Archive for the ‘Place-Projects’ Category
JULIE MILLOWICK’s ‘Surrounding’– Intrinsically Local
Continuing Drought El Nino year – Julie Millowick with son Christian McArdle at Crocodile Reservoir PHOTO: Courtesy of the artist
.
SURROUNDING
The beauty of Central Victoria’s landscape in tumult and recovery
.
An exhibition by Julie Millowick at Castlemaine Art Museum
CAM – Surrounding Julie Millowick
.
“Photography is my life; it is the very core of my being”
Julie Millowick
Surrounding is an exhibition by Julie Millowick surveying her lived experience over 36 years in Fryerstown, Victoria. Over time this celebrated documentary and commercial photographer, driven by a curious and creative mind, has created a photographic archive both cataloguing her visual inquiry and providing a chronicle of her life within this place. Millowick’s work is multifaceted where the poetic and psychological is interconnected with an almost scientific aesthetic thus sharing deep insights into the land that has both nourished and challenged her.
The curator, Jenny Long, has written a sensitive and informative essay for the book Surrounding that accompanies the exhibition. Long discusses Millowick’s process and conceptual thinking along with observations to provide background and framework for the viewer to consider this extensive project. Along with the book there is promotional material and didactics that proposes the exhibition will ‘show us the devastating effects of mining, drought, flood and invasive plants, but also remind us of the interconnectedness that links all parts of this ecosystem including its human occupants.’ And that there is a, ‘capacity for renewal … that offers a spark of hope for the future.’
.
Surrounding House and domestic installation PHOTO: Supplied by the artist
.
In the first gallery space, the ‘house and domestic’ body of work is presented as twenty-three individual framed works including an 1870s photograph an original owner, Mrs King, standing outside the home. In this work Millowick’s subject matter includes botanical still-life works, images of the detritus of past inhabitants unearthed in the house grounds and there is also a large print of a section of a house wall interior etched with the marks of habitation and the patina of age. Images of washing drying on the clothesline refer to the domestic space of the past and present habitation of this home. Far from being prosaic records of domesticity, the photographs of the washing have an ethereal perhaps even ghostly appearance.
Washing in Horse Paddock pinhole image 1996 PHOTO: Courtesy of the artist
.
There is also a kind of haunting in the walls and surrounds of the house, which continues through the shadowy and dramatically lit scenes of this exhibition. The appearance of a selectively illuminated tree branch or the enchanted presence of Millowick’s horse Goldie, imbues the place with a mythical spirit that beckons the viewer to follow into the mysterious dark forest.
.
.
Contrasted with a sense of wonder and fairy tale mystery, Millowick’s work is also deeply grounded in the reality of place, which is as sharp and unadorned as the land itself. In the larger exhibition space, there are groupings of unframed images that explore both topographical and psychological aspects of specific spaces and themes including mine sites, the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, ecological thinning, the Crocodile Reservoir Drought and horse paddock. A constant subject for Millowick is her son Christian whose activities are documented in many of these themes. images within the groups are placed together to form clues and evidences that suggest larger narratives. It is also interesting to consider the installations as visual representations of the conversation between artist and curator piecing together the rich collection of work and the resonance or dissonance between images and concepts.
.
Invasive Thistles 2002 Lumen print by Julie Millowick
.
Goldie, 34 year old horse 2009 PHOTO: Julie Millowick
.
Horse Paddock Post Goldrush Uniform Regrowth PHOTO: Julie Millowick
.
Fryerstown, Isolation, Lockdown, Orchard, Chinese Pistachiola Tree, last moments before midnight on 21 October, and first moFryerstown, Isolation, Lockdown, Orchard, Chinese Pistachiola Tree, last moments before midnight on 21 October, and first moments on 22 October PHOTO: Julie Millowick
.
Original Cottage Wall with introduced Invasive Blackberry 2023 PHOTO: Julie Millowick
.
Fryers Diggings, Sluicing, Heron’s Reef 2023 PHOTO: Julie Millowick
.
Crocodile Reservoir 2006 PHOTO: Julie Millowick
.
Drowned Kangaroo PHOTO: Julie Millowick
.
Lumen Buried Paper Under Blackberry Bush by Julie Millowick
.
Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park Cherry Ballart 2022 PHOTO: Julie Millowick
.
A photographer with less time moving over the space would document the superficial surface of things and create a record time-locked to when they were there. Millowick has set for herself the challenge of distilling a life of experience of time and place by using her comprehensive knowledge of photographic techniques* that, when combined with personal vision, can present to the viewer something deeper. As Millowick explores the environment or found objects, she reveals deeper layers and meanings through her experimentation with the visual language of each process and technique. The depth and complexity of this work tells of the unwavering commitment to her art, the community and the environment.
.
Image grouping
.
When introducing Julie Millowick at a recent artist’s talk about her exhibition the Gallery Director Naomi Cass described her as a ‘Localist’. ‘Localist’ is indeed an appropriate term not only for the work in this exhibition but also for Millowick’s continued photographic activity in the community. As a localist Millowick’s activity is part of the growing contemporary global movement for living locally and telling local stories particularly since the impacts of the Covid Pandemic. As it was 36 years in the making, this exhibition could only be just a fragment of Millowick’s creative visual documentation of her surroundings and community. Further digging or mining of her extensive archive will potentially reveal new perspectives and meanings on these powerful local stories of her place. Surrounding is just a beginning, there are so many other stories yet to be told …
.
A commentary on the exhibition by Victoria Cooper and Doug Spowart
Surrounding was part of the PHOTO2024 program
.
Surrounding – the book
.
P.S. The Surrounding exhibition is complemented by an illustrated book copies of which can be purchased from Castlemaine Art Museum or directly from Julie Millowick
.
IMAGES FROM THE IN CONVERSATION EVENT | Julie Millowick and Kyla McFarlane
Sunday 10 March, 11:30am — 12:30pm
.
.
* Photographic techniques that Julie Millowick employed in the exhibition include – pinhole photography, lumen printing, added lighting (painting-with-light), double exposure, cyanotypes, out-of-focus capture, re-photography, progressive sequencing, documentary and personal narrative.
We wish to thank Julie Millowick and congratulate her on the exhibition and for the images of her photographs and the exhibition installation. Photographs of the IN CONVERSATION event were by Doug Spowart.
Castlemaine Art Museum is a member of the Public Galleries Association of Victoria
.
.
.C
.
This site is archived by PANDORA, Australia National Library’s Web Archive
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
A GALAXY OF ART: Visiting 10 Victorian Regional Art Galleries in December 2023
.
.
The regional gallery provides worlds of new experiences and inspiration for all visitors and locals. It is a hub for the building of culture and identity for both the very young and old. The regional gallery or arts centre is a uniquely dynamic and generative space that energises and underpins the soul of each community.
Victoria Cooper
.
We planned our journey from northern Victoria to a coastal town in the extreme south west corner of the state for a beach holiday – Little did we know it would turn out to be a galactic journey into the rich cosmos of Victorian Regional Galleries in Victoria.
This Blog post is an illustrated and conversational report of our travels, the galleries visited and the amazing exhibitions witnessed.
.
.
