by Sam Beard.

Yesterday evening, Vessel Contemporary launched its much-anticipated inaugural program. ‘At Vessel, we boldly dedicate ourselves as the future,’ announced Will Ek Uvelius and Nina Juniper, the executive board directors of Vessel Contemporary. ‘Our mission is to fill a missing gap in Western Australia by providing a non-profit arts organisation with a unique independent voice and dedicated exhibition space.’ This is a bold statement, and one that has had many speculating whether Vessel may very well be positioning itself as Fremantle’s answer to PICA.
        In the months leading up to the program launch, Vessel has been sharing similarly emphatic statements, along with board member profiles, through its social media channels. Given the many “gaps” within the Perth artworld, and the bold phrasing of Vessel’s announcements, one could not help but speculate on the then-forthcoming program: how might Vessel support early career artists? Perhaps with a comprehensive education program? Act as an alternative to university art schools? Deliver a robust series of lectures and workshops? Present a full exhibition program?
        The official announcement included five projects in all: the much-rumoured exhibition by Gian Manik; the inaugural eight-week paid artist-in-residence program, awarded to Amanda Bell; a documentary film screening series with the Montreal-based non-profit Cinema Politica; an exhibition as part of the Fremantle Biennale in November (details to be announced); and an experimental workshop series provided by Landing Thoughts (find out more here: https://landingthoughts.com), which ‘[t]hrough mutual learning, material investigations and conversation [...] examines what it is to land delicate thoughts in language.’ Two of the three artists behind Landing Thoughts, Kate and Magni Moss, have run comparable workshops in the past at PICA. Similarly, Manik was selected as the 2024 PICA Editions artist, and Amanda Bell received the 2025 Judy Wheeler Commission, also at PICA. While it is certainly exciting to see more workshops, exhibitions, and residencies (particularly paid ones) occurring in WA, perhaps the “gap” which comes to mind is not an “absence”, as proposed in Vessel’s marketing, but the distance between their ambitious statements and the modest program.
        To deliver this program, funds are required. At the launch, the Vessel execs gave special mention to their aim of raising $1 million in donations by 2030. This is a rather ambitious goal for a start-up arts organisation that has just gone public. However, Vessel is nearly 56% of the way there, thanks to a major financial contribution from inaugural board director, Adam Jorlen. What is unusual about the $500,000 donation is that it is entirely in cryptocurrency. This may ring alarm bells for some, given the fluctuating nature of crypto. Yet, Jorlen is a futurist with a penchant for startups, and his interests in crypto and blockchain are not unrelated to The Naval Store, which also houses Enkel Collective.
        Jorlen is the co-founder of Enkel Collective, which has two main activities: running The Naval Store, and ‘auspicing and supporting individuals and organisations involved in changemaking activities.’ Clicking through the Collective’s website, one can explore a variety of past projects including ‘thinking workshops,’ ‘sector discussions,’ ‘study groups,’ ‘ideas accelerator’ sessions—the bread-and-butter of the mid-2010s ‘makerspace.’ Furthermore, Jorlen is the co-founder of the newly announced Arrival music festival, which will also be taking place largely at The Naval Store. With these three endeavours, Enkel, Vessel and Arrival, orbiting around The Naval Store, it is easy to become confused by their relationship with one another. So, to recap:

• The Naval Store is just the building, has a neutral brand, is open to community use, and is under a 20-year lease from the City of Fremantle.
• The Enkel Collective is the leaseholder and manage The Naval Store with the purpose of “activating” it.
• Vessel Contemporary is an “arts organisation” that will present an annual program at The Naval Store (which will also continue to operate as it has, more or less, for the past decade).

In other words, Vessel is not quite an “arts organisation” in the traditional sense (a standalone bricks-and-mortar gallery). Nor is Vessel a rebrand of The Naval Store. Instead, Vessel appears consistent with a trend of “gallery takeovers” that have been occurring across local arts organisations. For example, the “Cool Change Presents” exhibitions at PS Art Space and Artsource. This trend of Russian doll galleries and organisations, who cohabit within one larger location, is perhaps most easily explained by the scarcity of affordable real estate—the lifeblood of art galleries, particularly those where commercial activities are a secondary concern. Under these conditions, the makerspace provides hyper-flexibility and, in turn, security. For arts organisations in these share-house situations, branding is crucial for clearly delineating between the activities of one another. Perhaps this, in part, explains the empathic claims made during the program launch.
        Ultimately, this program appears to be a tidy, focused presentation that prioritises community activities and offers paid opportunities to artists. Certainly a delight to see! But hardly revolutionary. Which is precisely what has me scratching my head: the dissonance between Vessel’s modest program, which seems so familiar, and the “gap” referred to by Vessel. If this presumed lacuna can be better articulated—at the very least, so as not to appear to dismiss the equivalent efforts of other independently run arts organisations in Perth, however mighty or modest—then Vessel may well hold a stronger position. But for now, in keeping with its name, Vessel remains empty. Only time, and a few exhibitions, will tell if indeed WA’s artworld future has arrived.