This week at Art/Work HQ we take five with Fran, Di, Kel and Kate - the lovely ladies from Sydney performance collective, Brown Council. When Brown Council are all together we are usually found seated around a stout pine table in our studio in Rozelle. We have one of the seven studios functioning out of the Anyplace Studios that Serial Space and Anyplace collective run. Our studio is full of light-boxes, dirty costumes, photographs of Oska Schlemmer Operas and old hard-drives. When we are not there we are usually looking for an exciting place to eat or drink together. Most of our administration occurs in the studio, but all of our ideas happen over a glass of wine. Because of this fact, eating out at great places has become integrated into our practice and become a delicious routine. Individually we work our various day jobs in arts administration, archiving, publicity, ushering, research, waitressing and writing. It's difficult to negotiate schedules when trying to earn a living and working in a collective, but Brown Council always meets at least one day and one night per week. At the moment we are working on our upcoming residency at Metro Arts in Brisbane. We have a few projects coming up this year so it means we have to generate quite a few new ideas while we are up there.... there will be some pressure up North! If money wasn't an issue we'd buy each of us a designer power suit and take over the world. Being an artist in Sydney is hard and fast and fabulous and rewarding. We enjoy being artists in Sydney, it has made our practice stronger because it seems to always treat people like the little fish in the big bad pond. We collectively live in Chippendale, Rozelle, Newtown and Redfern. Across these suburbs there are markets, strong coffee, exciting venues and wonderful friends. We have so many favourite spots in Sydney; the Shakespeare, Tharen's, Firstdraft, Rozelle Vinnie's, The Eathouse Diner, Strike Bowling, Vini, Tempe Tip, Gordon's Bay, Orto, MOP, Tropicana Cafe, Shortlist Espresso Bar, Serial Space.... the list goes on. Image credit: Brown Council, Portrait of Brown Council by Brown Council, 2011, Campbelltown Arts Centre Project Space, Melbourne Art Fair. Photo: Tom Polo