In preparing this post we wish to acknowledge and show our support of the current call for action by the Public Galleries Association of Victoria – PUBLIC GALLERIES: OUR CREATIVE HEART.
.
Our Creative Heart is a campaign by the Public Galleries Association of Victoria, sharing the role and value of galleries to local communities and highlighting why greater investment from the Victorian Government is vital to sustaining these cultural hubs … Without significant change, art collections worth some $4 billion will deteriorate, community stories will disappear, gallery professionals will burn out, and millions of Victorians will miss out on access to a vibrant local visual arts culture. [From the PGAV website]
.
.
.
Our first stop was Ballarat on the lands of Wadawurrung Traditional Owners. Where we met a friend and colleague for a coffee at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. New exhibitions had been installed since we were there in October and instead of the short visit we had planned we were drawn into a stellar show of works that took us into another dimension of experience and creative works.
We were deeply moved by the work of Tamara Bekier, Between Worlds, on show in the main gallery. It was wonderful to see some of our friends work on show in Whereabouts: Printmakers Respond. We also had a deep synergy with a specially curated show on the concept of artists in work and life partnerships, Significant Others.
.
.We travelled to Ararat, also on Wadawurrung. Our trip plan was to spend two nights camping on Gariwerd, the Grampians National Park, BUT rain and bitterly cold weather for summer made us retreat to a motel in Ararat – So we day tripped to see some nature … at Halls Gap we overheard a couple talking about how cold they were at the campsite.
.
Gariwerd Grampians National Park (Diptych) PHOTO:Cooper
.
We felt happy that we decided to stay as we now had time to visit the Ararat Gallery – Textile Art Museum Australia (TAMA). Walking into the gallery just before closing, we found ourselves in yet another world with no time to discover what this gallery had to offer. So the next day we went back to the gallery to explore the rich history of Australian ceramics on show, SIXTY: The Journal of Australian Ceramics 60th Anniversary 1962–2022. Also on show was, Overlay, by Cara Johnson residing on and responding to the Otways hinterland, Gadubanud country. The next day we returned to the TAMA as part of our journey through the unknown territories of the crater lakes district.
.
.
Next we headed towards the coast for a stop at Warrnambool. This was our first connection with the beach for some time – the last being 6 months ago in northern NSW. It was far too windy to sit on the beach and have a sumptuous fish and chip lunch (straight out of the paper wrapping), so we huddled in a sheltered spot.
.
.
It was part of the itinerary to visit the Warrnambool Art Gallery. After walking through a makers market on the front lawn of the gallery we then entered into a completely magical space filled with the work of Mirka Mora and Lisa Gorman, To breathe with the rhythm of the heart. Then, as we visited the second gallery, we felt like we were entering a dark side of the human psyche with the show, Structures of Feeling, connecting the dark paintings of Albert Tucker and Paul Yore’s mixed media work commenting on social issues. The current director Aaron Bradbrook curated both shows. A third exhibition space presented the exhibition Maar Nation Made featuring First Nations works. These shows transported us into the wormhole of those artists’ creative minds and psychological spaces – far from the reality of a beach resort town.
Sadly we had to pull ourselves from the gravitas of these amazing shows, as we needed to get to Port Fairy for the night.
.
Port Fairy Monument
Exploring Port Fairy we encountered a monument that reminded us of the presence of First Nations and the conflicts that still need to be acknowledged along with their stories and deep connection to the country. The monument commemorates the Eumeralla Wars, which were violent encounters between British colonists and Gunditjmara Peoples in this region of Victoria.
.
Continuing our look around Port Fairy connection with art continued. How could we not do an orbit around the ancient volcano crater, Tower Hill to search for the Eugene von Guérard view? The painting by von Guérard from this viewpoint has been influential in the restoration of this site. At the lookout a weathered image of the painting remains on a plaque fixed to a boulder.
.
BOTTOM IMAGE: Eugene von Guerard “Tower Hill” 1855 and TOP: Photo by Doug Spowart 2023
.
.
After our epic journey, we finally landed in Nelson for a three day suspended animation to refuel, rest and consider the natural world – the Glenelg River, The Great South West Walk and the beach …
.
.
From the outer limits of the Victorian Universe at Nelson we then plotted our return via an unchartered route to explore new territory and a rare and beautiful display of art at Hamilton Gallery and their latest exhibition Emerging From Darkness, a collaboration with the National Gallery of Victoria.
.
When we arrived at the gallery we were able to participate in an informative session about the Baroque artworks in this extraordinary and astronomical exhibition – the scale of which is rarely seen in the regional Australia. We felt that visitors to this gallery could consider that they have been ‘beamed’ into a European gallery as they ascend the grand staircase to the main exhibition. The work on show went beyond oil painting and drawings as it also included musical instruments, ceramics and a large tapestry. The walls are painted richly and the art theatrically lit to add to the sensual and intellectual experience of this important exhibition showcasing the creative life of the Baroque.
.
Moving on from Hamilton we glided past constellations of paddocks, forests and small pockets of native bushland until we came into land at the Victorian town of Maryborough. The sensitive restoration of a former fire station has created the Central Goldfields Art Gallery, which has become a cultural hub for the community, local children and their extended families. On show were three exhibitions and activities, which included a contemporary and strident VCE Student art exhibition and a creative workshop with children. That day we had traveled the span of art from the celestial history to the living ground of community.
.
.
.
As we near the end of our journey we visited the Castlemaine Art Gallery & Museum. After we entered the gallery through its stunning art deco facade we spent time in an interesting group of exhibitions. The first, Stonework, was a thoughtful curation of material from their art and museum collection. In the back gallery there was the 2023 Experimental Print Prize that brought a different dimension to the traditional art experience.
.
.
.
Next day we track our route to the Bendigo Art Gallery. As with Ballarat, this significant gallery was established from the profits of the 19th century gold rush and continued through philanthropy. It cannot be experienced as a quick flyby as there are a many galleries. On show was First Nations Photography, Essays on Earth, the 2023 Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize and works from the extensive collection.
.
.
.
The diverse astral phenomenon of the Victorian Regional Gallery continues even after we have landed home again. We ascended the curved elevated path that leads up to the main entrance of the Benalla Art Gallery as it floats serenely beside the lake. Inside was a world of activity, three galleries with a diverse ecosystem of contemporary art. Alongside a curated show of 20th century work from the gallery’s Bennett Bequest collection to a contemporary art experience of Gonketa’s Moving Forward and Mark Dober’s plein air paintings in Wetlands.
.
.
.
The next day we headed off to Shepparton Art Museum, on the unceded lands of the Yorta Yorta Nations. The architecture of this gallery is quite contemporary and stands in the landscape much like a landed sleek metal and glass space ship. After negotiating the revolving doors we climbed the formidable staircase to each the three floors. In side each of the climate controlled galleries with their typical high walls to lofty ceilings were collections of many forms of art: from the talented local to prominent European and Australian artists.
.
.
.
Not far from us is the town of Wangaratta, part of the Taungurung Traditional Owners land, where we try and visit the Wangaratta Art Gallery regularly. When we were there in December, we saw a show, Beauty & Fear, paintings by Robert Hirschmann and Andy Pye, who have worked and lived in this region. The scale of work in this exhibition exemplifies the depth of creativity and arts practice in Victoria’s North East.
