Archive for the ‘Victoria Cooper’ Category
2025 LIBRIS AWARDS Highly Commended to Cooper+Spowart book
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LIBRIS Website logo and image
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2025 LIBRIS AWARDS: THE AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS’ BOOK PRIZE
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Held biennially by Artspace Mackay the Libris Awards brings together artist book works by leading and emerging makers from across Australia. The awards celebrate the artform by providing a snapshot of the discipline at a particular time and place. Of the hundreds of submissions received this year 60 finalists were selected to compete for three award categories:
CATEGORY 1 – Daly Bay National Artists Book Award (acquisitive)
…………………– Daly Bay National Artists Book Award, Highly Commended (acquisitive)CATEGORY 2 – Cathy Knezevic Regional Artists Book Award (acquisitive)
CATEGORY 3 – Tertiary Artists Book Prize – an invitational award (acquisitive)
Award winning artists books are acquisitive and each Awards event build on the gallery’s nationally significant artist book collection.
ABOUT THE JUDGES (From the Awards website)
The 2025 Guest Judges were MARIAN MACKEN is a writer, researcher, educator, and artist trained in architecture, landscape architecture and visual art, and is currently Associate Professor at Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning, Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland, New Zealand.
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ANA ESTRADA is a Brisbane-based socially engaged artist working in healthcare, exploring how art can be used to create safe spaces for dialogue. Her practice involves storytelling, photography, poetry, bookmaking, and, more recently, performance, all of which serve as crucial tools for voicing the experiences of aged care workers and residents.
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BEING PRESENT: Eight Acts – Image, Folders and clamshell
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The Cooper+Spowart entry in this year’s Awards was our book Being Present: Eight Acts which was recently presented in a framed format in the Wangaratta Performing Arts Gallery.
Our artist’s statement was:
Walking is integral to our creative practice and being present in everyday life. These journeys, both physical and psychological, are not driven by the necessity to arrive at a determined end point but to meander and be aware of the possibilities in each step. Walking and Being Present also refers to the concept creation in, and performative actions of material thinking in the making of our book works.
Through a combination of materials and book forms, ‘Being Present: Eight Acts’ invites the reader to enter each scene and join us on a slow walk through time, space and considerations of ‘being in the world’.
We were excited to be advised that the book was judged as ‘Highly Commended’ by the judges and acquired for the Artspace Mackay Collection. While unable to attend the Award presentation event we forwarded the following words that were read by Gallery Director Tracey Heathwood.
We are deeply honoured to receive the Daly Bay Highly Commended Award in this prestigious exhibition and award. The Libris Awards is an important event to the artist book community, and we are thrilled with the knowledge that our book will now be included in the highly acclaimed Artspace Mackay artists book collection.
‘Being Present: Eight Acts’ evolved over many months of deep questioning and material thinking. The concept of walking and performance through both the physical and psychological space of the book is deeply embedded in both the making and reading of this book. It is an invitation the reader to enter each scene and join us on a slow walk-through time, space and an awareness of being in the world.
We wish to thank the sponsors Daly Bay for their support and the continued commitment that Artspace Mackay makes to the artists book community. We also wish to thank the Judges who we have taken care and time to connect with all the amazing books that have been presented to them for this award.
Thank you
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THE 2025 AWARD WINNERS
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CATEGORY 1
WINNER Daly Bay National Artists Book Award (acquisitive)
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Jude Taggart Roberts Less than 2 degrees 2025
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Jude TAGGART ROBERTS Less than 2 degrees 2025
Drawing, relief print on Hosho with paperclay, 160.0 x 46.0 x 4.0cm (open).
Images courtesy of the artist and Artspace Mackay
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HIGHLY COMMENDED Daly Bay National Artists Book Award (acquisitive)
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COOPER+SPOWART Being Present – Eight Acts 2024
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Victoria COOPER and Doug SPOWART Being Present: Eight Acts 2024
Pigmented inks on photographic and art papers, edition of 3 + 1 AP, 31.0 x 22.0 x 3.5 cm
Images courtesy of the artists and Artspace Mackay
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CATEGORY 2
Cathy Knezevic Regional Artists Book Award (acquisitive)
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Karen Hurford & Natalie Field The Little Bird Compendium 2025
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Karen HURFORD and Natalie FIELD The Little Bird Compendium 2025
Mixed media, 19 x 27.0 x 13.0 cm. Images courtesy of the artists and Artspace Mackay
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CATEGORY 3
Tertiary Artists Book Prize – An invitational award (acquisitive)
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Megan Kennedy Hold Hands Spring Tide 2025
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Megan KENNEDY Hold Hands Spring Tide 2025
Mixed media, 20.0 x 22.0 x 4.0 cm (closed), 20.0 x 44.5 cm dimensions variable (open).
Images courtesy of the artist and Artspace Mackay
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The 2025 Libris Award: The Australian Artists’ Book Prize exhibition will be on display at Artspace Mackay until the 14th of September.
