Introducing Lauryn Arnott – Workshop Participant, Adelaide South Australia

Crossing over 162 x171 cms. Medium: Charcoal, charcoal pencil, collage, on Dessin 300gsm paper

Lauryn Arnott

I arrived in Adelaide, Australia, in 2003 having lost my home to a brutal regime in Zimbabwe, Africa. In Adelaide I started the Crossing Over drawing as part of a Masters of Visual Arts degree. This drawing became a site of remembering and forgetting memories through a process of drawing and erasure. My methodology became a physical enactment of the state that I found myself in, a process of working through persistent memories, acknowledged and unacknowledged, a retrieval of history as memory and memory as history. This process works as a catalyst through which I can harness my sense of place and identity. It is an appropriate technical way of dealing with memory and loss, using the mark as an increment of retrieval and its erasure as a metaphor of loss.

The Crossing Over drawing was exhibited at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, as a part the 2009 Harare International Festival of Arts. Much like my participation in The Border Crossing Project, this demonstrates my interest in the important role that art can play in retrieving and transforming ideas and memories that cross borders and cultures. My intention in this to create links and build relationships between different countries and cultures, despite what is said in the media.

Part of the content of this drawing is the deliberate use of fragile and temporary materials such as the large unprotected sheet of paper pinned to the wall. The fragility of the medium of this work expresses its stark subject matter.

The Collaboration

I worked together with Nina Rupena and Patricia Wozniak; we come from diverse cultures, yet our work has been shaped by the fact that we are all living in Australia because of the conflict in our home countries. I came from Zimbabwe, Nina from Bosnia and Patricia’s recalls her grandmother’s stories of her displacement from Poland after the war. The central themes that we share in our work is; conflict, displacement, fragility, memory and post-memory. An important factor we discussed was whether cultural diversity was the source of peace (and collaboration) or the root of conflict. In this we felt that it was vital that our collaboration be one of negotiating and not negating our work and our histories, because there is no single essence, no single history.

What I consider an important aspect for The Border Crossing Project, is that it can open up a dialogue in which the artists and viewers can consider their own positions on these proposals.

Meaning through making:

The deliberate use of fragile and temporary materials is an important aspect of our collaboration. The materials; collaged paper, charcoal, pastel, xerox transfers, lace for stencils, spray paint, printing ink and muslin

Text by Lauryn Arnott

The Earth's waters are both boundaries and pathways for peoples, objects and ideas.

Fumio Nanjo

Introducing Nina Rupena – Workshop Participant, Adelaide South Australia

'Vestige' ink, colour pencil and watercolour on old doily mounted on canvas-backed wallpaper, 

46 x 51 cm, 2010.

Nina Rupena

As a result of personal experiences linked with dislocation (as a refugee of war located in Bosnia and Herzegovina), I am attempting to analyse and mediate this experience.

My artwork ‘Vestige’ attempts to examine the perception of ageing. In a visual sense, hands are a symbolic vehicle, representing wisdom and endurance where folds, wrinkles and scars narrate a story and represent personal histories.

I have an evolving history as an industrial designer, photographer, video and installation artist, working both within a fine arts context and my own cultural community developing work which explores memory and the nature of history and place.

Nina Rupena

The Collaboration

I am collaborating with Patricia Wozniak and Lauryn Arnott. We come from diverse cultural backgrounds – Polish, Zimbabwean and Bosnian.

What we hoped to achieve with our collaboration is to enrich our art practises by openly exchanging ideas, techniques and materials. The opportunity to share personal histories and explore the complexities of exile was greatly rewarding. We enjoyed the synergy formed when creative minds are put together and exciting ideas for future projects came as a result of Borders Crossing project.

Text by Nina Rupena

The Earth's waters are both boundaries and pathways for peoples, objects and ideas.