.
.
Our journey to the Gallery Universe in December was not complete until we ascended a mountain also on the lands of the Taungurung Traditional Owners, Mt Buffalo, to a place of granite boulders and snow gums that is named by colonial explorers as the Old Galleries. Here we were transported to a more-than-human experience where Nature is …
Old Galleries Mt Buffalo National Park
.
In conclusion
Interestingly it seems that the curated experience of vast collections from the big city art gallery is being transported into these regional gallery spaces. Much like walking into Dr Who’s Tardis or Alice’s wonderland we found ourselves in an ever-expanding universe of the history and the enormity of Art. The walls are no longer the support for hanging but have become part of art display.
.
Public programmes value add to both the traveller and the local connections with these regional gallery blockbusters. Galleries with cafes have the extended experience for the visitor to spend time and engage with the cultural ambience.
.
Importantly most galleries, councils and national parks acknowledge the rich and enduring heritage of First Nations Peoples ownership of the stories and knowledge of their unceded lands.
.
The regional gallery provides worlds of new experiences and inspiration for all visitors and locals. It is a hub for the building of culture and identity for both the very young and old. The regional gallery or arts centre is a uniquely dynamic and generative space that energises and underpins the soul of each community.
.
Victoria Cooper + Doug Spowart
.
PS: We have visited other regional galleries in Victoria though there are still another 10 or so on our ‘to-do’ list … And then, as the shows change we need to go back and visit again …
.
.
.
Acknowledgement of Country:
We wish to acknowledge the First Nation’s lands we have travelled across and stayed on during this journey. We respect their deep enduring connection to their lands, waterways and seas and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded. We also honour and respect their ancestors, their Elders past, present and emerging.
.
.
.
.
.
© 2023 All photographs and story in this post are the copyright of Doug Spowart + Victoria Cooper.
.
.
.
DOUG GOES WHERE THE SURFERS HAVE NO WAVES – Again…!
.
IPPY DROPS IN … AND RIPS!
The exhibition reprise after 30 years
.
THE PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPONENT FROM DOUG SPOWART: Read more later in the post
Click on the photo to enlarge …
.
.
THE VIDEO COMPONENT FROM KATE ELLOVEE:
.
The inspiration for the original exhibition was Kate Ellovee (Versace) who was working on a documentary project commenting on surfers who live at Ipswich and surf on the north and south coasts – much to the dislike of the locals. Entitled A Slagheap Safari the video takes centre stage in the reprise of the exhibition.
.
.
Kate’s A Slagheap Safari video can be viewed HERE
.
A mini booklet of the exhibition can be downloaded: Ippy Drops In and Rips Booklet
.
.
The exhibition will be on show in the Ipswich Community Gallery, d’Arcy Doyle Place, Limestone Street, Ipswich until the 22nd of December 2023.
.
IPPY-Australian Photography Cover
.
Back in 1993 my work in the exhibition was featured in Australian Photography – the story inside added to the craziness of the whole project …
Click to enlarge text …
.
Australian Photography story p1 of 3
Australian Photography story p2 of 3
Australian Photography story p3 of 3
.
.
A reflection on the project by photographer Doug Spowart
Background to my work
I have a forty-year practice in conceptual photography. This approach to photography so profoundly directed my work that in the late 1980s my business card described my art practice as ‘Conceptual Photographer’. The methodologies of re-photography, photomontage sequential imaging and the use of a range of photo technologies and materials underpinned the conceptualisation, creation and presentation of the creative work. I look for the strange and the surreal or the sublime in everyday life addressed through irony and humour. I am always absorbed by how the mundane and ordinary can hold hidden moments of surprise if time is taken to see what is revealed.
The Ippy Drops in and Rips Project
In 1993 I received a phone call from Elizabeth Bates a curator at Ipswich Art Gallery. I had worked with Elizabeth at Araluen Art Gallery in Alice Springs a few years earlier on a documentary exhibition commenting on the tourist experience in Central Australia, so she was aware of the style of my photographic work. Elizabeth introduced the project she was working on with Kate Ellovee (Versace) in which Kate was to create a documentary video commenting on Ipswich’s landlocked surfers. It was suggested that I could create photography works that would complement the video presentation in the gallery. In the initial project development meeting with Kate she discussed the concepts behind the ‘A Slagheap Safari’ documentary video. Her project was full of the curiosity, irony, and humour that had resonance with my approach to documentary work.
My partner and fellow artist Victoria Cooper and I were intrigued by the idea that there was such a strong surfing culture in Ipswich. It seemed surreal to us and we wondered: where could we find a concept of surf or surfing in this mining town at the western edge of Brisbane? Who were these surfers and how did they navigate the cross-over from Ipswich to beach?
After contemplating these questions I put forward a proposition consisting of three concepts: (1) Re-photography portraits – commenting on the dual identities that surfers have living and working in Ipswich and yet maintaining a surfing life on the weekend down the beach, (2) ‘Hold-ups’, where I would search Ipswich town settings and mining landscapes for evidence or connection with the beach or surf and (3) Photomontages – through improbable interventions I would metaphorically bring the surf and surfers to Ipswich. Clearances were provided by surfing photographers and the pictured surfers for their photographs to be photomontaged with Ipswich location scenes.
In making the photographs we sometimes collaborated with Kate and at other times we worked independently. Kate’s energy and coordination skills were important to the project as surfers usually have one specific thing in mind – surfing. With Kate we went to the beaches to seek out these Ippy surfers in their preferred natural environment. In this quest we too “searched for the best waves” to find the surfers. Interestingly the Ippy project was pre the proliferation of mobile phones, so we needed to check the radio’s ‘best waves’ reports, we then went to the beaches and then looked out for the surfer’s cars, boards or the surfers themselves.
Working on the project’s themes Victoria and I would cruise around Ipswich looking for places that resonated with the concepts of beach and surfing. Gradually these were revealed to us: the top of a water tower with skateboarders, a tunnel leading into the mine, navigating a graffiti covered underpass, a mine cutting that looked like a wave. Each place we found was evocative and full of potential metaphors of surfing culture within this inland mining town.
A Concluding Comment
Documentary projects, either as video or photography, have the potential to tell stories and create a commentary on contemporary culture and social life. Thirty years on, the Ippy Drops in and Rips show returns to a new era, a new audience, and for those who participated in the original project, a possibility to recall memories of a different time.
In re-viewing Ippy Drops in and Rips Ipswich surfing culture story, perhaps not much has changed – or has it? Is the credo of the Ipswich surfing culture – surf to live and live to surf, still as strong as ever … ?
And finally … Do north and south coast locals cuss the new generation of Ipswich surfers when they “DROP IN … AND RIP …?”
.
.
Doug Spowart+ Victoria Cooper November 12, 2023
.
.
Thanks to Kate Ellovee for resurrecting the Ippy exhibition after 30 years and to Alison McKay and Ellia Shurte from Ipswich Art Gallery for their support with the exhibition. And also to Thomas Oliver and John Elliott for the photos.
.
.
.
MARTIN HANSEN MEMORIAL ART AWARDS: Our Works
.