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LIBRIS Website logo and image
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WOTWEDID Blog page
READ MORE ABOUT OUR BEING PRESENT BOOK AND EXHIBITION: BEING PRESENT WOTWEDID BLOG POST 2024
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Libris Finalists Catalogue cover
DOWNLOAD AN ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE HERE: 2025 Libris Finalists Catalogue
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Artspace Mackay website
FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE AWARD: THE LIBRIS WEBSITE
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ARTISTS BOOKS IN AUSTRALIA: The People+Events
Doug Spowart’s ARTISTS BOOK FAMILY Mosaic
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In July the artists book symposium ABBE 2025 took place at Artspace Mackay. A key theme of this event was the ‘mapping Australia’s artists book histories’ and in the extended brief for the conference there was the lament that while artists books in Australia had been broad and active there was a scant record of the history the discipline.
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Reference was made to the understated history of the two main texts Gary Catalano’s The Bandaged Image (1983) and Alex Selenitsch’s NGA published Australian Artists Books 2008, conferences such as those coordinated by Artspace Mackay, many unpublished PhD thesis and the ‘valiant attempts by journals’ that burn out after a few years.
‘Bring your stories, your artifacts, and your memories’ they said so I put forward a submission consisting of aspects of the visual record that I have been making over 22 years of the artists book scene. My submission was to be an illustrated presentation consisting of approximately 200 portraits of the people of the artists book discipline as well as a few events.
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Here is my submission rationale:
AN ARTISTS BOOK FAMILY ALBUM – A ‘paper’ by Dr Doug Spowart
“A family’s photograph album is generally about the extended family
and, often, is all that remains of it.”
Susan Sontag in On Photography 1977
Family archives are a profound thread connecting past, present, and future, serving as repositories of memory, identity, and history.
Photography is more than just a medium for capturing pictures—it is a lens through which we view and understand history. Its ability to document, provoke, and preserve moments in time has made it an indispensable tool for both personal and collective memory.
In this way photographs hold the power to evoke vivid recollections, introducing us to lost relatives and forgotten stories while anchoring us within a broader familial narrative. Yet, the fragility of these archives is striking — images tucked away on devices or in drawers risk being lost to time, their stories untold.
The passing of key family members often deepens this void, as context and meaning tied to people and events can vanish. Establishing and preserving a family archive becomes not just an act of personal curation but a legacy-building effort, ensuring that these visual fragments of memory remain accessible to future generations.
In an era where countless photos are taken but rarely saved, the challenge lies in collecting and annotating these fleeting moments. A taking them into lasting archives for some to have as a touchtone for memory, and for others to review and research. Maybe to tell the story for future eyes and minds of the books that were made, what events happened and who was there…
This paper will present an illustrated fragment of photographs of the artists book family taken by the author over a 20 years period.
Dr Doug Spowart
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This submission was accepted, and the presentation offered to attendees of the symposium, and later online as a movie via the Artspace website.
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A LINK TO THE YOUTUBE VIDEO ON DOUG SPOWART’s Channel: “CLICK IMAGE”
For BEST viewing quality select HD quality in the SETTINGS menu. NOTE: The full video is 12 minutes long.
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PRESENTER’S COMMENT from Doug Spowart
In curating these photographs I have focussed on selecting images from the broad artists book community and have not included many photographs from my collaborative practice with Victoria Cooper.
Every attempt has been made to ensure correct captions – Please advise of any errors or omissions. Thanks to Caren Florance, Helen Cole, Robert Heather and Adele Outteridge for their assistance with captions.
Victoria and I have provided commentary about the artists book and photobook disciplines for many years in our Blog, journals, events coordinated and lecture presentations.
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All photographs are Copyright Doug Spowart (Some by Victoria Cooper). The subject pictured, after contacting the copyright owner, may be able to use the portrait of themselves for non-commercial applications. Other usage may require negotiation of a fee.
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WHAT FOLLOWS IS A LIST OF ALL CAPTIONS IN THE VIDEO
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MABF 2017 National Gallery of Victoria
Deanna Hitti and Deidre Brollo @ MABF 2017 National Gallery of Victoria
‘Life’s Journey’ exhibition @ Redland Art Gallery, Cleveland 2012
Julie Barratt in her gallery at Alstonville 2011
