S.A.Adair: upcoming artist-in-residence

S.A.Adair, Grail, 2013, felt, 108 x 200 cm

S.A.Adair is a Canberra based artist who exhibits nationally. She completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours in Sculpture in 2010 and since she's been awarded an Art Start Grant from the Australia Council, the North Sydney Art Prize Emerging Artist Award, the Goulburn Art Prize and more recently the CAPO Emerging Artist Award. Sally has recently exhibited in Something Familiar at the M16 Artspace, Canberra and was included in Strand Ephemera 2013, an outdoor sculpture event in Townsville QLD.

Blaze Eight - gallery view, 2014, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, ACT
 Left: S.A.Adair, Ocular, 2014, felt, 300 x 280 cm
Right: S.A.Adair, Contagion, 2014, felt, 300 x 700 cm

My work explores the metaphysical potential of objects and materials, and the interplay these elements have within a particular environment. I am interested in the way reinvention of found material and an intuitive construction of form are able to draw on aspects of my internal/mental space and lead to the creation of a type of ‘psychological landscape’ within a given environment. Forms and ideas are generated through experimentation with process where chance and errors have an integral part to play in the development of my work. Working in a site-related manner, I use the sense of space and location to influence the final construction of my installations. I work within both a two and three dimensional construct, blurring the boundary between the two as a means of integrating both my drawing and sculptural interests. I like to think that my work functions as an undercurrent, a murmuring - whispering to the viewer and encouraging subtle reflections of self, space and environment.

 S.A.Adair, Ocular, 2014, felt, detail view

This residency at Gunyah will be an opportunity to focus on the drawing side of my practice, develop a body of drawing images and trial some processes for some future sculptural work. I’m interested in having a dedicated time period for this investigative stage where I can draw on the sounds, light, shadows and forms of a natural environment and use these as a means of creating abstracted imagery. Gunyah would provide a wonderful opportunity to access the natural environment and work in a dedicated creative space. I’m also interested to see how far I can develop my wall based drawings through the use of transparencies and projections informed by this setting. Line work forms the basis of my sculptural practice so I would also be looking at these drawings as a means of suggesting new approaches to object making through the exploration of line, form and space.

S.A.Adair, [ em ]brace, 2013, felt, 150 x 150 cm 

You can see more of Sally's work on her websites 

s-a-adair.tumblr.com and saadair.com.au

Belinda Smith and Dan Plummer: artists-in-residence August 2014

Plummer and Smith family drawing, Gunyah 2014

After a busy year juggling the demands of our growing design practice and our young family we were looking forward to our visit to Gunyah and a brief shift in focus. With no client or technical constraints this was a time to simply observe, to document in sketch and photograph and to involve our young children in the process. 

Plummer and Smith family drawings, Gunyah 2014

We arrived after 2 days of travel from Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales with great anticipation. 4 year old Martha and 2 year old Edith were keen to explore the place just as Dan and I were. Our days were filled with expeditions to the jetty for fishing and rock hopping along the shore, a bush walk, drawing and craft time in the afternoons and evenings, reading books and looking out for the wallabies and birds.

Plummer and Smith, Gunyah rain, 2014

The trees have such a strong presence at Gunyah. The bush setting, the natural landscape where wallabies and birds are welcome, the house of timber and the wood fuelled fire keeping us warm in the rainier days. The trees blew about in the wind, dripped with rain, blossomed with wattle and gave us shelter and shade.

Wonderful. 

Belinda Smith

Belinda Smith, Gunyah trees, 2014

We bought with us a book called ‘A manual on Drawing Trees and Foliage’ to add to the Gunyah library and a set of letter punches which I was unsure why I packed. As we started to settle into our wooded environment these seemingly disconnected things formed as an idea of a site specific artwork. With my letter punches in hand I headed out into the forest surrounding Gunyah and tapped out part of the books introduction onto the smooth trunk of a Eucalypt. 