Once again we entered the Martin Hansen Memorial Art Awards at the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum. These Awards are the 48th event – Congratulations to the Gallery Team and the continued recognition of Martin Hanson’s early patronage of artists initiatives in Gladstone through these Awards.
For us each award entered is a place to present new works and their presentation – it is a challenge that hones our skills as artists.
.
This year Victoria’s entry was an artist book entitled String Theory Explained.
.
Victoria COOPER’s String Theory Explained presented
.Artist’s Statement:
String Theory Explained… its all about the unplanned and chaotic nature of everyday life… the beauty and terror within the order of “normal” existence.
.
.
Opening up the book
.
Bibliographic Details:
Format: Concertina book embedded in folded cover
Media: various pen inks on art paper with Stonehenge black cover
Size: 764 x 230mm
.
.
Doug’s entry this year was Story Trees – First Nations a concertina artists book presented in a circular form.
.
Doug SPOWART – Story Trees artists book
.
Artist’s Statement:
For me a poignant physical sign of First Nations presence remains embedded in the dead trees found throughout Mokoan. In witnessing these scar trees I found a profound sense of a time now passed and thoughts of the many stories that this place can tell.
This book was book two in a series of personal responses to encountering the locality of Mokoan and the Winton Wetlands. It was part of my contribution to the PALIMPSEST collaborative exhibition with Maggie Hollins and Victoria Cooper shown at Bainz Gallery in Wangaratta in August.
.
Bibliographic Details:
Format: Concertina book
Media: Pigment inks on photographic paper
Size in circular presentation: 600 x 700mm
.
Doug’s Story Trees installed at GRAGM
.
.
The Martin Hansen Memorial Art Awards exhibition will be on show until 2.00pm on the 27th of January 2024 at the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum.
.
Here is some information about the 2023 Awards and the Entry Form.
.
CLICK THIS LINK MH 23 Catalogue Online-r
.
CLICK THIS LINK Martin Hansen Award 2023 Entry Details
.
.
Photo of gallery installation courtesy of GRAGM
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
TONES OF HOME: Cooper+Spowart in group show
.
TONES OF HOME – Arts Project Australia
.
Tones of Home draws together artists from Arts Project Australia (APA), Melbourne, regional Victoria, and north Queensland to present works inspired by domestic and urban spaces. Curated by Eric Nash, Director Benalla Art Gallery the exhibition extends beyond these settings to consider ‘what makes a place, a home?’, touching on notions of family, community, belonging, connection, love, comfort, safety, and personal histories.
Featuring APA artists Steven Ajzenberg, Miles Howard-Wilks, Chris Mason, Chris O’Brien, Lisa Reid, Anthony Romagnano, Georgia Szmerling and Amani Tia alongside Atong Atem, Susie Buykx, Cooper+Spowart, Erub Arts Torres Strait and Ghost Net Collective, Aishah Kenton and Ron McBurnie.
(Text from the APA Website)
Tones of Home continues until 25 November 2023
.
Tones of Home Exhibition
.
SOME COMMENTS FROM THE CURATOR – ERIC NASH
The seeds of this exhibition were truly sewn at home. As my wife and I awaited the arrival of our second child, I found myself considering a work by Mini Graff that hangs above our bed. It is a street art poster in a vintage drawing style. Text on the work reads ‘Today is my lucky washing day’, and a woman hangs washing on a clothesline while an atomic bomb appears to have gone off in the background. It seemed to resonate with my experience of our domestic bubble of safety, and, when at home, perhaps even my ignorance to the outside world.This caused me to ponder what ‘home’ felt like, and indeed meant, to others? It had to mean more than just somewhere we reside. I couldn’t help but imagine my favourite fictional retired barrister, Lawrence Hammill QC, declaring, “You can acquire a house, but you can’t acquire a home”.
I owe a debt of gratitude to the Arts Project Australia team and artists who kicked this project off by sharing their thoughts on the topic of home. A number of responses stuck with me and have framed the exhibition. Home, in their words, could be “where the most important people in your life are”… “where you feel safe”… “a base where you start from”… “a place that fits your ideas of design,
location, and convenience.” Common themes emerged, specifically ‘Personal histories’; ‘Love and family’; ‘Community and connection’; and ‘Belonging, comfort and safety’. …READ MORE FROM THE CURATOR – Download the exhibition Catalogue
“CLICK LINK” TonesOfHomeCatalogue_Web
“CLICK LINK” “Tones-of-Home-Room-Sheet-2
..
SOME VIEWS OF THE EXHIBITION
Susie Buykx and her ceramics
Chris O’Brien’s works
Georgia Szmerling ceramics (front) & Erub Arts Torres Strait and Ghost Net Collective (back wall)
Chris Mason “Me and Monica Together” & “Me and my friends at work” 2019
Anthony Romagnano’ works
Aishah Kenton’s photographs
.
.
COOPER+SPOWART WORKS IN THE SHOW
Cooper+Spowart “Desire Paths 2+3” Proposed layout
Victoria with Jo Salt Gallery Director + Doug PHOTO: Michael Coyne
C
COMMENTARY ON OUR DESIRE PATHS ARTISTS BOOKS…
Some words from Curator Eric Nash
… I write this essay now during paternity leave. This is the longest time I have spent consistently at home in years. This break and time with Tegan and our children brought something into clear focus: while Tegan and I have moved cities several times in the last ten years, I have always felt ‘at home’ as we have been together. Cooper and Spowart (Victoria Cooper and Doug Spowart) exemplify this through their extensive photography, photobook and artists book practices, which are maintained both as individual practitioners, and as life collaborators. For these artists, ‘home’ “was an idealised state of being in Place, which offered a sanctuary and a garden. More than architecture, ‘home’ is also a psychological and sensorial place for the safe shelter ofmemories and experiences.” (4)
Cooper and Spowart’s recent Desire Paths books resonate with their shared life and artistic journey, explaining “Our artistic process is also defined by the desire to discover new paths around the traditional norms. Over time these new paths become alternative solutions to the ultimate desired outcome. All these paths or lines are theexistential experience and representation of desire.” (5)
1.The astle (1997) Directed by Rob Sitch. [Feature .ilm]. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Roadshow Entertainment.
4 & 5. Cooper, V and Spowart, D (2023) Email to Eric Nash, 27 August.
.
Susie Buykx+Victoria+Eric Nash (Curator) +Doug
.
Thanks to Eric Nash, Jo Salt and the Team at Arts Project Australia for the opportunity to to show work in this exhibition in Melbourne (Naarm). N
.
.
.
Unless noted otherwise photographs are by Doug Spowart
.
.ash
.
.
.
.
.
.
MAGGIE HOLLINS: An artist in the Winton Wetlands
Maggie Hollins in Winton Wetlands Photo: Doug Spowart
.
In my current practice I aim to observe, absorb, and have a conversation with, a place. I document the physical and intangible qualities of the landscape and use the materials I find at that place to honour its essence. I want to draw more attention to the need for a biotic interaction with our surroundings.
Since 2016 I have been inspired by the Winton Wetlands. I have documented the changing seasons and evidence of previous habitation at the Winton Wetlands with my photography. My engagement with the Winton Wetlands has led to the creation of woollen wall hangings and ephemeral artworks at the site. Found materials I have used in this exhibition will also become ephemeral works when I return them to the Winton Wetlands.