Dianne Longley in her exhibition ‘Navigations’ at Barrett Galleries 2008
Tim Mosely in his exhibition Make Like An Eskimo 2012
grahame galleries opening of Lessons in History Vol. II – Democracy 2012
Heather Matthew and Stephen Spurrier @ grahame galleries opening of Lessons in History Vol. II – Democracy 2012
Monica Oppen and Jan Davis @ grahame galleries opening of Lessons in History Vol. II – Democracy 2012
Volume Art Book Fair, Artspace, Woolloomooloo, Sydney 2017
Helen Cole chairs presentations by Keith Smith and Scott McCarney State Library of Queensland 2012
Siganto Seminar: The Trouble with Artists’ Books SLQ 2013
Helen Cole –Siganto Seminar: The Trouble with Artists’ Books SLQ 2013
Noreen Graeme and Jan Davis – Siganto Seminar: The Trouble with Artists’ Books SLQ 2013
Hearsay book launch with Euan Mcleod, Ron McBurnie, Susi Muddiman & Lloyd Jones SLQ 2013
Jo Kambourian at Artists Books Flash Mob Survey Book event Grafton 2013
Catherine McCue Boes Books as art: 30 years in the making Bundaberg Regional Gallery 2014
George Paton Gallery, Artist’s Books (reprised) University of Melbourne 2014
International speaker Sarah Bodman presents a paper – Abbe 2015 Griffith University
International speaker Brad Freeman – Abbe 2015 Griffith University
Lyn Ashby – Abbe 2015 Griffith University
Convener Tim Mosely presenting – Abbe 2015 Griffith University
Books By Artists exhibition – Abbe 2015 Griffith University
Sue Anderson + Gwen Harrison Abbe 2015 Griffith University
Deidre Brollo with Christene Drewe + Helen Cole and Marian Crawford with Sarah Bodman
Abbe 2015 Griffith University
Penny Carey-Wells and Caren Florance Abbe 2015 Griffith University
Robyn Foster + Fiona Dempster and Angela Gardner Abbe 2015 Griffith University
Sheree Kinlyside and Impress Printmakers: Sue Poggioli + Jennifer Stuerzl Abbe 2015 Griffith University
Tim Mosely and Heather Matthew Abbe 2015 Griffith University
Adele Outteridge + Wim de Vos – Abbe 2015 Griffith University
Jo Kambourian and Darren Bryant at Lismore Art Space 2014
The SLQ White Gloves team Christene Drewe, Helen Cole and Jeanette Garrard for Abbe 2015
State Librarian Janette Wright welcomes attendees SLQ 2015
Brazillian artist Amir Brito Cadôr keynote presentation Siganto Foundation Artists’ Book Seminar 2015
Julie Barratt and Clyde McGill discusse their Siganto Foundation Creative Fellowship 2015
Jan Davis and Doug Spowart discuss their Siganto Foundation Creative Fellowship 2015
A forum on collaboration – Siganto Foundation Artists’ Book Seminar 2015
Judy Bourke and Adele Outteridge+Wim de Vos at the Siganto Foundation Artists’ Book Fair SLQ 2015
Clyde McGill and Anne Kirker and Sue Poggioli at the Siganto Foundation Artists’ Book Fair SLQ 2015
Helen Malone and Sandra Pearce at the Siganto Foundation Artists’ Book Fair SLQ 2015
Amir Brito Cadôr with Noreen Grahame & Helen Malone at the Siganto Foundation Artists’ Book Fair SLQ 2015
Helen Cole, Michael Wardell & Clyde McGill at the Siganto Foundation Artists’ Book Fair SLQ 2015
Dr Marie Siganto makes a presentation to Ana Paula Estrada and Victoria Cooper
PAPER CONTEMPORARY – Sydney Contemporary 2015
Grahame Galleries stand with Ron + Jonathan McBurnie at Paper Contemporary – Sydney Contemporary 2015
Victoria Cooper, Jan Davis and Trent Walter at Paper Contemporary – Sydney Contemporary 2015
Sue Anderson + Gwen Harrison and Brigita Oppen at Paper Contemporary – Sydney Contemporary 2015
Helen Cole, Akky van Ogtrop, Robyn Berkeley from Berkeley Editions and Victoria Cooper at
Paper Contemporary – Sydney Contemporary 2015
Fellow Travellers a book by William Kelly, SLV Creative Fellow and Baldessin Press Studio Residency recipient
Personal Histories International Artist Book Exhibition Uni of NSW Canberra 2015
Robyn Foster (Curator), Judy Bourke, Selena Griffith, Tracie Toohey, Rachel Hunter, Lisa Morisset –
Personal Histories International Artist Book Exhibition Uni of NSW Canberra 2015
Christene Drewe introduces UK artist Guy Begbie – The Siganto Foundation Fellowship artist book series 2016 SLQ
Guy Begbie presents his keynote address – The Siganto Foundation Fellowship artist book series 2016 SLQ
Victoria Cooper and Lyn Ashby presentations – The Siganto Foundation Fellowship artist book series 2016-7 SLQ
Helen Douglas presents her keynote address – The Siganto Foundation Fellowship artist book series 2017 SLQ
Clyde McGill performs his book and a White Gloves presentation of artists books
– The Siganto Foundation Fellowship artist book series 2016 SLQ
Freestyle Books exhibition curated by Helen Cole at the State Library of Queensland 2008
Freestyle Books Symposium with Ron McBurnie, Peter Lyssiotis, Judy Watson, Jonathon Tse and others
at the State Library of Queensland 2008
At the launch of Ana Paula Estrada’s book MEMORANDUM – Ana Paula with Louis Lim and Annette Green 2016
Visiting Wim de Vos and Adele Outteridge at Studio West End Brisbane 2017
Visiting the 2017 Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair – Melbourne
David Dellafiora and Gracia Haby + Louise Jennison at the
2017 Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair – Melbourne
Ulrike Stoltz & Uta Schneider international presenters at Artists book Brisbane Event Griffith University 2017
A K Milroy + Brad Freeman – presenters at Artists Book Brisbane Event Griffith University 2017
Marian Crawford and Ana Paula Estrada presents their papers
Artists Book Brisbane Event Griffith University 2017
Marian Macken presents at Artists Book Brisbane Event Griffith University 2017
