Share in the creative process at Craft ACT’s Artist Open Day

Posted on 7 April, 2014

Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre has been a staple of the Canberra Art community for over 42 years. Supporting local established and emerging artists, it helps to bring all areas of the craft and design sector to both Canberrans and the national community at large.

One of the many ways in which Craft ACT supports artists, is through their artist-in-residence program. Presented in partnership with ACT Parks and Conservation, the program draws exciting international and Australian artists to Canberra, offers them a chance to engage with the Canberra environment while raising the profile of our national parks, and exhibits the work they create.

Comprised of a two-to-four week residency at the Gudgenby Ready-Cut Cottage in the Namadgi National Park, or at Nil Desperandum Homestead in Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, the program allows the artists to explore and respond to a significant environmental theme before embarking on a two week research component at the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

The 2014 program’s central theme is ‘the environmental protection of bogs and fens’ – the resident artists focus on the environmental protection of bogs and fens in the parks which are threatened by a number of issues including wildfires which destroyed many alpine bogs in 2003. Bog communities provide a number of ecosystem services including breeding habitat for the endangered Corroboree frog as well as water control and filtration at catchment sources, and this theme offers great scope for the artists-in-residence to explore and extend their work through differing mediums.

The artists-in-residence this year are Craft ACT member Sally Blake, national artists Annee Miron and Japanese artist Satoshi Fujinuma.

Annee Miron is a Melbourne sculptor who has exhibited her work throughout Australia and has undertaken residencies in Paris and Rome. Using age-old craft techniques such as weaving, plaiting and knotting, Miron create works where form and material are the support for each other. The materials she uses are pure in an effort to avoid the use of glues, screws, nails and welds.  These include ropes which are plaited and knotted and found cardboard cartons which are cut up and given gracious and often large scale, new forms through weaving. Miron’s main concern which materialises in her practice is the transience in nature and the environment. Her work aims to reflect the simultaneous processes of making and unmaking that occur in nature.

Sally Blake works primarily with woven textile techniques including basketry, woven tapestry and loom weaving, as well as piecing, stitching, plant dyeing and working on paper. Blake’s practice is concerned with exploring ecological issues and the complex interconnections between humans and the natural world. As a PhD candidate in the Textiles Workshop of the ANU, her research interests stem from a deep concern about the anthropic led destruction of our natural environment and a belief that artists can have a role in communicating this concern. Blake comments, ‘In my art practice I continually look to develop a deeper understanding of the interconnections between nature’s pattern and processes and humans place in the whole.’

Canberrans have a rare opportunity to share in the creative process of the artists in this unique residency period though an artist open day this Saturday 12 April. The public can travel to the Namadgi National Park and Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and engage with Sally Blake and Annee Miron in their working spaces.

Visitors will travel by bus from Civic Square to Gudgenby Ready-Cut Cottage at Namadgi National Park, where Sally Blake will provide insight into her unique textile work. Following Namadgi, the bus will transport visitors to Nil Desperandum Homestead at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, where they will learn about Annee Miron’s weaving and sculptural work.

This is an exciting opportunity to engage with our national parks through the lens of craft and design. Visitors can gain unique insights into the processes and practice of these acclaimed artists, listen to a personal artist talk from each artist, and also get to soak in the surrounds of the Parks, including special access to the heritage listed huts that they would not get otherwise. It’s a great way to see a different side to Canberra and our surrounds.

the essentials

What: CRAFT ACT Artist-in-residence open days
When: 9am – 3pm Saturday 12 April
Where: Namadgi National Park and Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve – Bus provided, departing from Civic Square at 9am.
Bookings: Booking are essential, and are required by 9 April 2014. Email gwenyth.macnamara@craftact.org.au or call 6262 9333
Web: craftact.org.au