I have long been aware of the Winton Wetlands but it was not until 2016 that I engaged fully with the site. I visited the site often and became a Friend of the Winton Wetlands which allowed me to see some projects up-close being completed. I did some ephemeral works at the site and some felted works inspired by the wetlands. One felted work is included in this exhibition.
2022 saw my renewed interest in the site and together with colleagues, Doug Spowart and Victoria Cooper, we set out to discover the intricacies of site. This exhibition is the result of our collaboration.
.
ABOUT MAGGIE HOLLINS’ WORKS
Maggie Hollins with “Harmony” PHOTO: Doug Spowart
.
Guided by the water, tree branches and barks, fallen feathers, leaves and grasses, I have participated in the narrative of the Winton Wetlands.
.
Maggie Hollins’ ‘Recognition of the Past”, “Shelter” &”The Dead Stags”
.
These natural elements, coloured ghostly grey on my textiles are a spectral testimony to their origin. The found metal shards authored the presence of others’ existence and together with the natural elements these works were fused by the hot sun. My textile works aim to celebrate the resilience and vitality of the wetlands ecosystem while eliciting the many distant voices of this special place.
.
.
Maggie Hollins “Drifting on a Current” Photo: a collaboration
.
Feathers drift and amass in favourite resting places in the wetlands. I have often watched in awe at the murmuration of birds in the wetlands. My kinetic work aims to evoke a floating pattern of flight.
.
.
I have attempted to use my collage works as a metaphor for the layered past of the site to script stories of drought and flood, along with species that have occupied the wetlands.
.
.
The simple woven works aim to invoke the symbiosis binding all existence. The found materials will become ephemeral works when I return them to the site.
.
Maggie Hollins “Layers of the Wetlands”
.
CONTACT MAGGIE HOLLINS:
instagram.com/maggie.hollins and maggiehollins@gmail.com
.
Winton Wetlands logo
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE WINTON WETLANDS VISIT: https://wintonwetlands.org.au/
.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The artists wish to acknowledge the Winton Wetlands team for their support.
We acknowledge the traditional lands of the Yorta Yorta people & their 8 clans the original owners of Country.
We respect their deep enduring connection to their lands and waterways and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.
We honour and respect their ancestors, their Elders past, present and emerging.
.
Most documentation photos and the video b Doug Spowart. The on-location photographs were a collaborative production by all 3 artists.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
IN THE WETLANDS: 3 Artists – Cooper + Hollins + Spowart collaborate, drawing inspiration from Winton Wetlands
.
PALIMPSEST Exhibition artists in Winton Wetlands
.
The Winton Wetlands in north-eastern Victoria, also once known as Lake Mokoan, has been through many changes from farming to the building then decommissioning of a dam. Now this visually haunting and beautiful place is undergoing a new phase of regeneration – reviving the natural state of living wetland environment.
.
Dr Lisa Farnsworth, Winton Wetlands Restoration Manager, has been working with local artists to form a group that finds inspiration for their art in the Wetlands. She comments:
.
The Winton Wetlands Creatives Group is driven by a passion for the natural beauty and cultural richness of the Winton Wetlands Reserve. Through various art mediums and engagement opportunities, the group aims to advocate for the Winton Wetlands restoration project and for the ongoing protection and appreciation of its cultural and ecological assets. I’m genuinely excited to see how art, culture and ecology can align to create great outcomes for the health of our local people and natural landscapes.
.
Artists Victoria Cooper, Maggie Hollins + Doug Spowart
.
In the spirit of Lisa’s vision we formed a collaboration with fellow Benalla artist Maggie Hollins to create a visual response to the Winton Wetlands inspired by its layered human and natural history and contemporary renewal. In our work we have associated this altered landscape with the concept of a palimpsest – a manuscript that was reused by writing new text over the previous words.
.
The Palimpsest features again in the exhibition where the collaboration between us as artists can be experienced as a layered narrative, where multiple stories and experiences intertwine to form a cohesive whole.
.
Check out our INSTAGRAM Project picture trail https://www.instagram.com/wetlands.palimpsest/
.
3 Invitations for the exhibition in BAINZ GALLERY in Wangaratta
.
.
SOME VIEWS OF THE EXHIBITION
.
.
SEE A FLY-THROUGH VIDEO OF THE EXHIBITION
.
.
.
A COMMENTARY ON THE EXHIBITION …
Victoria Cooper, Maggie Hollins and Doug Spowart have collaborated to produce and display a wonderful and diverse visual exhibition. They have sought to associate the altered Winton Wetlands landscape with the concept of a palimpsest. In doing so they are contributing to discussion of different, yet overlapping, stories of the wetlands.
Cooper and Spowart have been involved in the arts as practitioners, teachers and commentators for a lengthy time, including having residencies at Bundanon. Hollins has qualifications in ceramics, leads art workshops and enjoys playing fiddle. Unsurprisingly therefore, each and every artwork displayed is of a high standard.
There are unique, handmade textural and sculptural artworks by Hollins that use a diverse variety of materials – including found small branches, knotted bark, dyed cotton thread, solar and rust dyed cotton fabric, metal rings, and found grasses. They are accompanied by postcard sized images of the same artworks “displayed” on site in the wetlands. Those images were a team effort – Hollins operated the camera, Cooper was location scout and camera assistant, and Spowart did the lighting and Director of Photography duties.
There are larger standalone photographic prints and collaborative diptychs by Cooper & Spowart conveying stories of witnessing, magnificent 3 metre wide concertina photobooks by Spowart displayed folded out and attached to the wall, plus artist books and poetry by Cooper.
It all comes together splendidly, successfully conveying the messages the artists want visitors to hear.
.
BRIAN ROPE Reviewer for and member of the Canberra Critics Circle
Read Brian Rope’s full review HERE
.
.
LATER POSTS WILL FEATURE MORE ABOUT THE INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS & THEIR WORKS …
.
.
.
SEE MORE ABOUT THE WINTON WETLANDS …
Winton Wetlands website Home page
CLICK HERE FOR THE WINTON WETLAND’S WEBSITE
.
.
Winton Wetlands logo
.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The artists wish to acknowledge the Winton Wetlands team for their support.
We acknowledge the traditional lands of the Yorta Yorta people & their 8 clans the original owners of Country.
We respect their deep enduring connection to their lands and waterways and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.
We honour and respect their ancestors, their Elders past, present and emerging.
.
.
.
.
.
THE EXPO 88 PHOTO SHOW – 35 years on
.
First & Last EXPO PHOTO SHOW Poster
.
EXPO 88 – A conceptual photographer’s document
.
At this time thirty-five years ago the people of Brisbane were beginning their EXPO 88 six-month adventure opportunity to encounter the world and its cultures and cuisine. EXPO 88 is often seen as a watershed in the transformation of Brisbane as a sleepy backwater into a vibrant cosmopolitan city of the world and, most certainly part of the 21st Century.
I had a season pass for EXPO 88 and created a personal body of work as a response to my experience of the event. As celebrations are beginning to hit the social media space I thought I would recollect on my WORLD EXPO 88 work.