Wim de Vos at Artists Book Brisbane Event Griffith University 2017
A plenary session on artists books at Artists Book Brisbane Event Griffith University 2017
Noreen Grahame in her curated exhibition “… & So” – Artists Book Brisbane Event Griffith University 2017
Barbara Davidson and Caren Florance at Artists Book Brisbane Event Griffith University 2017
Sue Poggioli and Anne-Maree Hunter at Artists Book Brisbane Event Griffith University 2017
Brad Freeman and Anita Milroy – Artists Book Brisbane Event Griffith University 2017
Lyn Ashby and Sue Anderson at Artists Book Brisbane Event Griffith University 2017
Anna Welch, Des Cowley and Madeleine Say at Ballarat International Foto Biennale
World Photobook Day Book Fair 2019
Helen Cole presents and a floortalk – The First Focus of Artists Books and the Libris Awards at Artspace Mackay 2004
Looking at books and the opening crowd – Focus of Artists Books and the Libris Awards at Artspace Mackay 2004
Bruno Leti workshop – Focus of Artists Books and the Libris Awards at Artspace Mackay 2004
Focus of Artists Books and the Libris Awards at Artspace Mackay 2005
Caren Florance, Sasha Grishin and Dianne Fogwell in the ANU exhibition at FOAB 2005
Unknown lady, Adele Outteridge, Madonna Staunton and Wim de Vos and Sasha Grishin FOAB 2005
Focus of Artists Books and the Libris Awards at Artspace Mackay 2006
Robert Heather welcomes attendees + Marshall Weber presents Focus of Artists Books at Artspace Mackay 2006
Katherine Nix workshop – Focus of Artists Books at Artspace Mackay 2006
The installation view of the 2008 Libris Awards
Michael Wardell welcomes attendees and a Forum at the 4th Focus on Artists Books event and
Judge Michael Desmon presents his address to the 2008 Libris Award
Clyde McGill’s foyer artwork FOAB 2028
Michael Desmond presents his lecture in the 4th Focus on Artists Books event
2008 FOAB some of the presenters McGill, Fogwell, Florance and Cooper
Focus on Artists Books V and the 5th Libris Awards 2010
Michael Wardell addresses the attendees – 2010 Libris Awards and 5th Focus on Artists Book event
2010 FOAB Deanna Hitti in her exhibition ‘Bint Trembucky (daughter of the drum)’
Caren Florance and David Dellafiora in their workshops – 5th Focus on Artists Book
Victoria Cooper with Judy Barrass and Linda Douglas – 5th Focus on Artists Book
Barbara Davidson and Caren Florance with Sheree Kinlyside of Red Rag Press – 5th Focus on Artists Book
Victoria Cooper with Monica Oppen and Sara Bowen (Book Art Object), Julie Barratt and Caren Florance
Visiting the 2016 Libris Artists Book Award
Visiting the 2016 Libris Artists Book Award
Denise Vanderlugt with her highly commended bookwork I used to wrap rainbows and Jamian Stayt’s
Soulless evolution 2016 Libris Artists Book Award
graeme galleries’ 5th Artists’ Books + Multiples Fair in the Dell Gallery Griffith University 2007
Monica Oppen and Michael Wardell with Doug Spowart
at graeme galleries’ 5th Artists’ Books + Multiples Fair in the Dell Gallery Griffith University
Helen Cole + Dianne Fogwell and Stephen Spurrier + Normana White
at graeme galleries’ 5th Artists’ Books + Multiples Fair in the Dell Gallery Griffith University
Victoria Cooper with Dianne Longley and Anne-Maree Hunter
at graeme galleries’ 5th Artists’ Books + Multiples Fair in the Dell Gallery Griffith University
12th Edition Noosa Artists Book event ‘Back to Basics’ 2008
Southern Cross University Acquisitive Artists Book Award 2006
Southern Cross University Acquisitive Artists Book Award 2007
Southern Cross University Acquisitive Artists Book Award judged by Robert Heather 2008
Judge Tara O’Brien announces the winner – Southern Cross University Acquisitive Artists Book Award 2009
Southern Cross University Acquisitive Artists Book Award 2011 – Judge Ross Woodrow
Peter Lyssiotis is his studio 2014
Ana Paula Estrada presenting her Mexican photobook collection in Maud Gallery, Brisbane 2017
Keith Smith and Scott McCarney in a workshop at West End Studios Brisbane 2006
Deanna Hitti’s exhibition of the book ‘A is for Alam (pen)’ at the State Library of Victoria 2022
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Any RSS reposting from this Blog without permission represents a breach of Copyright.
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70 YEARS of the BENALLA CAMERA CLUB – An Exhibition
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VISIONS: Photographing Benalla and Beyond
An exhibition celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Benalla Camera Club at the Benalla Art Gallery October 15 – December 8 2024
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In early 2024 we were invited by the Benalla Camera Club to participate on the organising team of an exhibition that celebrated the Club’s 70th anniversary of its founding in 1954. From October to December this year the club’s showcase was to be held in the Simpson Gallery space of the Benalla Art Gallery. As members of the club, we were excited to be able to contribute to the project through our knowledge and experience of exhibition production.
The team included artist Kym Stubbs, digital designer and technician Mike O’Connor, Club Treasurer and club historian Judy Barry and the two of us. At the beginning of the project the team met with Benalla Art Gallery Director Eric Nash to discuss the gallery’s requirements and process for the exhibition. Meetings of the committee, and at times included Eric, continued at regular intervals throughout the project.
