Images of Georgia Morgan’s ceramics show P.L.U.R. (Peace Love Unity Respect) captivated fellow artist Mark Bo Chu for their levity, formal nuance and material integrity. Mark was sad to miss the show but was struck by Georgia’s low-key shenanigans around the opening, which she posted online. When Mark had the pleasure of meeting Georgia at his own pop-up a few weeks later, he asked for a longer chat, artist to artist. They caught up one morning with Georgia’s dog Birdie and discussed studio practises, bitchy art worlds, and the dead-serious issue of not being serious.

MARK BO CHU You’re in studio all day?

GEORGIA MORGAN I work in the mornings, six days a week. It’s unsustainable but I’m good at doing one thing, full throttle.

MBC 9 am to 1 pm, six days a week?

GM More like 11 am to 4 pm. That’s the benefit of not having a boss (laughs).

MBC Have you ever had a boss?

GM I used to work at the Alderman bar until 1 am, then I’d start doing commercial cleaning nearby at 6 am and still be around when my boss at the Alderman came to open up. I’d be like, “I swear I went home,” with my backpack vacuum on. I like making money separate from art for groceries, petrol, rent, or whatever. Financial success doesn’t equal the success of the work. It’s about making something that says what I wish it did, or that people relate to.

MBC Is artistic success clear to you?

GM Having a connection to my own work is important to me. There’s this feeling, this superposition of time and place, my ancestors, this intangible feeling, that makes me excited, makes me want to do something. I don’t know what the hell that feeling is, but I like it when I have it, and when I can act on it. I can’t rely on that feeling but it’s special. I just keep coming to the studio. Some days it doesn’t feel like I get much done at all, but I have to be here. It’s not academic. It’s not cerebral. It’s not completely spiritual either. It’s trying to act without overthinking and hoping my action is representative of how I feel. I also make a lot of bad stuff, ugly stuff. I’ll paint over it and do it again if I have to.

When I was younger, I was romantic about inspiration. I thought I could just be struck by it. Through experience, I now know that sometimes you don’t have it, but by putting in the time, you can get somewhere. You can be doing what you think are shit paintings for two weeks, then all of a sudden do two lines and be like, “Woah.”

MBC I’m thinking of all the shit paintings I’ve made…

GM There’s a horror reel in my head. Making shit paintings is depressing.

MBC What does making a good painting feel like?

GM It is definitely a high. I love the feeling. It happens sometimes, although it’s pretty fleeting. But it’s also good enough to keep going through the shit stuff in the hope of having that feeling again.

MBC You seem like someone who likes to laugh a lot, someone who’s light-hearted and casual. But now you’re talking about feeling depressed.

GM Even when I’m feeling down, I’m really good at having fun. Something that wigs me out is that I don’t necessarily present as a serious person. I’m this format in all different social situations, to different people and I worry that people may not take my work as seriously. But I really don’t believe you have to be a serious person to make serious work.

MBC That’s actually the main reason why I wanted to talk to you. You’re not self-serious. I thought that the person who you seemed like online and who I met was one and the same, and I saw elements of that in your work—casual, unserious, relatable. Except the irony is that your work is only presented at reputedly serious places like Neon Parc and Gertrude Contemporary, curated by the likes of Amelia Winata, Memo Review’s editor.

GM I think I am ‘serious’ because I care and I work hard, but what we’re calling not serious is maybe…

MBC Your personality?

GM Yeah. And also, I talk about my work by saying what I mean and saying it simply.

MBC So, when an artist describes their own work, should an audience always take it seriously?

GM An artist is just a person. You don’t have to take people seriously just because they’re talking, right?

MBC Are most artists full of shit?

GM No, but I’ve met a lot of artists that are really fucking boring. Maybe art school makes you think you have to use certain words and talk in a certain way, but I don’t think that adds value to the work. What’s cool is when the way someone talks aligns with their work, which is easier said than done, because it’s natural to want to do what you think is the right thing.