.
Here is the back-story behind my 1988 project … The First & Last EXPO PHOTO SHOW
.
EXPO 88 Crowd Crush ………..PHOTO: Ethyl Stevens aka Doug Spowart
.
Background to the EXPO Project:
In 1988 I was a co-director, with my mother Ruby Spowart, of the Artist Run Space, Imagery Gallery that was situated on the corner of Grey Street and Fish Lane in South Brisbane. Our gallery was situated just a short walk from the EXPO site and I had been commissioned to work on the display installations in some of the major pavilions. I also had a season pass to EXPO to create a resource body of work as a conceptual response to this significant international event. My work as a photographer at this time has simpatico with Sol Lewitt’s 1967 manifesto on conceptual art:
In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. (Lewitt 1967)
WORLD EXPO 88 is now often seen as watershed in the transformation of Brisbane as a sleepy backwater into a vibrant cosmopolitan city of the world and, most certainly part of the 21st Century. While the adventure of encountering the world and its cultures and cuisine was to form lasting memories for some others may have recollections of the crush of interstate and overseas visitors, the nightly flamboyant fireworks displays and the inevitable queuing to visit everything from food stalls, to exhibitions and toilets.
The Concept and Methodology of the EXPO Project:
As EXPO 88 emerged I recognised an opportunity for the creation of a new body of work investigating other approaches to my working methodology. For many reasons at this time I often worked with invented alias identities under which I could create new work. These identities were quite complete in that they had refined working styles, subject matter, presentation forms, signatures and artists statements. These personae enable me to challenge and critique the popular curatorial and academic perceptions of documentary and art photography. It also enabled me the freedom to explore and develop new personal directions through concepts of documentary photography.
When EXPO offered season passes I attended the passport portrait session with pair of fake glasses and a fictitious name, Eugene Xavier Pelham Owens, the initials and the signature spelled ‘EXPO’. With this first step, I now had the creative space to explore EXPO and the surreal cultural experience it represented. In time this project grew into an extensive body of work from 6 different personae all representing their manufactured personal responses to the EXPO experience.
The First & Last Photo Expo Show exhibition was opened on April 1st 1989 (April Fools Day), it was reviewed positively in the Courier Mail (see attached) and sales of work resulted from people who found the photographs reconnecting them with their experience of the event.
The 1980s was a particularly productive period for me as I created a trilogy of exhibitions: Tourists Facts, Acts, Rituals and Relics (Araluen Art Gallery), Icons & Revered Australiana (Imagery Gallery & Rockhampton Library Gallery) and The First & Last Photo Expo Show.
Dr Doug Spowart
.
Lewitt, S. (1967). Paragraphs on Conceptual Art. Artforum 5: 8.
.
HERE IS A SELECTION OF WORKS FROM MY EXPO’88 PSEUDONYMS
.
John (Jack) Dorf ………(United Kingdom)
John (Jack) Dorf ………(United Kingdom)
Eugene Owens …….(USA)
Eugene Owens …….(USA)
Malenky Davotchka ……. (Russia)
Malenky Davotchka …….(Russia)
Y Regami ……(Japan)
Y Regami ……. (Japan)
Hanna Rhetzik …….(Czechoslovakia)
Hanna Rhetzik ……(Czechoslovakia)
Ethyl Stevens …….(USA)
Ethyl Stevens …….(USA)
.
A PDF PRESENTATION CONTAINING MORE IMAGES IS AVAILABLE HERE: EXPO-SPOWART-v3
.
First & Last EXPO PHOTO SHOW Poster
.
.
Images and text © Doug Spowart Design of the Poster: Trish Briscoe
From the Doug Spowart Personal Art Archive 1953-2014
..
.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
.
NICHOLAS WALTON-HEALEY – SALT FRAMES
.
.
A SELECTION OF IMAGES
.
‘SPOOR’ Nicholas Walton-Healey from the exhibition SALT FRAMES
‘WHISPER’ by Nicholas Walton-Healey from the exhibition SALT FRAMES
‘SKIN’ Nicholas Walton-Healey from the exhibition SALT FRAMES
‘TOUNGE’ Nicholas Walton-Healey from the exhibition SALT FRAMES
‘CARESS’ Nicholas Walton-Healey from the exhibition SALT FRAMES
.
A COMMENTARY ON THE BODY OF WORK by Victoria Cooper
.
watch the water long enough and you’ll see a fish jump … *
.
Salt Frames review
Nicholas is a poet…
Salt Frames is simultaneously a visual and textual poem. On the surface it is an exhibition of light and colour abstractions from time spent on the Nightcliff Foreshore, Darwin. But this work also has deeper layers and meaning that are evoked through the supporting words and symbols within the images, as Walton-Healey discloses: “Sea salt aids the healing of wounds (including those beneath the surface of the skin).”
Walton-Healey points out that more broadly Australians have an affinity to the coast. The sea and the coast become places of personal meditation and for some physical and psychological healing. His seascapes are not the usual pictorial or grand panorama – instead he shares visual metaphors; those moments of revelation and contemplation that can hold many different meanings to the viewer.
The text blocks with the images are, for me, not titles but words that operate as codes to other ways of being and thinking. If we cast our minds to memories of reverie by the sea, perhaps these words articulate our collective human experience of being at the coast.
On connecting with Walton-Healey’s opening speech, the meaning embedded in the words and the images of layered light, colour and stilled moments was underpinned by a deeply moving human story. Through the visual poetry of this exhibition the artist has humbly shared vulnerability, tenderness and deep thinking. In this openness of vision he also created space for the viewer to spend time to consider and connect with our own stories and memories.
.
Dr Victoria Cooper
* A teaching by Larrakia Warrior Robert E. Lewis to Nicholas Walton-Healey
.
.
THE OPENING SPEECH BY PAMELA KLEEMANN-PASSI
Pamela Kleeman-Passi speaks
.
Acknowledgement to Country
We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land, the Boon Wurrung and Woiwurrung (Wurundjeri) peoples of the Kulin Nation. We extend gratitude to all Elders past and present and their enduring connection to land, sea and community.
.
.
Welcome to the Salt Frames exhibition …
.
My friendship with Nick grew out of a deeply personal connection of loss and renewal, and a mutual passion for experiencing life through the lens of creativity. And now we have Darwin in common! Our shared stories meandered and overlapped during my month there mid-last year for my own exhibition. I actually didn’t know that much about Darwin until that visit, and I returned to Melbourne with a deep fondness for the culture, the landscape and the communities. I thank Nick for facilitating a visit to the Tiwi Islands to spend a moment of precious, rejuvenating time at the Tarntipi Bush Camp on Bathurst Island.
.