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The Team – Benalla Camera Club VISIONS exhibition
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Early in the project we presented a suggested layout that included a large image mosaic around 7 metres long for one wall, a large projected image screen, a showcase of equipment and a timeline. To make for a dynamic experience for viewers in the centre space of the gallery, team member Kym suggested 3D sculptural collections of boxes with images affixed to them.
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Proposal and final install of Visions Exhibition
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The key theme was to celebrate the club’s current membership while highlighting references to, and stories from, the past 70 years. Concepts and ideas were refined and the exhibition gradually took shape to be an innovative and contemporary display. Special challenges were set for Mike experimenting methods for ganging images together for the montage mural and the printing of images for the boxes. Kym experimented with sizes and arrangements for the boxes and their placement in the gallery space. She also sourced a local manufacturer to make the boxes and then, with fellow club member Helen Repacholi, painted and prepared the boxes. The Gallery already had engaged a local master printer Marty Burke Signs for the adhesive backed vinyl wall mural and other didactic panels. Apart from general project coordination our task was to collate and prepare a timeline from information supplied by the club historian Judy.
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A section of the Visions montage
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Images by current club members were to be presented in the exhibition in many formats. The largest was a photographic montage 8 metres long featuring 44 images. A further 80 images appear on Kym Stubbs’ boxes with around 44 images, and an early movie, in digital projection slide show – all of which were collected and assembled by Mike O’Connor. Kym and Mike collaborated on the selection of image sets for the boxes.
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THE INSTALL
In the days before the opening the camera club team members along with Eric and the Gallery team worked to install the exhibition.
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THE OPENING
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The exhibition was opened on October 18, 2024 by the club Vice President Noel Baumgarten, with other speeches by Dom Testoni CEO Benalla Rural City Council, and Eric Nash Director of the Benalla Art Gallery.
In his introductory remarks at the opening Gallery Director Eric was to make the following comments –
Exhibitions such as this are incredibly important as they speak directly to the diversity and vibrancy of Benalla’s artistic community; those who pursue their artform with passion and dedication. In doing so these creative members of our community are not only benefitting personally, but they are enriching our entire region. And what an incredible thing that the Benalla Camera Club has been doing this for our community for 70 years! A round of applause please everyone on an incredible milestone.
And I think it’s wonderful within this exhibition that we can not only celebrate some stunning images by current members, but also through the illustrated timelines gain an appreciation of the full scale of those changes; stretching back to 1954 when the Club staged competitions centered on Kodachrome film, and 16, 8 and 35mm black and white film, to an adoption in recent years of the online platform MyPhotoClub for the administration, judging, and presentation of photo competitions.
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THE TIMELINE EXHIBITION COMPONENT
Our task was to resolve the Timeline component of the exhibition. We worked to find ways to incorporate the great volume of text material collated by Judy that had been sourced from local newspaper clippings from the Benalla Ensign and club reports. We selected three time periods to generally represent the eras of photographic practice over the 70 years: 1954–1969, 1970–1999 and 2000–2024. To present the information from each era in a visually interesting way we fed the gathered texts relating to that period into a ‘word cloud’ app. The resulting graphic created by the app was a circular design where the size of each word was determined by the number of times it appeared in the text.
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Timeline word cloud for 1970-1999
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An additional element to the Timeline was a succinct history of photography over the 70 years highlighting changes and transitions in technology and the change from analogue (film) to digital capture and output. Here’s a sample of this text from 1970-1999.
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“TOWARDS A PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMELINE FROM THE 1970s to the 1990s – A Brief Commentary
ART MOVEMENTS AND APPROACHES TO MAKING PHOTOGRAPHS: Pictorialism (popular in camera clubs), Modernism and Post-Modernism, Documentary and Art – the foundation of the Australian Centre for Photography
PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGING TECHNOLOGY: Analogue along with digital technology development of digital imaging and output in the 1990s
IMAGING DEVICES: Analogue camera brands with new digital still and movie cameras in the 1990s including Kodak, Sigma, Sony, Samsung, Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Fuji
CAPTURE MATERIALS: Analogue materials persisted although in the late 1990s digital emerged as the dominant technology. Flatbed and film scanners created opportunities to bring analogue materials into the digital space
PRESENTATION TECHNOLOGIES: Prints, projectors for slides and movies were gradually replaced by digital projectors with screens and speakers
SPECIALISED TECHNOLOGY: Darkrooms became redundant and were replaced by computers and digital imaging programs like Adobe Photoshop. Inkjet printing with desktop devices began to replace professional laboratories. In the 1990s the Internet became the medium for sharing and disseminating digital files”.
