REGION and OUR SELECTION – 16 May to 30 June 2019
The history, culture and tradition of the Mid North.
“This is our region – how we live, and the stories we tell each other”, says
exhibitions curator Lis Jones Ingman. “These exhibitions attempt to show us to ourselves, continuing a record of how we live, in this time & place”.
REGION and OUR SELECTION – 16 May to 30 June 2019
Curator: Lis Jones Ingman
Artists show us the results of their hard work, to try to pin down what it is that’s special about where we live. The exhibitions Region and Our Selection are about the history, culture and tradition of the Mid North. Artists have always been inspired by place, and here we have the work of our own creative people on display and at the forum expressing their ideas.
REGION FORUM
4.30pm Saturday 18 May
Moderator: Ms. Chris Rowe
Artists: Sue Michael, Christopher Meadows, Peter Hart, Ray Meandering
In “The Lie of the Land” Paul Carter writes “our footsteps are also footprints, our wanderings are also designs”*, inspiring Lis’ journal note quoted by Chris as introduction:
“Region” suggests a place where meaning thrives. It is our meaning, our culture: it has formed and nurtured us. Our footsteps cross and re-cross its ground, forming a pattern made of history, tradition and a sense of belonging. We leave and return, compelled by embedded memory. Internalised, it influences how we live, and the stories we tell our children. When we inhabit a region, walk its ground, drive its roads, bring up families, work, play and learn together, we create a record of our own particular humanity, in this time and place.
* Paul Carter: The Lie of the Land, page 361.
And the question: How do we represent this visually?
CHRIS MEADOWS
At age 6 Chris migrated from Wigan UK, but never felt at home in Australia. He returned at age 21 – it must be “amazing to belong” – but turned the feeling to strength, becoming an observer and giving him adaptability. Having spent years working as an art teacher in France and Japan, he has lived in the Mid North for 5 years and been for many years an Australian citizen. “Artefacts” from the past become significant when observed as subjects for painting and viewed “as evidence of human activity”.
SUE MICHAEL
Her family brought three generations out on the boat in the mid 1800’s and after that there has been 5 further generations. Sue’s Mid North family history makes her feel “of this place” giving her impetus to paint “a crazy random flurry” of remembered imagery. Exploring opportunities and connections she was encouraged by Prof. David Seamon of the University of Kansas to look at “lived experience”. This gives her work about art and place an “international reach”. Yet it seems Adelaide people don’t care about memory, the importance of place and the significance of human connections. “Who’d want one of those kitchens?” they say. Yet in spite of that, her imagination is “in full swing” studying “the shifting patterns of settlement of the region”. The work done on the heart as a sense organ is also found at the HeartMath Institute, also in USA. They are providing science based verification of what was previously thought ‘woo-woo nonsense’. The feelings, intuitions and moods we pick up are now measurable.
PETER HART
Peter’s family connections go back to the Cotswalds and a dairy farm in early days Hindley Street. As “a refugee from Adelaide” he arrived in Anlaby 30 years ago and has never left. 95% of the materials for his artworks are found on site. He learned welding from his father 60 years ago – working from scraps “a knife happened”. For his 2011 exhibition in Burra Gallery Peter’s statement read “rubbish dumps, road sides, fallen trees, cast-offs from friends – what wonderful material for art.” For Peter it’s all about re-using. He lives in a 150 year old cottage with sheds full of old saw blades, primitive blacksmithing tools and a forge. Focus comes from making knives – the one slip deterrent keeps his mind on the job.
RAY MEANDERING
Ray was brought up one of eight in four rooms “poor but with love, and challenges to be overcome”. Outside was her world and it didn’t cost anything. The experiences of childhood have carried through to her investigation of memories and “untold stories, and giving photos a voice”. Perhaps we have still to realise the importance of these things – “their time will come”. Ray’s art journeys are a necessary part of her “attachment to environment – earth, sky and nature”. She is a “hunter and gatherer” of memories and stories, and knows that conserving the past gives value to the future.
A question: Why do we make art about our region?
We have a spiritual connection with place. Check out Dean Radon’s noetic science.
The sense of smell is connected to memory.
It’s why commissions are never interesting.
A place is a sacred site, it shapes your expression.
The heart is a physical response to place.
Place is shifting. There are no boundaries.
Peter Hart – Night Doves (detail)
Christopher Meadows – Shadows of Undalya Bridge
Sue Michael – buttery kitchen
Forum: Sue Michael, Peter Hart, Christopher Meadows and moderator Chris Rowe