So what you see within these salt frames of the Nightcliff foreshore is Nick’s immersion in and introspection on the blessings and cruelties of life, and the healing power of the water and the land. The evocative single word titles express an array of feelings and experiences and the images are imbued with opposites:
Landscape / seascape Water / land Surface / depth
Smoothness / crusty, gritty textures Clarity / blurriness Light / dark
Shadows / highlights Colour / monochrome Reflection / absorption
Representation / abstraction Emotion / rationale
He’s combined the poetic and the photographic, with an Impressionist painterly quality to many of the works. Nightcliff is a very special place for Nick… but it also has a fascinating history and I quote from Tess Lea’s personal/historical book, Darwin: “Even the dumping grounds of Nightcliff, where unwanted machinery and detritus from WWII were tipped over a cliff, have merged into the rocks below, no longer distinguishable, just deformed lumps of rust and chalk.” The colour of rusted metal is very evident within some of the images – how over time, it’s merged with the landscape shaped by the power of the sea.
In this time of climate fragility and significant settler land and sea degradation, I feel compelled to refer to ecological grief and the healing power of the land and the water because the land and sea are absolutely fundamental to a community’s overall mental health. Nick’s images are testament to that healing power.
For Nick…
On the edge, at the edge… of love and loss and longing,
And remembering and wanting to forget
And letting go but holding on…
Wedged between land and water, pushing and pulling
Lapping across a surface that belies a depth so utterly profound and unfathomable
A photographic imprint, focused and blurred
Where light inscribes water, water inscribes land
And language and form mutate and merge, rippling and surging in a constant soundtrack
That violently crashes and gently caresses in waves and heartbeats
Eroding, erasing, healing and repairing
The run-off leaving traces that ebb and flow
As life and love and loss and longing ebb and flow…
And it’s sink or swim or scramble to a fragile stability on solid ground and remain upright
or undone
Or both…
.
.
Pamela Kleemann-Passi © 2023
.
.
ROBERT LEWIS TALKS ABOUT HIS CONNECTION WITH NICK
Robert Lewis, Larrakia Warrior, speaks at the opening of SALT FRAMES
.
Nic from Vic
Hi my name is Robbie Lewis, I’m a Larrakia Man. Born and bred on Larrakia land in Darwin.
2013, The Eye See Workshop, working with young Indigenous people living on a local community, in the Darwin region, where I met a young man trying to make understanding of life, this is when I first met a young spirited man, Nicholas Walton-Healey!!
.
A student photographer trying to find he’s way around the community. At first, I saw another white man taking photos of Indigenous people. But now, 10 years later, I see a great man showing the rest of the world through he’s eyes the beautiful things he sees through a camera.
To talk about
Communications – to talk, to say, to hear, to listen, to answer, to reply, also to understand and help.
Management – to be a leader, a teacher, to educate, to be in charge, to manage and help.
Worker – to do a job, to earn a wage, to keep things moving forward, to do work and to help where there is no other.
Just don’t forget why they go together.
The Student
This one person brings all these people together.
Now I see this man as a teacher!!
.
Robert Lewis © 2023
.
.
NICK’S RESPONSE
Nick addresses the audience at his exhibition
.
Thank you everyone for making it out tonight. I don’t have the time to personally thank each one of you, here. But I’m really proud of, and humbled by, the diversity of the groups represented in this room. Friends. Family. Collaborators. Colleges. Mentors. And Muses. You’ve all contributed in some important way to the journey I’ve been on, with my photography.
Pam and Rob, I’m especially grateful for the friendship I share with each of you, and for your very kind and thoughtful words tonight.
.
What you’re looking-at in the salt frames photographs, is The Timor Sea. And more people go missing each year in The Timor Sea, than they do in any other sea throughout the world.
I can certainly say that I’ve felt the pull. The allure of its rhythm, and hypnotic calamity.
It made perfect sense to me, when I read that statement in a book that Pam recently lent to me. Over the past twelve months, Pam has gifted me some important inspiration – we met at the ANAT Spectra Live event in Melbourne, and our paths crossed again in The Northern Territory last year. They converged at Tactile Arts in Darwin, during Sweet Dreams and Gut Reactions, the title of Pam’s exhibition, which got me thinking…
It’s probably an understatement, for those of you who know me, to say I’m inspired by the viscerality of art. I’ve always understood the role of the artist to entail a questioning of accepted definitions of the normal and possible. And that the moral and aesthetic responsibility of the photographer is to make the invisible, visible and the familiar, strange…
Photography is a highly intuitive process for me. I make the pictures first, and make-sense of them, second. So, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing, walking up and down the Nightcliff foreshore at all hours of day and night, last year.
I was actually stopped one evening by an elderly couple, who said ‘ahh, you’re a photographer!?’ I looked-at them, bemused, because I had a camera in my hand, and responded with, ‘yeah!’ But then the lady then came closer, and touched me on the arm. She looked into my eyes and said, ‘Well, that’s good, because we’ve seen you out here every night this week and thought you were homeless.’
The remark startled me because, while I was always on the lookout for crocs, I actually felt pretty safe in Darwin last year, which was when I made the majority of these photographs. Even if I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor of Rob’s kitchen.
I have a really special connection with Rob, who is like a big brother, to me; one of my mentors, teachers, guides and best mates, over the past ten years.
I first met Rob on an Indigenous community known and referred to in Darwin as Knuckey’s. This was back in 2013, when I first travelled-up to Darwin with one of my university lectures – Mark Galer – for The Eye See Workshop. Although our initial encounters were brief, I remember being struck by the enormity of Rob’s heart; the fact that he actually, genuinely cared for the people living on this, and the other communities we visited.
At the end of that workshop, I was invited back to Darwin by Rob’s boss-at-the-time. From this point, I entered into what became a five-year-plus partnership. This lead me back out onto those communities, and ultimately, to almost all of the so-called town camps in and around the Greater Darwin Region.
For all this time, I was like Rob’s little shadow. I followed him everywhere, and especially to the programs he ran with the men and family groups from these communities. Through these means, I built my own friendships and connections. But that’s another story, another project…
The Salt Frames are more overly focussed on my personal connection with Rob. Our friendship grew partly through the bond I developed with his late mother, Robyn, who I learnt to recognise and identify as an authentically Darwin person; Robyn’s mother (Rob’s maternal grandmother), was born at Lamaroo Beach, before being stolen as a child, and was eventually adopted by Juma Fejo.
The Fejos are one of the original eight family groups recognised as the Traditional Custodians of the Greater Darwin Region.
So Rob’s Larrakia, and the Larrakia are also known as The Salt Water People. The Salt Frames show Larrakia country, which includes Nightcliff, the place where Rob and I spent a lot our time when we weren’t working on the communities together.
Watch the water long enough and you’ll see a fish jump. That’s what Rob used to say to me. And I found it really frustrating at first, because I couldn’t see any fish. But over time, I realised that, rather than asking me to simply look-at the water, Rob was actually asking me to look into it. In this way, he transformed my ability to ‘see.’
But he wasn’t the only person I went to Nightcliff beach with. Before and after re-locating from Melbourne to Darwin, Nightcliff was the place that my late fiancé most liked to visit. She loved watching the sunsets. And unwinding and connecting on the beach. Over the years, we made a lot of love along this coastline. Beside the Timor Sea. And sure enough, it was not too far up from one of these spots that we returned on the afternoon she received her cancer diagnosis.
Shit happens. We deal with it. And then we move-on. That’s also one of Rob’s sayings; but it was the teaching I found most difficult to comprehend. Dealing with it, was what I really trying to do in the five and half months I spent in The Territory last year, walking around the beach like a homeless person.