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Benalla Camera Club Timeline 1954-1979
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An additional Timeline element were small quotes from the newspapers that describe the activities of the club at that time …
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(CLICK ON EACH TEXT BLOCK TO ENLARGE)
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IN CONCLUSION
It was exciting to be part of the team that created this innovative presentation of the Benalla Camera Club. Importantly the exhibition presents the visual record in many photographic styles from artistic representation to documentary, and abstract to natural history recording. As photography enthusiasts the club members are a part of a world-wide community. Through personal expression and creativity, they provide visual statements of the times in which they lived and stories of their community. Their manifesto states:
“Today our club continues to explore expanding opportunities for photography. As well as creating images of the world around us, we pursue a range of techniques and photo-making experiments to capture the world beyond the scope of the human eye. We can be found with camera in hand at every community occasion. Through our regular club competitions, activities and excursions, we work to share our knowledge, skills and experience of the art and craft of photography with the wider community. (From the Gallery didactic)
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Congratulations Benalla Camera Club and their members on their 70 years of operation – we look forward to seeing the Club thrive in the next 70 …
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Victoria Cooper+Doug Spowart
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More Information About the Benalla Camera Club
The Benalla Camera Club is a local club, with current membership of approximately 30 active photographers. The Club meets monthly for photo competitions, workshops, activities and outings. Anyone interested in photography is welcome to attend meetings and learn more about the Club, which caters to all photographers from beginner to advanced. To learn more or become involved, visit: www.benalla.myphotoclub.com.au
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COOPER+SPOWART “BEING PRESENT” and Perform Eight Acts
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Wangaratta Art Gallery Webpage
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THE STORY ABOUT THE WORK
A long-term underlying driver of our creative practice both individual and collaborative is linked to a philosophy of Being Present. Our work responds to a variety of conditions and influences including historical that relate to the contemporary experience of a place, space and time.
This bookwork and exhibition is the culmination of work started in December last year when we were offered a show by the Wangaratta Art Gallery Director Rachel Arndt in the Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre (WPAC). Very early in the project, Arndt selected the image of Doug walking along the Wooli Wooli River to be the featured image. This image holds a lot of meaning for us as it is emblematic of our long journey along many paths following new directions in our creative and personal life.
In the WPAC space we could only present framed work as a requirement for the organisation due to the complexity of presenting off the wall art in that public space. As our medium is artists books and photobooks with wall art to support the concept, we were then confronted with the dilemma of how to present an exhibition that was potentially an artists book. We forged ahead, confident that this would be resolved as we materially worked through the project.
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Ovens River Wangaratta
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Following on from recent work in the nearby Winton Wetlands (Mokoan) and our Desire Paths series of books, we began the project by exploring tracks within the local place of Wangaratta, the Ovens River and the Warby Ranges.
During this time we also returned to the place of the Wooli River walk in northern NSW where we further developed the conceptual and creative work.
At this time we identified and drew upon a connection to the exhibition space as a site that related to our practice that involves self-documentation as a performative exploration of each concept.
The book was now taking shape as a series of Eight Acts that brought together our physical and psychological documentation together with the concepts of performance. As Arndt highlights in the exhibition didactic our work is:
… not driven by the necessity to ‘arrive’ at a determined end point, but instead guided by a shared philosophy of ‘being present’ – to meander and be aware of the possibilities in each step. Attuned to the sounds of birds, the texture or shape of a tree, an abstract form or shadow, or a poetic thought, they will stop and take time to observe and document these moments, each pause a metaphorical and visual conversation between time, place and being-in-the-world.
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Being Present: 8 Acts installation
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Presented as a series of eight ‘Acts’, Cooper and Spowart’s new body of work explores the psychological and corporeal insights of their walking practice. Their performative actions are captured through the making and reading of a book, with each framed work presenting one page turned and exposed, while another is hidden below. Just as one leg steps forward, the other remains behind in shadow. The ground, or their mise-en-scene, bringing situational significance.
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4 images of Angophora Grove Walk showing different aspects of the book
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We designed the book so that each ‘Act’ offers an engaging haptic reading experience through unfolding the pages. In the exhibition space we were unable to show the book, therefore to give viewers an opportunity to see it in its entirety we made videos performing each ‘Act’ folio. Visitors to the exhibition can access these high definition videos via QR codes on the didactic panel next to each frame. We will also be presenting the book at specified times during the exhibition’s 3 month duration.
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Being Present: Eight Acts book and clamshell
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HERE ARE THE EIGHT ACTS
ACT ONE – The fourth path
ACT 1 – The fourth path – Wooli Wooli River
TO VIEW A VIDEO PERFORMANCE of this ACT “Click” HERE
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ACT TWO – Angophora Grove Walk
ACT 2 Angophora Grove Walk, Yuraygir National Park
TO VIEW A VIDEO PERFORMANCE of this ACT “Click” HERE
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ACT THREE – Walking the Fenceline
ACT 3 Walking the fenceline – Sunrise Track, Warby Ranges
TO VIEW A VIDEO PERFORMANCE of this ACT “Click” HERE
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ACT FOUR – Walking Through the Thickness …
ACT 4 Walking through the thickness of sound – Ovens River, Wangaratta
TO VIEW A VIDEO PERFORMANCE of this ACT “Click” HERE
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ACT FIVE – In the Presence of a Tree
ACT 5 In the presence of a tree – Lake Catani, Mount Buffalo National Park
TO VIEW A VIDEO PERFORMANCE of this ACT “Click” HERE
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ACT SIX – The Meeting Circle
ACT 6 The meeting circle – Ovens River, Wangaratta
TO VIEW A VIDEO PERFORMANCE of this ACT “Click” HERE
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ACT SEVEN – Portal, The Great South-West Walk
ACT 7 Portal – The Great South-West Walk, Glenelg River
TO VIEW A VIDEO PERFORMANCE of this ACT “Click” HERE
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ACT EIGHT – Taking Flight, Boroka Lookout
ACT 8 Taking flight – Boroka Lookout, Gariwerd National Park
TO VIEW A VIDEO PERFORMANCE of this ACT “Click” HERE
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THE ARTISTS’ EPILOGUE TO THE BEING PRESENT BOOK
Throughout the development of this project, we have been informed by, and acted on, insights arising from both the physical: walking and corporeal contemplation; and the psychological: metaphorical and poetic connections with our surroundings.
