Stars reveal the art of collaboration to Virginia Trioli

For her new ABC Arts series, Virginia Trioli has sought to break away from the routine of artists selling their latest movie, album, book or exhibition.

Instead, Creative Types with Virginia Trioli focusses more on the process of work and artistic collaboration.

“Rather than making it about, ‘What are you doing, what are you up to?’ which is when we mostly hear from these people… it was to give them time and space to actually delve into a discussion and a reflection on what that creative drive is for them,” she tells TV Tonight.

“Why they live to do this. Why they have to do this, who’s helped them along the way? Their collaborations, their failures, their successes.

“The really fantastic thing was no matter who we contacted, even if given a very tight timeframe … they all responded with, ‘I would love to talk about that!’ So they really got it, which was great.”

The six part series which draws from the disciplines of acting, directing, writing, visual and performing arts showcases author Trent Dalton (pictured above, right), choreographer Rafael Bonachela, actor Marta Dusseldorp, director Warwick Thornton, comedian Tom Gleeson and visual artist Patricia Piccinni.

But there are also high profile collaborators and contemporaries including Simon Baker, Kylie Minogue, David Stratton and Cate Blanchett.

“What was interesting about that was, when you interview Cate Blanchett not about Cate Blanchett, she’s a different person,” Trioli explains.

“When you talk to Simon Baker, not about Simon Baker, he’s a completely different person”

“When you talk to Simon Baker, not about Simon Baker, he’s a completely different person. He is candid, relaxed and reflective and you suddenly realise these creatives are set up to speak to us in such a limited, constructed way, which is, ‘Hi, I’m here to sell a new thing.’

“We never give them the opportunity to, kind of, talk in different ways. And they’re really fascinating when you take all that spruiking pressure off them or even that personal focus on them. They’re really fascinating talking about their peers.”

Directed by Stamatia Maroupas, the series also heads to the artists in their own environments around Australia.

“With Rafael Bonachela we were there in the rehearsal room with him and his dancers… for Marta’s new production company with her husband, their office is the kitchen table in their home in Hobart.

“Marta’s possibly the hardest working woman in TV. She’s got piles of DVDs, all of the episodic network television that she worked on for years. A Place to Call Home, Crownies, Janet King, – a decade of every single day turning up to set. She said in that decade, ‘I spoke more scripted words than my own.’

“With Warwick we’re there at his Men’s Shed with his car and his electric guitar and -as he said- the boxes of crap that he keeps. Those boxes of crap, mind you, contained awards from Venice and Cannes as well, which we had to pull out and dust off. That’s the archive that he pulls together.

“They were really trusting of us”

“We walked through a dry riverbed where Warwick used to play as a kid, and where it all began for him in Alice Springs. It was very intimate. They were really trusting of us and they let us in, in a really wonderful way.”

Tom Gleeson even let down his hard guard for a candid interview.

“He’s simply one of the most intelligent people you’ll ever meet. And it tells a story of Australian comedy, which is a really phenomenal thing. We punch above our weight when it comes to stand-up comedians and the comedic shows that we produce and export, and the names that are known here and around the world. It tells us story of the evolution of Australian comedy right through his life. He began at university and he’d never had any other job, but being a comedian. That was it. He has worked at it,” she continues.

“They trusted me”

“I’m pretty well known in Arts circles in Australia now. I’ve been at this for a really long time. Everyone that I contacted personally I’ve either interviewed before, or they know of me. So they trusted me. So when we sat down to talk, there was a great amount of trust in the room and I could ask them what I wanted to ask them and I got absolutely straight answers.”

If the series is commissioned for a second season, Trioli insists it will also include a mix of established an emerging artists.

“Absolutely. I want some rising talent and I also want some really established talent that people might not know of. We’ve got some really great painters in this country that people should know about.

“Attendances at museums and galleries in this country show that there’s an appetite for that. So rising stars, oh my god, you should see the spreadsheet of the the Wish List.

“We do want to tell a true story of what creativity looks like in this country”

“There’s a matrix to meet as well. I mean, we do want to be representative. We do want to be diverse, we do want to tell a true story of what creativity looks like in this country. If you’re into, I don’t know, Drama, then you won’t necessarily know about another art form over there. We want to be representative of that in a good and celebratory way, as well.”

“The other matrix is when are these people available to us? They’re all really bloody busy!

“We got really close with a couple of very, very significant creative Australians …but they just couldn’t find the time for us. They’re on a plane to Milan, then they’re back to Queensland, and then they’re off somewhere else.

“We ask a fair bit of them, they give us two days of their time. That’s a lot when you talk to someone like Marta Dusseldorp. Or any of these people.”

Creative Types with Virginia Trioli 9pm Tuesday on ABC.