“Imperceptibly trees wince at a coming blow and stretch themselves in the rising sun”

Dan Plummer

Plummer and Smith, Gunyah fishing, 2014

Through the lens and a landscape architects eye - a series of frames that depict the texture and ambience of our stay at Gunyah.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Plummer and Smith, Gunyah wattle, 2014

You can see more of Belinda and Dan's work at www.plummerandsmith.com.au and read their Gunyah proposal at www.gunyah.blogspot.com.au/2014/07

Plummer and Smith, Gunyah lines, 2014

Jo Grant and Sandra Winkworth: upcoming artists-in-residence

Jo Grant, Bottles (site specific installation), 2012, tea towels and pva

Jo Grant and Sandra Winkworth are artists who often work together but since they live in different states, their collaborations usually take place via post. Sending an artwork back and forth, Jo and Sandra each add to it in turn, which eventually results in a final collaborative piece. They also email each other, sharing feedback and consultation on the solo aspects of their practices. Their residency at Gunyah will add a new dimension to their collaborations - this time creating work together in the same space.

Sandra Winkworth, Line-up (Pardolotes 1873 – 1891), 2012, 

mono print concertina on aquarelle paper

At the heart of both our practices is a desire to represent the significance of pristine places and sustainability of endangered species, through deliberate choice of materials, medium and imagery. Gunyah will allow us a special opportunity to be in the same place physically - as opposed to previous collaborations that have been long distance - an exciting proposition for us both. Our work incorporates nature and the reuse and recycling of materials and will be particularly focused on celebrating native birds. The bush land at Gunyah will be a direct resource for the work made during the stay.

Sandra Winkworth, A Story Beginning with the Letter B, 2012
dry point, etching, inkjet, acrylic, found art paper cut offs and found objects

Sandra Winkworth is an artist based in Sydney, she works across printmaking, painting, drawing and installation. Since graduating with a BVA Honours from Canberra School of Art, ANU in 1995 Sandra has exhibited extensively with solo, selected and invited group exhibitions in Australia and the 2013 Impact 8 Printmaking Conference in Dundee, Scotland. Sandra has been awarded a biannual Manly Library Artist Book Award, Port Fairy’s Biblio-Art Prize and the Greenway Art Prize, Sydney. Recently Sandra was an artist in residence at Portland in Victoria and Pop In Space Leichhardt, NSW. 

You can see more of Sandra's work at www.swinkworth.blogspot.com.au

Jo Grant, Next Morning, 2012, Found paper, books, thread

Jo Grant is an artist based in the Victorian coastal town of Port Fairy. She works in mixed media, fibre arts, and photography; and graduated from RMIT in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts and went on to complete a Master of Visual Art in 2004 at Griffith University, Queensland. Last year Jo was part of the Craft Victoria - Craft Cubed festival with a site-specific installation, Out of the Drawer. Recently she presented her work Vessel at Branch3D in Sydney; published a book of her photographic work, All Prize Winners Paraded; and curated a project in her home town, Home Show: smalls involving nine artists across three states.

You can see more of Jo's work on her website www.jogrant.com.au 

Yvette Hamilton: artist-in-residence July 2014

Yvette Hamilton, Writing, reading and contemplating place, 2014

As an artist my work is centered around an exploration of place and being. Thinking, writing and making work about place in such a place as North Arm Cove gave unexpected and very interesting insights.

Yvette Hamilton, Outlook Drive, 2014

North Arm Cove was, in the past, going to be the site of ‘Port Stephens City’, a potential site for the Nation’s Capital. The land was subdivided up in 1918, with grand plans of major development. Look up North Arm Cove on Google Maps today and you’ll see a bird’s eye view of what looks to be a well-planned bustling town. Street names such as City Crescent, Outlook Drive and Harper Loop are not immaculately kept thoroughfares as they appear online, but rather bushy fire trails, where the bustling comes via the hordes of wallabies rather than people and traffic.

 Yvette Hamilton, The bustling intersection of Crest Road and Outlook Drive, 2014

The marks made upon the land are being slowly etched away, as evidenced in the blank street sign above. The effect is at once unsettling and peaceful, like a cross between a post apocalyptic landscape that nature has reclaimed, to a place at the verge of something.

