Melinda Rackham: upcoming artist-in-residence

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Melinda Rackham, Dreamworlds: curator's text, 2010, (extract)
www.dreamworlds.com.au/text.htm

Melinda Rackham is an writer, artist and curator, based in Adelaide, South Australia. Initially drawn to sculpture and performance, she became a pioneer of Australian Internet Art, exhibiting her online interactive art works at major global festivals and Biennials from 1995. Winning awards nationally and internationally, her artwork is represented in Media collections in Europe and the Americas; taught globally in University courses; and archived for posterity by Pandora in Australia and Cornell University, USA.

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Melinda Rackham, Steampunk: gunpowder and cups of tea, 2010, (extract)
Artlink, The Underground, Australia, vol 30 no 2,
www.subtle.net/archive/RackhamSteampunk302.pdf

Over the last decade, through roles such as Networked Art Curator at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and Director of the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT), Melinda has introduced interactive electronic art to wide audiences and opened up new arenas for artists working with Science and Emerging Technologies. More recently as Adjunct Professor of Media and Communications at RMIT University, Dr Rackham curated and researched mediated art forms in public spaces in China and Hong Kong.  She is currently writing a memoir focused on adoption and identity.

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www.subtle.net - Melinda Rackham's website

I am currently writing my first novel - 'Attachment' - a memoir of my own adoption and of bearing a child at 15, also to be removed by adoption. The narrative oscillates across 55 years with a sense of fluid identity shaped by the double truncation of adoption.  The text intersects with fictions I have created in online virtual reality worlds, weaving a rich tapestry behind a deeply moving lived experience of singularity, grief and loss, common to the 150,000 Australian mothers who had babies taken often by unlawful and unethical practices from the 1950s to the 1970s. Being accomplished and settled in some areas of life, and an emerging writer working in a new genre is both a vulnerable and exciting juncture. I would appreciate the time and space at Gunyah to contemplate the progress of my new work and hopefully to unravel some knotty structural issues; to prune my increasingly branching narrative; and enhance the readability and accessibility of my memoir.

(Melinda Rackham, proposal for 2014 Gunyah residency)

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Melinda Rackham, Coded Cloth, 2009, (extract)
www.subtle.net/pdf/MRLEON.pdf

To find out more about Melinda's work go to her website www.subtle.net

Gunyah artists-in-residence announced for 2014

Gunyah's new jetty, January 2014

There were nineteen applications for the 2014 Gunyah artists-in-residence program, but only eight spaces in the program. Artists from four states with range of collaborations and solo projects have been selected. Their practices include writing, curating, performance and theatre making, design, painting, drawing, photography, print, mixed media and installation.

2014 Gunyah artists-in-residence

March

Melinda Rackham
South Australia 

~ writer ~

April

Rilka Oakley
New South Wales 

~ curator ~

May

Karin Mainwaring and Michael Ramsden
New South Wales 

~ writer and painter ~

June 

The Deconverters: Jane Grimley, Carolyn Eccles, Michelle Outram and Toby Knyvett
New South Wales 

~ performance and theatre makers ~

July

Yvette Hamilton
New South Wales 

~ photographer ~

August

Belinda Smith and Dan Plummer
New South Wales 

~ designers ~

September

Jo Grant and Sandra Winkworth
Victoria and New South Wales 

~ print and mixed media ~

October

Sally Adair
ACT 

~ installation artist ~

Reading on the jetty, January 2014

In other news, Gunyah's jetty and path is now finished - great for accessing the water and dolphin spotting. The 'new' second-hand library is also going well, with plenty of material for reading and a book exchange system - so you can leave an 'old' book behind and finish that 'new' book at home...

Gunyah dolphins, January 2014

Gunyah dolphins, January 2014

Call out for 2014 Gunyah artists-in-residence

Applications for the 2014 Gunyah artist-in-residence program are now open. 

Please read "About Gunyah" (www.gunyah.blogspot.com.au/p/about.html) before applying.

Applications close: 30 November 2013

The 2014 AIR program will run from March to October, with one residency per month. Visual artists, writers, composers, performance artists, curators, new media, arts administrators and other creators are welcome to apply for a solo, collaborative or group residency.

Please note that there is a residency fee of $220 for a Short Stay (seven days, Monday to Monday) and $330 for a Long Stay (eleven days, Monday to the following Friday week) and that you'll need your own vehicle to access the North Arm Cove area and Gunyah. 

