Upcoming artists in residence: Karin Mainwaring and Michael Ramsden

Karin Mainwaring, Rehearsing "Whatever Happened to Deirdre Wheeler…?" 2013
with Kate Hood and Tas Dimitrakakis at Rex Community Theatre Daylesford, photo by Jade McCuthceon 

Karin Mainwaring is a writer and Michael Ramsden is a painter - this creative couple live in Tambaroora near the old mining town of Hill End, West of Bathurst, inland New South Wales.


Michael Ramsden, Shed midwinter afternoon, Buckley's View Hill End Road, 2011
Acrylic, oil and shellac on canvas. 168 x 121 cm

Living where we do, in our Ghost-town of Tambaroora, we are coastal exiles. You transform when you go the sea and we plan to maximise the transformative experience. We are great walkers and “lookers”. At Gunyah we’ll spend many hours exploring and photographing the area. We’re both keen to hunt out any old, unusual dwellings that may exist in the area. Michael on the search for images to add to developing series of  Landscapes where empty buildings  feature. Me, for atmosphere, to feed the dialogue I need to develop my coast-based play “Dead People are my only Love”. I am also keen to use the opportunity this presents to research a visit the Dancer, Lola Montez, made to Hill End with a view to a possible future script.
Karin Mainwarning, Gunyah AIR proposal

Karin Mainwaring, Trentham Victoria

 Karin Mainwarning grew up in the badlands of Adelaide. She trained as an actress, at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Her playwriting credits include Binge @ Griffin, The Rain Dancers and Stiffs at Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company. She is the only Australian playwright to have work performed by La Comédie-Française. Karin's work is characterised by the darkness of its humour and the verbal fluency, cruelty and violence of her language. 
You can find out more about Karin and her work at deirdrewheeler.blogspot.com.au 

Michael Ramsden, Serpentine Creek, Tasmania, 2003
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 101.5 x 213 cm

Michael Ramsden was born in the southern Sydney suburb of Caringbah and grew up in Port Hacking Bay. He been a painter for nearly his entire life. Michael has had numerous shows, solo and group, in England, Germany, America and Australia. His work is included in many private and public collections including a, 6-panel ceramic work, “River Odyssey” which hangs in the Members’ Hall at Parliament  House, Canberra. You can see more of Michael's work at michael-ramsden.com/index-eng.html

Michael Ramsden

Melinda Rackham: artist-in-residence March 2014

I arrived at Gunyah thinking I would unravel knotty issues in the structure of my first novel Attachment, planning days of writing and editing at a desk, with outcomes measured by wordcounts. What happened instead was an experience of slowing down - of becoming immersed into the natural and built environment, noticing the prolific wildlife and considering the heritage of the rough hewn trees that made the house. To stop and be is a powerful tool for gaining clarity and refreshing creative juices.
Melinda Rackham, Thinking, Gunyah foreshore & jetty March 2014

Nestled close to the eucalypt canopy, Gunyah’s balcony and window seat became my reading and writing studio. The perfect spot for observation - at once connected and removed just enough for perspective. Here a kookaburra visited me, meeting my stare, then running towards my feet and gently tasting my toe before flying off in search of an easier meal! Another day I witnessed a massive storm that wrecked havoc the district and neighbouring properties, while leaving Gunyah’s trees untouched.

Melinda Rackham, Window seat studio, 2014 Gunyah March AIR

There is a sense of safety and nurturance held in the tree walls of the house - walls that have witnessed a generation of family holidays and countless groups of friends conversing around the table after a day of reading or working in the garden. One can feel the resonance of salty sun tanned children laughing and squealing as they run up and down the stairs.


Melinda Rackham, Contemplation, 2014 Gunyah March AIR
Melinda Rackham, Textures, 2014 Gunyah March AIR
Gunyah was for me the perfect container to read more material for my memoir – research articles and look at more personal papers, letters and photos - which I could not have done at home with the distractions and responsibilities of daily life. While resting and contemplating I started another chapter of my memoir around my own adoption, and a rough draft for a magazine article on the hidden aspects of celebrity adoptions. I also surprised myself with a short playful piece inspired by the cheeky kookaburra. I will update you when all are published. Thank you Kath and the Gunyah Board for your generosity in making your wonderful house available for this artist-in-residence program.
Melinda Rackham

Melinda Rackham, My adoption, 2014 Gunyah March AIR
Dr Melinda Rackham is an writer, artist and curator, based in Adelaide, South Australia. Her digital, online interactive artworks have been exhibited and collected internationally. She has been a Curator at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Director of the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) and Adjunct Professor of Media and Communications at RMIT University. She is currently writing a memoir focused on adoption and identity. To find out more about Melinda's work go to her website www.subtle.net and you can read her residency proposal at www.gunyah.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/.

Melinda Rackham visiting Sydney Biennale on Cockatoo Island,
on her way home to S.A., March 2014

Rilka Oakley: upcoming artist-in-residence

Close to Home, 2013, group exhibition curated by Rilka Oakley at Blue Moutains Cultural Centre
Gallery view with work by Ben Denham and Joan Ross
www.bluemountainsculturalcentre.com.au/blue-mountains-art-gallery/past-exhibitions 

 Rilka Oakley is a Blue Mountains based curator working within contemporary practice. She has been working in arts administration and curatorial positions since finishing her arts degree in the mid 1990s. Rilka has worked at the Biennale of Sydney on the 1998 and 2000 editions, Ivan Dougherty Gallery as curator from 2000 until early 2009 and most recently at Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Katoomba, as Curator since October 2012. Recent exhibitions include Close to Home (2013), Making Ground: Blue Mountains as Material (2013), Keepsake (2013) and most recently Desire (2014) featuring work by Joyce Hinterding and David Haines, Sarah Breen Lovett, Mike Parr, Joan Ross, and Ken and Julia Yonetani. Previous exhibitions of note include Intimacy (2007) Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Face Value (2005) Ivan Dougherty Gallery and touring to New Zealand in 2007, Crimson Threads (2003) VCA Gallery, Melbourne & touring in 2004 to Gosford Regional Art Gallery and Tamworth City Gallery.

Making Ground, 2013, group exhibition curated by Rilka Oakley at Blue Moutains Cultural Centre
Gallery view with work by Tony Lennon in the foreground
www.bluemountainsculturalcentre.com.au/blue-mountains-art-gallery/past-exhibitions 

My curatorial practice comes from the excitement I feel when I encounter excellent art. From early experiences at the 1986 Biennale of Sydney I have been fascinated with, and engaged by, artists’ imagination and their creative output. I will use the Gunyah residency to allow curatorial ideas to form. To read and contemplate and let the impossible ideas take hold - see if they have any validity. I would write and test ideas and see what evolves with some space and time.

Rilka Oakley

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. 


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

Kim Percy and Morgan Williams, Gunyah exhibition image, 2013
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