Being Present is a philosophy that resonates throughout our creative careers and everyday life – underpinning our past, and as we navigate new paths.
The performance and creation of the eight ACTS has set the stage for future visual books to share, through the haptics of reading and visual metaphors, a deep connection with narratives of place.
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THE MAKING OF THE BOOK
This body of work was first exhibited as a book in frames in Wangaratta Art Gallery’s exhibition space at the Performing Arts Centre in August to December 2024.
The book was resolved, printed and bound in our Bridge Street Studio in Benalla.
Being Present: Eight Acts is printed on an Epson printer with pigment inks on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper and Zerkall printmaking papers and bound in Stonehenge covers, with Kozo Kawairi interleaved papers and waxed linen thread.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We wish to thank Rachel Arndt, Director of the Wangaratta Art Gallery for the opportunity for us to conceptualise, develop and create a new body of work that relates to the continuing theme in our work – Being Present.
We wish to thank Dr Felicity Rea for the access given to her family retreat at Wooli where we worked on this project. We also wish to acknowledge her continuing commentary and support of our work.
Thanks also to Cassandra Pollack for her knowledge and companionship along the Ovens River walk.
Thanks to Remy at She’s Arty in Benalla for the framing of the exhibition.
We also acknowledge the First Nations as the traditional custodians of the Country on which we have travelled through and worked. We respect their deep and enduring connection to their lands and waterways and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.
We honour and respect their ancestors, Elders past, present and emerging and the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
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Victoria Cooper + Doug Spowart
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WATCH THIS SPACE …
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VISITING GRAFTON REGIONAL GALLERY: June 2024
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Regional Art Galleries exhibitions and events not only say a lot about the culture of a local community but they also provide a connection to the broader national and international world of art. These institutions are places where locals can engage with and present their stories and celebrate their creative spirits. This experience is not one that a capital city can provide – it is unique to the regional gallery and arts centre. It also provides an opportunity for local artists to be located or acknowledged within the broader art community. The Grafton Regional Gallery is one of these galleries.
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When visiting this region we always make time to see what is showing at the gallery and the current exhibitions were again full of interesting stories and creative work. The entrance to the front of the gallery and information centre is on the ground floor of historic Prentice House[1] . In these front rooms there is a wonderful show of botanical drawings and paintings by local artist, Doris O’Grady. O’Grady’s art can be appreciated for the aesthetics and taxonomic work she made from her collection during the mid 20th Century.
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Doris O’Grady “Mushrooms” exhibition
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Interestingly the place where we are staying in this region had some strange fungi growing in the garden about which we were curious. Amongst Doris’ paintings was the very same fungus we had seen that morning in the front garden! O Grady’s work in emblematic of the blurred lines between art and science. Where the scientist or naturalist creates interpretive aesthetic drawings of their beloved subject for both further investigation and display.
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The Mush Room Family Play Space with soft sculptures by Antony Perring, Design and education by Bush Fairy animations by Clara Lagor (USA) and Emma Scarth (Canada)
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Across the courtyard the newer second part of the gallery, we encountered a magical space inventively named, The Mush Room. Here artists and designers have playfully created a space of soft sculptures, a video and didactic wall panels. There is also an interactive drawing and sculpture for the young at heart to investigate fungi and environmental themes by creating their own work and adding leaf elements to adorn the wooden tree shapes.
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In the next gallery spaces, mushrooms and fungi feature again within a larger exhibition of prints and an artists book, The Printer’s Proof: The Fred Genis Collection. Genis over his long career as a master printmaker collaborated with many nationally and internationally renowned artists including John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Tim Storrier, Judy Watson and Brett Whiteley.
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There is a huge diversity of themes and work, the Mushroom Book by John Cage is a main feature. Pages from the book are displayed between Perspex to allow the viewer to see both sides of the pages and connect with the books conceptual design incorporating lyrical texts and visual elements. The bound book was displayed in a vitrine adjacent with some archive documents of the production and sale.
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Artists Proof is a comprehensive exhibition bringing together a history of art and printmaking, the artists and studios. It is an exhibition that would appeal to many particularly those wanting to touch with the practice of Genis and his contemporary colleagues. There is the potential for many discussions around the individual works as objects and concepts, of and for their time in art.
We will return to the gallery as to fully engage with the depth of these exhibitions will take more than one visit.
Victoria Cooper
[1] For more history see https://galleryfriends.com.au
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Grafton Regional Gallery
June 2024
Exhibitions, 11 May to 7 July 2024
Doris O’Grady: Mushrooms
The Mush Room
The Printer’s Proof: The Fred Genis Collection
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All photographs by Doug Spowart Text by Victoria Cooper
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A Poem for Dad on ANZAC DAY – Victoria Cooper
Reg Cooper’s WW2 PNG Butterfly collection*
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My father Reg Cooper served in the Royal Australian Air Force in Papua New Guinea in World War II. During this time he made this work by collecting butterflies and placing them over a map of PNG and framing. It is entitled “Nadzab 1944” – where he was stationed.