Fumio Nanjo

Introducing Svetlana De Gennaro - Workshop Participant, Adelaide, South Australia

‘Australian Landscape’, Svetlana De Gennaro

Svetlana De Gennaro

Artist Statement

Quoting Papastergiadis,

Cultural identity is…defined by the way ideas and practices which have crossed frontiers find new homes; it is a way of coming to terms with the past without ignoring the pressures of the present, an expression of belonging which does not lock the individual into a single place. The dream of a single home is gone, only to be replaced by the daunting promise of multiple affiliations.¹

Within the context of my art practice I examine the issues emanating from the transition to a new physical, social and cultural environment, geographically and/or emotionally distant from “home”. My enquiries are based partially on my personal experiences, as I am a recent immigrant to Australia, and previously living an expatriate lifestyle in several European countries. A lifestyle of moving through different cultures, even if by choice, plus working as a professional interpreter before I commenced the study of art, cultivated in me compelling attitudes of empathy and understanding for cultural diversity and multicultural existence. Australia, my present home is a multi-cultural society and a “fair and lucky country” according to a well constructed myth promoted by popular media. This is far from reality and many Australian artists, of any colour, refer to this issue in their art practice. ‘Genuine social justice and equality are still far from a reality, and the struggle continues’.² Aboriginal people are exiles in their own land and the prejudice and patronising attitudes of the dominant culture towards Indigenous Australians and other ethnic/cultural groups, is still a major contemporary problem within Australian society today. Such attitudes often involve the demonisation and dehumanisation of “inferior others” to justify exploitation. In my painting ‘Australian Landscape’, I referred to the particular place of South Australia known as Tandanya, meaning the land of the red kangaroo, according to the stories of the local Kaurna people, as a reminder that the vast and harsh environment of this land necessitates ecological sustainability as well as social and cultural balance.

1 N Papastergiadis, Spatial aesthetics: Art, place and the everyday, Rivers Oram Press, London, 2006, p.102

2 W Caruana, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, 1993, p.17

Experiences of Collaboration

Within this project we chose to use “chain” collaboration, whereby I am working on Dr Irmina van Niele’s print as my inspiration for further experimentation and communication, whilst in turn Lindi Harris chose my work for her explorations. The Border Crossing Art Project is an opportunity to work with artists of different origins and life experiences and share our views and discover points of connection. I find this exercise is a constructive approach to exchange of knowledge, in a contemporary global environment of constant mobility.

Short Biography

I arrived in Australia in 2004, whereupon I made the decision to commit fully to a Professional Visual Arts career and undertook studies that resulted in achieving my BA in Visual Arts from Uni SA in 2009.

I am currently completing an Honours degree at Uni SA with the intention to continue with further post graduate studies.

I also hold a second degree, BA in Education, with specialisation in languages and have significant experience of working as a professional Interpreter and Translator.




Text written by Svetlana De Gennaro

The Earth's waters are both boundaries and pathways for peoples, objects and ideas.

Fumio Nanjo

Introducing Sheila Whittam - Workshop Participant, Adelaide, South Australia

Consecrated Elements. Watercolour and ink. Collage and conte. - 

 

Betty Sumner.  Oils on Galvanised iron.  image ;detail. 

Collaboration with Aboriginal Artist Betty Sumner for The Border Crossing Art  Project

Sheila Whittam 

C.V 2010 - Short version

www.sheilawhittam.com.

• Currently Artist in Residence at The Cedars in preparation for solo exhibition called Portrait of a House. August 6-Sept19th. 2010 at Hahndorf Academy.

Awards

2009. Graduated: Degree in Bachelor of Visual Arts, Adelaide Central School of Art,

Norwood. SA.

2009. St Peter’s Cathedral Art Prize. The Crypt. 

2008. St Peter’s Cathedral Art Prize.

Solo Exhibitions.

2007 Royal SA Society of Arts. Institute Building, North Tce/ Kintore Ave, Adelaide.

2008 South Coast Regional Arts and Heritage, Goolwa, SA: touring.

2008 South Coast Regional Arts and Heritage, Hahndorf, SA: touring.

2009.Carrick Hill, Springfield, Adelaide, SA. SALA.

Artist Statement 

In May 2009 I had the opportunity to stay in an Aboriginal Community - Mutitjulu situated at the base of Uluru. This great monolithic rock was situated at our front gate, and each day I set off with my equipment to try to capture the structure.

Many tourists walked around the base of the rock honouring the sign board information about how the Aboriginal community understand their sacred stories while others climbed the rock for a challenge. It was during this time that I caught hold of the reverence and awesome magnificence of being in that place.

Consecrated Elements has an over layer over the top of the initial work – Uluru. The over layering form is from ideas I saw in the Temple de la Sacrada Familia, a Barcelona church designed by architect Antoni Gaudi. The organic forms and designs within Gaudi’s buildings are influenced by nature.

The Gaudi - esk spires that hover over Uluru are ideas about the Catholic observation of the Mass, They speak of Host, the bread that is given in the most sacred ceremony in the Christian Church.