Gunyah residence

To apply email Kath (Gunyah AIR co-ordinator) kathfries@gmail.com with:

• Your contact details: name, phone, email, postal address, (select one contact person for collaborations and groups) 
• What you plan to do during your residency (max 200 words) 
• Bio and artist statement for each artist (max 300 words) - do not send your CV, just summarise the highlights of your artistic career into a short bio, www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Personal-Bio
• Website url link for each artist (where possible) 
• Visual artists - attach up to 3 jpeg low-res images of artworks per artist. Include an image list with artist name, title, date and medium/materials for each work. Image size: 72dpi, approx 400x600pixels.
• Other artists (writers, composers, curators and arts administrators etc) - attach a sample of your work or url links to examples of your work. 
• In order of preference list three possible dates between March and October, or if you are flexible with dates please list three months in your order of preference. Please indicate whether you would prefer a Short Stay (seven days, Monday to Monday, $220) or Long Stay (eleven days, Monday to the following Friday week, $330) 

All applicants will be emailed in January 2014 regarding the success of their application. 

The selected artists' proposals and images will be posted on the Gunyah blog before each residency commences.

For more information please see www.gunyah.blogspot.com.au/p/about.html or contact Kath, kathfries@gmail.com

Kim Percy and Morgan Freeman exhibit work from their Gunyah residency

Friday 8 November, 5-7pm. Designscope, 13 Knox St, Daylesford, Victoria 3460. 
Kim Percy and Morgan Williams exhibit from their June 2013 Gunyah residency

Read their residency report www.gunyah.blogspot.com.au/2013/07
www.kimpercy.com/gunyah.php

Kim Percy and Morgan Williams, Gunyah exhibition image, 2013

Jacqui O’Reilly: artist-in-residence October 2013

Jacqui O'Reilly, Selfie in the Gunyah studio, 2013, photograph

In the morning when I wake up and listen to the sound of the birds outside on the roof, I try to ignore what the paper says and I try not to read all the news.

(Neil Young, It’s a dream)

Jacqui O'Reilly, Gunyah studio, 2013, photograph

My time in residence at Gunyah is summed up by these Neil Young lyrics. I slept in the loft in the wonderfully crafted wooden pole house that is Gunyah and listened to the gentle and slow sounds of North Arm Cove resonate throughout every morning and night. On one occasion I went to sleep to the sound of a big electrical storm above me and the open fire in the lounge below me. It was a sonic dream and a welcomed break from the information overload of Sydney that I am so accustomed to.

Jacqui O'Reilly, Sunset North Arm Cove, 2013, photograph

I used this space to experiment with the sound of my own voice, and set up a studio looking out onto bush and water. Here, surrounded by the acoustics of my work reverberating in the interior of the house, I recorded, sampled and synthesized my compositions in preparation of a self-released EP of ambient music using voice exclusively. It was a perfect environment to experiment in and focus on stillness and sound and creative expression.

Jacqui O'Reilly, Gunyah fire in the storm, 2013, photograph

I also submerged myself in the local region and was very spoilt to encounter a range of wildlife including a whale at Hawk’s Nest beach for a whole morning, dolphins in the cove, wallabies, hawks, pelicans and geckos. All this life energised me as did the coastline and the cove itself and I hope at least some of this energy may be heard in the work I achieved while at Gunyah.

Jacqui O’Reilly

Jacqui O'Reilly, Hawks Nest beach, 2013, photograph

Recording: Distance (work in progress), Jacqui O’Reilly, Gunyah, North Arm Cove
https://soundcloud.com/gunyah-resident-artists/distance-by-jacqui-oreilly

Jacqui O'Reilly is a Sydney based sound artist. Her practice includes, composition, performance, community facilitation and media arts. You can read Jacqui's residency proposal at www.gunyah.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/jacqui-oreilly-artist-in-residence.html and you can hear more of Jacqui's work on her Soundcloud page https://soundcloud.com/jacqui-oreilly

Peta Dzubiel: artist-in-residence September 2013

Peta Dzubiel, Absence 1, 2013, painting posted on tree

The Gunyah house is beautiful and set amongst the bush on a slope that leads to the waters of North Arm Cove, a gentle sheltered cove where a boat could seek refuge from a storm. During my two week residency the weather was all over the place, a sunny warm morning followed by a thunder storm at lunchtime and a calm mild afternoon. Typical Spring with four seasons experienced in one day. Towards the end of September the weather was windy and warm and a high danger for bushfires.