Remembering small shared moments of joy for the natural world.
Many of which no longer exist but for a museum of memories.
With gratitude to my father
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Pneumas
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Flashes of colour
Flutter across the wall
The souls of the warriors
Fly over
The sublime terrain
While pinned
To a never ending present
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Years pass
This man
Tends a distant garden
Preparing a fertile space
In anticipation for the end of dormancy
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And so the decades
They fly
This man and a small child
Tend the garden
With humility in everyday work
Merging into a gentle rhythm
No expectations
Just joy in the flowers
That simply grow
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But the Butterflies
Remain
Souls Hovering
Over that memory
What do they know
About Time…..
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Eventually
The child alone
Tends the garden
Now a field
Rich with Dreams
Of Flowers
And Forests
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All this …
For The Butterflies
To breathe
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Vicky and her Dad Reg …circa 1960s
*Pneuma (πνεῦμα) is an ancient Greek word for “breath“, and in a religious context for “spirit” or “soul“.[1]
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This Blogpost is copyright: Text – Victoria Cooper ©2020, Nadzab 1944 © Reg Cooper, Portrait of Victoria & Reginald Cooper – Helen Cooper ©circa1960
Any RSS reposting from this Blog without permission represents a breach of Copyright.
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MARTIN HANSEN MEMORIAL ART AWARDS: Our Works
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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.
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This year Victoria’s entry was an artist book entitled String Theory Explained.
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Victoria COOPER’s String Theory Explained presented
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String Theory Explained… its all about the unplanned and chaotic nature of everyday life… the beauty and terror within the order of “normal” existence.
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Opening up the book
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Bibliographic Details:
Format: Concertina book embedded in folded cover
Media: various pen inks on art paper with Stonehenge black cover
Size: 764 x 230mm
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Doug’s entry this year was Story Trees – First Nations a concertina artists book presented in a circular form.
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Doug SPOWART – Story Trees artists book
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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.
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Bibliographic Details:
Format: Concertina book
Media: Pigment inks on photographic paper
Size in circular presentation: 600 x 700mm
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Doug’s Story Trees installed at GRAGM
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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.
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Here is some information about the 2023 Awards and the Entry Form.
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CLICK THIS LINK MH 23 Catalogue Online-r
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CLICK THIS LINK Martin Hansen Award 2023 Entry Details
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Photo of gallery installation courtesy of GRAGM
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TONES OF HOME: Cooper+Spowart in group show
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TONES OF HOME – Arts Project Australia
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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
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Tones of Home Exhibition
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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
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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
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COOPER+SPOWART WORKS IN THE SHOW
Cooper+Spowart “Desire Paths 2+3” Proposed layout
Victoria with Jo Salt Gallery Director + Doug PHOTO: Michael Coyne
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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.
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Susie Buykx+Victoria+Eric Nash (Curator) +Doug
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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
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Unless noted otherwise photographs are by Doug Spowart
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IN THE WETLANDS: 3 Artists – Cooper + Hollins + Spowart collaborate, drawing inspiration from Winton Wetlands
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PALIMPSEST Exhibition artists in Winton Wetlands
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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.
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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:
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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.
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Artists Victoria Cooper, Maggie Hollins + Doug Spowart
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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.
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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.
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Check out our INSTAGRAM Project picture trail https://www.instagram.com/wetlands.palimpsest/
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3 Invitations for the exhibition in BAINZ GALLERY in Wangaratta
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SOME VIEWS OF THE EXHIBITION
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SEE A FLY-THROUGH VIDEO OF THE EXHIBITION
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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.
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BRIAN ROPE Reviewer for and member of the Canberra Critics Circle
Read Brian Rope’s full review HERE
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LATER POSTS WILL FEATURE MORE ABOUT THE INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS & THEIR WORKS …
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SEE MORE ABOUT THE WINTON WETLANDS …
Winton Wetlands website Home page
CLICK HERE FOR THE WINTON WETLAND’S WEBSITE
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Winton Wetlands logo
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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.
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NICHOLAS WALTON-HEALEY – SALT FRAMES
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A SELECTION OF IMAGES
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‘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
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A COMMENTARY ON THE BODY OF WORK by Victoria Cooper
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watch the water long enough and you’ll see a fish jump … *
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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.
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Dr Victoria Cooper
* A teaching by Larrakia Warrior Robert E. Lewis to Nicholas Walton-Healey
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THE OPENING SPEECH BY PAMELA KLEEMANN-PASSI
Pamela Kleeman-Passi speaks
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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.
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Welcome to the Salt Frames exhibition …
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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.
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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…
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Pamela Kleemann-Passi © 2023
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ROBERT LEWIS TALKS ABOUT HIS CONNECTION WITH NICK
Robert Lewis, Larrakia Warrior, speaks at the opening of SALT FRAMES
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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!!
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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!!
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Robert Lewis © 2023
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NICK’S RESPONSE
Nick addresses the audience at his exhibition
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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.
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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.
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Thank you all … Nicholas Walton-Healey
Nicholas Walton-Healey © 2023
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Nicholas with Pam Kleemann-Passi and Robert Lewis
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wotwedid 