MBC How can you ever trust any text accompanying an artwork?

GM There’s a demand that you write about your work. That’s something artists often feel forced to do. People can make dope work and they’re like, “Shit, now I have to write about it,” and just make up something good. Develop a concept, post-fact.

MBC Does it make a difference what people have in their heads when they look at your work?

GM Realistically, I’m showing work in clearly defined and often esteemed art spaces. The way that I make good work is just by doing what I do, and not putting these pressures of audience or gallery onto it. I’m not sure I’m capable of making the work they want. Either way, it’s not helpful. For the Neon Parc show, a month out, I started freaking out. I was trying to do the right thing.

MBC ‘Right’ technically or spiritually?

GM Right, as in something that’s good in a space for gallery-goers. Something where Neon Parc’s going to be like, “Good job, Georgia!”

MBC Well, it worked. You sold out! What about the other people out there in the world, who aren’t gallery people? Will they ever be treated to your work?

GM I used to do paste-ups. But how do you share work with the everyday population without them going to an art gallery?

MBC If you put art in a room, it’s a gallery, but artists have different audiences. Some are outside the elite art world. Why I’m asking is because there’s you, the casual person, who’s funny and has fun, but that person seems quite different from people in the art world. The person I’m talking to now is from the non-art world.

GM How do you define the art world?

MBC It’s people who enter spaces with a library of specialist concepts in their minds that affect the way they behave and interpret things. Like, they’ll instinctively bring specific points of reference with them as they make value judgements. Whereas people in the non-art world don’t have the library, though they still express preferences, just with simpler rationale. Except, for some reason, they don’t act the way art people act. They act really differently. They don’t wear the same clothes or adopt the same posture. They act more like the way you’re acting right now. They laugh more regularly. They dress like how I’ve seen you dress. And even when you were in your own gallery space, when you put up videos of your Neon Parc show, the way people were acting was normal because you are normal, and that’s a huge compliment.

GM I had so much fun at that opening. It felt like an anomaly, though. People were laughing and being normal.

MBC Are the tides turning? Or are you the one normal person in the art world?

GM You seem normal.

MBC But I’m not in the art world you’re in. And I do feel like it’s something really core to your artwork, the normal non-art world and the art world, those two places being mashed together.

GM. I care about people feeling comfy. That opening was special to me. My family, my grandma was there, and it felt like a nice time. Sometimes I go to openings and it’s cagey. I’m like, what are we all doing here, I thought we were here to see some art and hang out, but it’s not that, it’s something else. I’ll feel really uncomfortable and awkward. Before, I’d feel like such a loser or something when all I’m doing is saying hi because I know you! You know when you walk up to people and they blank you or bar you or step in front of you to talk to someone more important than you or whatever. I’m just like, what the hell is going on! Like, I thought we knew each other! I thought I could say hi! I’m not interested in being friends with people who treat people differently because of what they have or who they know. I really appreciate people who are able to have a conversation just because they want to, because it’s fun.

MBC Your art reflects your appreciation of funny stories, notetaking, and open cultural realms, like nightclubs.

GM My work always makes me think of the Hindu ritual Puja, which is the act of offering something physical to a god. It can be gold, fruit, flowers or gold foil, plastic flowers, or a can of soft drink. The financial value doesn’t change the meaning of the action. The conviction of the action gives it its meaning or makes it special. I like thinking about materials like that. Where you just use what’s at hand to still do what you want to do. Everyday rituals. Like, that idea of ‘The Real Thing’. There’s no such thing!

MBC When you’re older, do you think you’ll be a different person?

GM When I was younger, I imagined the life I have now, but for some reason I can’t see what the 45-year-old life looks like.

MBC Was what you have now like a dream?

GM I guess so. Dog, me, painting. I guess I’d like to stay on the course, but I don’t know what the fuck that looks like.

MBC What are your dreams now?

GM (Laughs) I dunno. I need to make some new dreams!