Peta Dzubiel, Beyond Pulpit, 2013, oil on board

Peta with Harry, Bonnie and Ava on the Gunyah foreshore

Peta Dzubiel, Have you seen Miranda II, oil on primed paper, 2013

Apart from enjoying the exquisite natural surroundings of Gunyah, I was able to develop and play with some ideas central to the Australian bushland environment and the dense and twisted Gums of North Arm was the perfect place to do this. My focus at Gunyah was to explore the anxiety of the Australian bush through ‘lost children’ narratives. I found myself working with one image of two little girls, painting it several times. When working with images of children, one can often be overtaken by sentimentality. I tried to avoid this by not painting in facial features or by blurring the portrait with a broad gestural sweep.

Peta Dzubiel, Drawing (lost children), sketchbook 2013

Bonnie hugging a Gunyah tree

Peta Dzubiel, Girls, oil on paper, 2013

Peta working on the Gunyah foreshore

Peta Dzubiel, Have you seen Miranda I, oil on primed paper, 2013

In the studio and out in the field I favoured painting on primed paper as my support. For one work, I painted two portraits of the same child’s face, one showing facial detail while the other face is blurred and diminished like a fading memory. I wanted to take these dual portraits out of the studio and into the bush, simply to see how they would appear juxtaposed next to the landscape that enticed so many children away from their families and homes to their own detriment and peril. By pinning the paintings to the trees I found I could evoke something that alluded to a memorial or memory, of loss, erasure, missing person’s posters or bush telegraph, something along these lines. I found I could create a multi layered experience with a two dimensional and traditional object, such as, a painting. I took black and white photographs to document this work.

Peta Dzubiel, Looking North from Gunyah, 2013, oil on primed paper

Peta Dzubiel, Gunyah at dusk, 2013, photograph 

Peta Dzubiel, North Arm Cove late afternoon, 2013, oil on primed paper

Peta Dzubiel, Last light on North Arm Cove, 2013, photograph

Peta Dzubiel, Erasure, 2013, oil on primed paper

The location of Gunyah and the spring light and colour, one could not help but do a few little landscapes en plein air! I was lucky to have my family and a couple of friends visit me and enjoy together the beautiful property. I enjoyed very much driving into Tea Gardens on occasion and eating and drinking coffee at the Boatshed.  I also enjoyed exploring Mungo Brush, seeing an abundance of flannel flowers and swimming in the aqua waters of Jimmy’s Beach on the hottest day.

Tom, Harry, Ava and Bonnie painting Gunyah trees

Tom, Harry, Ava and Bonnie painting Gunyah trees

A sincere thankyou to Kath Fries and the Gunyah property group that make this wonderful residency available to artists. I found the two weeks very productive and positive for my practice. 

Peta Dzubiel, 2013

Peta at Hawks Nest beach

You can see more images of Peta's work on her website www.petadzubiel.com

Jacqui O'Reilly: upcoming artist-in-residence

Jacqui O'Reilly is a Sydney based sound artist. Her practice includes, composition, performance, community facilitation and media arts. She has presented her work in collaboration with a range of artists and on her own at Queen Street Studios Chippendale NSW; Performance Space Everleigh NSW; Electrofringe Newcastle; and Thinkspace, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. You can listen to her work at www.soundcloud.com/jacqui-oreilly

At Gunyah, in the restorative silence of a bushland setting, I plan to produce new work based on my electronic music practice, using field recordings from the environment together with reflections and fragments from my folk music history, to create an intensive period of digital composition. Drawing on my current academic study in sound and media arts, I will undertake a process of collecting sounds and recollecting songs, melding the two within a particular context of retreat and sonic wilderness. This focus will emulate the sound cycles of daily life in a place of shelter. Recording the ambience inside the built environment, resonant in its architecture, and its history, together with capturing the sounds of the natural environment, will create the foundation of a soundscape, on which to draw references about contemplation, resolve and a historical love of writing and listening to music.

Emerge Outside 2010, Jacqui O’Reilly & Randolf Reimann, Performance Space

Emerge Outside 2010, engaged nine people in a two-day soundscape workshop, run by Jacqui O’Reilly & Randolf Reimann at Performance Space, Everleigh, February 2010. Using found sounds, modern synthesis techniques and performance art, a 30-minute soundscape was exhibited as part of the Clubhouse season. Funded by Regional Arts NSW to support collaboration with regional artist Randolf Reimann www.emergeoutside.wordpress.com

Emerge Outside Randwick 2012, aimed to break down and rebuild structures of sound, environment and collective existence. Working with members of the Randwick community, who contributed to the production of a sound installation through story telling, based on sounds recorded from their everyday lives. Three participants joined Jacqui O’Reilly to perform a live improvised soundscape using modern synthesis techniques that include a range of participants’ field recordings, spoken word and song derived from workshops and an eight week creative process. www.facebook.com/EmergeOutside2012