My use of architectural forms is metaphorical in which I analyse some of the question and the dilemmas we humans find ourselves as we struggle for being. Architectural ideas provide for me a psychological space in which stairways, tunnels, passages, large spaces, open or locked doors provide an imagery of the human journey.

The mixed media drawing materials including collage and the use a palimpsest/ic process which show the process of drawing and the under layers of working. This formal concern replicates the process of aging architecture which concerns the essence of time and the usage of buildings by its curious occupiers.

Artists Statement

 Collaboration between Betty Sumner and Sheila Whittam.

Work entitled, Strange Dream upon my Day Bed

I met Betty for the first time just a few days ago and she showed me her work which was painted in oils on a support: A sheet of galvanised iron. She explained the work to me as being about the women ancestor spirits who are guarding the land around Adelaide.

She explained further that her thoughts had been about the colonisation of Adelaide by the British which was devastating for the land. Betty explained that all the micro organisms were diminished due to being changed by blasting and quarrying and removing sacred stones and earth to be formed into roads and buildings in the new colony . One such building is the first church built in Adelaide 1838: The HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, which Betty’s people have had long standing concerns about because it was built from sacred stones.

I considered her story and told her that I was part of the colonisation! I am British. I asked her how she felt about that? She replied that she could hear my accent but we are all caught up in many difficulties, especially women. I think she may be an Aboriginal feminist!

In approaching this collaboration I decided the story is too beautiful to obliterate with my own over layering. I decided that I would connect her work with an interior room, with a long day bed and pillows. That day bed usually brings sunshine in to my complacent interior life. This time it brought a view that was strange yet comforting.

Text written by Sheila Whittam

The Earth's waters are both boundaries and pathways for peoples, objects and ideas.

Fumio Nanjo

Press Release

September

For immediate release

The Border Crossing Art Project arrives in Adelaide

Opens 6:00pm, Wednesday September 22

Concludes Thursday October 14

Light Square Gallery

Adelaide College of the Arts

39 Light Square, Adelaide

Visual artists from Australia, Thailand and New Zealand have collaborated together and with South Australian artists and art students for a unique cross cultural initiative called The Border Crossing Art Project.

Showcasing the work of artists Wendy Grace Allen (nee Dawson) (New Zealand), Dr. Apichart Pholprasert (Thailand) and Helen Stacey (Australia), the Border Crossing exhibition first opened at The Art Centre Gallery at the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok in February. The exhibition will be on show at the Light Square Gallery during September and October, before heading off to New Zealand later in the year.

“The Border Crossing Art Project is an exploration of collaborative visual arts practice, where the artists involved - among the first graduates from the University of South Australia’s Masters of Visual Art program - experiment with multi-layered techniques that traverse geographical and cultural boundaries,” explains Helen Stacey, who has coordinated the South Australian phase of the project. “All of the pieces on show are a unique discovery of the progressive transformation of our original work, each of us reflecting on issues relating to land ownership.”

In addition to the Light Square exhibition, the collaborative research project also includes a two-day workshop, a public forum, a seminar and a series of artist floor talks. Up to 16 students, staff and visual arts graduates from the Helpmann Academy’s visual arts partner institutions will take part in a collaborative workshop, with each artist working to interpret the theme ‘border crossing’.

The Border Crossing Art Project has been supported by a Helpmann Academy major grant.

• 
  
  Public Forum - ‘New trajectories in regional cross-cultural collaboration’

Light Square Gallery, 3:00pm Thursday 23rd September

Speakers: James Bennett, Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of SA

Dr. Pamela Zeplin, SA School of Art and the Border Crossing artists

• 
  
  Acsa Seminar - Eddies and flows: narratives of cross-cultural collaboration

Adelaide Central School of Art Gallery, 12:00 noon, Friday 24th September

The Border Crossing Artists

• 
  
  Artists Talks: Light Square Gallery

11:00am, Thursday 23^rd and Friday 24th September

For further information contact Chris Bull, Helpmann Academy Marketing Manager, on (08) 8463 5015 or 0425 615 233

The Earth's waters are both boundaries and pathways for peoples, objects and ideas.

Fumio Nanjo

Introducing Christobel Kelly - Workshop Participant, Adelaide, South Australia

Christobel Kelly
This work is concerned with the realm of the imagination. Its intention is to codify the threshold we step over when we slip into a private narrative.