Yvette Hamilton, Afternoon explorations, 2014

The residency at Gunyah is something of a rarity, with many residency opportunities as a parent to a young child, are either impossible or impractical. The opportunity to combine work with family was a very positive experience, and almost surprisingly productive. I made good use of the downstairs studio space to create a line between ‘holiday house’ and ‘work space’, and I think that the collective energies of the artists who had used the space before me helped to focus my attention. The days soon fell into a rhythm – up early to work, a pleasure when the view out your ‘work window’ is of bush and water, and then late afternoon walks to explore, and play at the water’s edge. The main interruptions of the day were the almost constant streams of wallabies (or wobblies as my son called them) hopping past the windows. What I imagine was always a truly special place to the families and friends that built it, Gunyah is now enriched by the creative people that inhabit it during the winter months. I feel blessed to have been one of them.

Yvette  Hamilton, July 2014

Yvette Hamilton, Gunyah studio, 2014

To see more of Yvette's work go to her website www.yvettehamilton.com and you can read her residency proposal here 

Belinda Smith & Dan Plummer: upcoming artists-in-residence

Belinda Smith, Faraway Here, 2013, custom porcelain tiles, (detail view)
Helensvale Library and Community Cultural Centre, Gold Coast City Council

Plummer and Smith is a design studio in Murwillumbah, northern New South Wales. This is a husband and wife team, with landscape architect, Dan Plummer, and public artist, Belinda Smith, working together to undertake a diverse range of projects across these fields. And supplementing their design practice, always, is their interest in art.

Belinda Smith and Dan Plummer

Outside their project based work, Plummer and Smith have also collaborated on a land art project with the nomadic artist-run-initative Tarpspace, designed furniture for urban use and are currently looking at developing some play elements for public settings. 

Belinda Smith, Lightness of Air, 2009, cast aluminium, 2009
One Airport Drive, Brisbane Airport Corporation

Belinda’s art practice focuses on ceramics, textiles, and how vernacular landscapes can inform or be represented and appropriated in art. Belinda has been commissioned to create public artworks in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Hong Kong. She has also exhibited in galleries such as Artisan in Brisbane, Kick Arts in Cairns, the Tweed River Art Gallery, the Textile Arts Centre in New York and Noosa Regional Art Gallery. Belinda is a member of the Norther Rivers Design Advisdrory Panel and sits on the Byron Shire Council Public Art Advisory Panel.

Dan has been working as a landscape architect for many years, bringing considerable experience to the design, delivery and management of wide range of landscape projects. He is a regular contributor to university architectural programs through the architectural design studios at Bond University and the University of Queensland. Dan is also a member of the Northern Rivers Design Advisory Panel, providing expert independent, pro-bono advice to local communities with the intention of improving the quality, and awareness of design in the built environment.

Dan Plummer, Cleave, 2013, furniture proposals 

We draw inspiration from our surroundings and from making, experimenting and observing. Our residency at Gunyah will be an opportunity to dedicate a block of time outside our project work to expeirimenting, drawing and exploring. We're looking forward to gathering, discussing, interpreting and investigating our discoveries and impressions of the natural setting at Gunyah. As a husband and wife team, we juggle our design practice around our young daughters who are two and four years old. Visiting and staying at Gunyah with our children and away from our domestic life will be a productive and fruitful experience for the whole family.

Plummer & Smith, Studio drawings and prototypes, 2013

For more information on Plummer and Smith go to their website www.plummerandsmith.com.au

Jane Grimley and The Deconverters: artists-in-residence June 2014

The Deconverters, Our Presence, June 2014

After much planning and anticipation the The Deconverters - Jane Grimley, Sarah Aghazarmian, Robert Millett and Gideon Payten Griffiths - arrived at Gunyah in late June to work on Emergency Crash Landing. Before we embarked on the drive north we talked about sharing stories, writing, playing and stretching in the studio, and training in performance forms. Yet the best made plans of mice and men often go awry, in the most intriguing ways.

The Deconverters,Recording Sound, June 2014

Emergency Crash Landing is a performance project that could be easily described as an adventure into compromise and divergence.

