations of some kind. I’d love to take this practice somewhere like Artspace Visual Arts Centre in Sydney.