There is always a border we cross when our thoughts- prompted by experience- run towards imaginary places. This work reflects our ability to make up stories about what we see which are both universal, and individual at the same time.

The image has as a reference point, the first sentence of any book that elicits and commands the minds eye.

Text written by Christobel Kelly.

The Earth's waters are both boundaries and pathways for peoples, objects and ideas.

Fumio Nanjo

Introducing Sue Michael - Workshop Participant, Adelaide, South Australia

Sue Michael
Adelaide August 2010

During my childhood, my family travelled extensively across Australia in a caravan. My Grandparents could never travel this far due to work/ farming commitments. I too am like them. It has been 24 years since I have had more than a couple of days travelling across a state border. Those childhood vistas occupy my thoughts even now. This painting ‘Great Divide,’ is inspired by old slides. I have collaged 35mm slides, made tritpography- like images using dual projectors, then finally mixing our family’s slides from the 1960’s and 70’s.with stranger’s holiday snapshots. New landscapes emerged from my experimentations. The eyes stare back.

I must cross those borders once again to visit the earth energies.

My collaboration with Lindi Harris’s image continues the theme of longing to return to the earth energies that I was acutely aware of as a child.

Suitcases will be photographed at various locations around Adelaide.

Lindi’s original image has gone through a few photographic abstractions and been replicated into ‘tiles’. I have covered three suitcases resulting in a French toile feel to these Australian landscapes. Other peoples’ hearts always go with you when you travel. Vessels for these well wishes are supplied with the luggage tags.

The Earth's waters are both boundaries and pathways for peoples, objects and ideas.

Fumio Nanjo

Border Crossing Workshop in Bangkok

The inaugural workshop was held at The Art Center, 7th Floor, Academic Resources, Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok, on the first of February. Students and invited artists brought along an artwork which was selected at random to pass to another student or artist who painted or drew on top of it. It was a great success; the participants enjoyed the workshop and responded well to the challenge, and some great works were produced. All the works are documented, and all the documentation and a selection of the works will be shown in Australia in September.

Here are some photos of the workshop.

The Earth's waters are both boundaries and pathways for peoples, objects and ideas.

Fumio Nanjo

Border Crossing Workshops

At each venue, the Border Crossing artists will conduct a workshop where invited artists and art students bring along one original painting and one fine art reproduction of that painting on canvas. The artists will then swap their canvas prints and respond to the other artists work by painting on top of the artists canvas print. The workshops could be held over a day or a weekend. The original painting and the finished collaborative artworks will be displayed side-by-side in a gallery as an extension of the Border Crossing project. At the completion of the exhibition, in the event that the work hasn't sold, the participating artists will then be returned their original painting and the fine art reproduction that they brought to the workshop. The collaborative process will be documented by a film maker and photographer. The workshop participants will be encouraged to record their responses to the project on video, and via the The Border Crossing Art Project blog. The workshops aim to strengthen cross cultural relationships, reinforce collaborative learning experiences for all artists and in particular for art students. Artists participating in the project have the opportunity to learn new skills from each other whilst the process of collaboration encourages mutual respect, peace and understanding. Additional art performances could be included during the process of the workshop.

Projected output of the project

The Wendy Grace Allen, Dr Apichart Pholprasert and Helen Stacey will produce fifteen finished paintings including three paintings (each painting approximately 166 cm x 104 cm) by only one artist and twelve collaborative paintings (each painting =A0 – 1189 cm x 841 cm). The documentation for Border Crossing will be in artists book form. Part of the project is to deliver art workshops to accompany the exhibitions in New Zealand, Australia, Thailand and Singapore. In addition, there will be floor talks by the artists describing the project and discussing topics relating to art in the Asia Pacific region. An interactive blog (website) and group/page on Facebook social network site have been created to support the project by encouraging cross cultural communication via regular on-going dialogue with an global audience.

Target audience for the project

Border Crossing is to be exhibited in Bangkok, Thailand, Palmerston North, New Zealand, Adelaide, Australia and Singapore. The target audience includes professional artists, art collectors, art supporters, museum curators and art students. In addition the interactive blog at http://thebordercrossingartproject.blogspot.com/ and The Border Crossing Art Project page on Facebook provides a platform for dialogue with a diverse global audience. At each exhibition a computer will be set up connecting to the blog site so audiences can comment on the project in real time, enabling immediate and on going interaction with the artists.

The Earth's waters are both boundaries and pathways for peoples, objects and ideas.

Fumio Nanjo