Making these photographs was one way I felt I could make-good on my promise to do something with my photography, while at the same-time maintaining the connection that my finance and I shared with the families and communities we worked with. In August last year, Rob accompanied my mother and I over to the Tiwi Islands, for her Pukamani ceremony. The overwhelming majority of the photographs in this collection were made in the weeks that followed this event.
So whichever way you look at them, the Salt Frames show profound and enduring connection. But they also acknowledge the inescapably transient nature of being. You don’t get to beauty without pain, and love is very hard to name, without seeing the full-face of loss. The process of curating and assembling this show, and gathering you all in this room tonight, is part of an attempt to move forward.
..
Thank you all … Nicholas Walton-Healey
Nicholas Walton-Healey © 2023
.
.
Nicholas with Pam Kleemann-Passi and Robert Lewis
.
.
.
.
.
.
© Photographs by Nicholas Walton-Healey Photographs of the opening ©2023 Doug Spowart
The NGA’s CEREMONY: An Art Educators workshop at Shepparton Art Museum
SAM / NGA Ceremony Teacher Learning Program
.
ABOUT Ceremony + The 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial
From the publication Foreword by Nick Mitzevich, Director – National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia is proud to present the fourth iteration of the National Indigenous Art Triennial, titled Ceremony. The exhibition is curated, and this publication edited, by National Gallery Senior Curator-at-large, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Hetti Perkins (Arrernte and Kalkadoon peoples), one of the country’s most celebrated and experienced curators.
Ceremony brings together more than 35 artists from around Australia whose work highlights the primacy of ceremony in their practice and how it connects to community, culture and Country. Featuring newly commissioned works from across the continent, Ceremony represents the diverse practices of First Nations artists in this country, from large-scale installation, performance and video, to ceramics, carving, weaving and photography.
.
Ceremony: Teacher Professional Learning Program – An Art Educators workshop at Shepparton Art Museum
.
WORKSHOP STRATEGY: The intent of the Teacher Professional Learning Program is to develop capacity for educators in engaging with First Nations visual arts practice using Ceremony, the National Gallery of Australia’s National Indigenous Art Triennial (NIAT) traveling exhibition, as a reference point.
.
Anni Jane Linklater, SAM Education Coordinator, opened the event with an Acknowledgement of Country and we were introduced to the NGA teams facilitating the program including members from the curatorial work group, the education representatives and attending artists exhibited in the exhibition.
In the Teacher Professional Learning Program at SAM
With our fellow art educators and other art community representatives the program began with a short lecture session discussing the issues and framework for educational programs and presentations on First Nations art and artists. In this presentation Kelli Cole (NGA First Nations Curator), Aidan Hartshorn (Ceremony Exhibition Curator) and Belinda Briggs (SAM First Nations Curator) discussed the importance of the NIAT to the Australian National Gallery, ‘the significance of commissioning new work, First Nations perspectives and engagement as key National Gallery priority’.
.
Kelli Cole discusses Yarrenyty Arltere Artists & Tangentyere Artists, Blak Pariament House (detail), 2021
.
In the next part of the program we undertook a floor talk with Kelli Cole and Aidan Hartshorn. Also in this session we were introduced to artist Penny Evans (K/Gamilaroi people), who talked about her work in the show – Burn, 2021. Aidan Hartshorn spoke about his personal connection with his language that was referenced in S.J Norman’s (Wiradjuri people), Bone Library, 2012-2021. The floor talk was both informative and inspirational. We were invited to ask questions and add our thoughts to the interpretation of each of the artworks.
.
.
Some of the discussion topics included were:
- Rather than use of the word “Country” in discussing the artist and their art, which was not advised, instead “Place” was suggested as an alternative term. In using the word “Place” the presenter shows they understand and respect the deep and layered meaning embedded in the word “Country” for First Nations’ culture.
- Research the artist; their story, history and approaches to their art before presenting to give an informed discussion.
- Always use the artists’ words where possible, if not, draw upon the curators’ information.
- Bring creative interactive activities; sensorial and conceptual connections and empathy to the experience of the work for the audience/students.
.
Penny Evans, K/Gamilaroi people, discusses her work Burn, 2020-2021
.
After morning tea we worked under the guidance of artist Penny Evans in shaping malleable brown clay into small objects to reference the banksia or other forms of nature. Evans created an inclusive, relaxing, meditative space for the participants in their creative work. While working we discussed issues of contemporary education and the importance of using hands in teaching and learning across a variety of subjects beyond art. We were all in agreement that this is a fundamental mode of education to empower students to communicate and work through the development of ideas and knowledge.
Penny Evans in her clay workshop
.
After a working lunch in SAM’s Café, Leanne Waterhouse discussed that the NGA were in the process of refining a framework with which First Nations art and cultural issues could be presented. She introduced the provisional draft document entitled The Art Ways of Learning Principles which outlines a values-based approach for best practice and engagement in the National Gallery of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts program and broader learning programs. The principles consist of 5 themes or “pillars” that outline concepts including the values and characteristics of the framework as follows (from the lecture slide):
- Encouraging deep listening and thinking
- Centring First Nations artists voices
- Elevating First Nations arts diversity
- Creating memorable experiences
- Promoting living culture(s) of First Nations people
As educators we were encouraged to consider these Principles and their connection with ‘Indigenous ways of Knowing, Being and Doing’ when we are communicating with others about culture and art.
.
Joel Bray, Wiradjuri people, Giraaru Galing Gaanhagirri (the wind will bring rain), 2022 (fragment of video)
.
Finally, under the guidance of Noah Watson, NGA First Nations Learning Facilitator and Leanne Waterhouse, we were asked to form two separate groups and prepare a presentation each focussing on a different artwork. One group was given Joel Bray, (Wiradjuri people), Giraaru Galing Gaanhagirri (the wind will bring rain), 2022: an installation of TV screens in which the audience is engaged with the artist’s performance of a dance where his body becomes transparent merging his movement with images of his country.
.
Discussing Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu, Gumatj people, Maralitja, 2021 (constructed image)
.
The other group discussed Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu, (Gumatj people), Maralitja, 2021: an installation of 3 large-scale screens that engaged the audience with a video of waves breaking on the beach from a ground level perspective. During the video there were segments of ceremony and meaning that connected to the artist’s life, his totem, Bäru (the crocodile) and his story in Place.
Through our deep immersion in the Ceremony exhibition through this program we were challenged, inspired, and at times deeply moved by the sharing of knowledge/knowing. This workshop has enhanced both our teaching and learning experience in the engagement with, and discussion of the art of First Nations Peoples. We wish to acknowledge the Shepparton Art Museum for hosting the event and exhibition as well as the National Gallery of Australia for their initiative with the National Indigenous Art Triennial and the opportunity for regional artists and educators to connect with such an informative program.
.
Drs Victoria Cooper + Doug Spowart
.
4th NIAT – CEREMONY Online Publication
FOR MORE INFORMATION VIEW THE ONLINE PUBLICATION: “CLICK” HERE
.
.Images of the workshop and gallery installation ©Doug Spowart 2023
All other copyrights reside with the artists whose works were represented in the Ceremony exhibition
.
.
.
wotwedid 