The Deconverters, Sarah at Tahlee, June 2014

It's basically a choose your own adventure type performance, with loads of audience interaction and sci-fi shtick. Aliens, space warfare, corporate ownership of planets, cryogenic suspension, A.I. humanoid romance - you know all the tropes right? But in the show we're making the audience are asked to to decide upon the fate of the story's heros. It's an inclusive role play using multiple choice questions. We have been very fortunate to have had the support of previous residencies, but never one with the warm atmosphere and history of Gunyah.

The Deconverters, Gideon at Gunyah, June 2014

So there we all were ready to explore. Well, nearly all of us... Sarah and Jane arrived on Sunday, Rob came on Monday and Gideon on Tuesday, but for the sake of the story lets say 'there we all were'.

The Deconverters, Rob and trees, June 2014

There we all were, ready to write up a shit storm in space for unsuspecting audience members, when suddenly we found ourselves in the Tea Gardens Tourist information centre.

Scene 1. Internal, early afternoon.
Sarah and Jane enter the quiet room, natural sunlight fills the space. Christine attends the counter, greeting them with a smile. She is in her late forties dressed in jeans and a cable-knit brown cardigan, she wears a name badge and is very cheerful and helpful. 

Christine
Hi! You ladies right? 

Jane
Hi, we're actually looking for the information centre... 

Christine
Yeah this is the Library 

Jane
Right 

Christine
It's just that building there 

Christine pokes her finger a few times to her right. Knowing better than to act too strange, too soon Jane tries desperately to ignore her oblique whims. Her whim to believe that there is a small and invisible building inside the library. 

Jane
Just there? 

Jane, a twinkle in her eye, pokes her finger towards the imaginary building, knowing full well that Christine is talking about the building across the road behind the library. Christine smiles and inquires further about what they are looking for, and suggests perhaps she could help.

The Deconverters, Sarah on Mungo Track, June 2014

After eventually finding the information centre, we followed Christine's suggestion and trod a sandy little bush walk that locals take with their dogs. Paradise found. And paradise lost. The library wasn't the first wrong turn in our journey to being better informed.

On our way into Tea Gardens we clocked a big blue sign that said 'information' but only found a new housing development on the outskirts of town.

The Deconverters, Making Place I, June 2014

The impact of tourism and development was a theme that would follow us during our time at Gunyah, and following signs would introduce us to people who generously shared local knowledge. Dark Point is a significant aboriginal place, we found our way there following a curiously worded pamphlet from the tourist information centre. On Friday we spoke to Len from the Karuah Aboriginal Land Council about writing and representation of story.

The Deconverters, Rob on the dunes, June 2014

All stories will find their way into in the work of artists. Maybe a story from earth before we leave the planet on a space adventure.

Scene 54. Interior.
A politician sits in an office a famous painting hangs on the wall behind her. She is has had a lot of plastic surgery. 

Politician
Years ago, when I was first elected there was a tree where a bypass, a road, would go.  It was on someones land.  The tree might have been important.  But then again, all trees were important.  But this one was said to be really special.  The special tree in the special dirt.  Right where you are standing.  Right now.  Under you is dead forgotten dirt.  And it is best you forget it.  It might break your heart or teeth to know it.

The Deconverters, Understanding Place, June 2014

Earth was already over but some romantic notions of legacy lurked about us. Tempting. It would hold us back from being rational. I knew that then. People in the offices knew it was over.

Some hard choices have to be made. Some sacrifices, and who will take the blame today? 

You know three passengers are dead. I suggest you forget what you saw and leave it in the dirt. Earth is over. It's a sacrifice for your chance to survive.

The Deconverters, Tanilba House Beach, June 2014

Thank you to Tea gardens library and information centre, thank you to Barry at Bulahdelah Library, thank you to Richard and Allen at Tahlee Historic House. Thank you Helen and her giant dog at Tanilba Bay. Thank you to the two anonymous bird watchers at the hole in the wall. They told me The Sooty Oyster Catchers I saw at Dark Point are rare beautiful and part of a complex system there looking out to Broughton Island.

Thank you to Gunyah.

Jane Grimley

June 2014

The Deconverters, Making Place II, June 2014

You can read Jane's residency proposal here and find out more about The Deconverters 'Emergency Crash Landing' project at www.thedeconverters.com