Wednesday 28 February 2018

Liz Walker - Salt Lake





Salt Lake (detail) 2018




The first month of Autumn WINDOWSPACE–BEEAC will show the work of Melbourne-based artist Liz Walker, a previous emerging artist award winner (2009) at one of the largest contemporary sculpture events in Australia, the Lorne Sculpture Biennale.  Liz will bring a bit of biennale to Beeac with her installation ‘Salt Lake’ during the month of March.



lornesculpture.com



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Liz Walker has been described as a gleaner, collector and re-user who manipulates recycled corrugated iron, pressed metal and found objects into sculptural forms, her studio represents this – it is a wonderful space of collection and making.  The studio is big, it is full of big tools, big work benches, scores of rusted iron sheets and just pieces of stuff which many would describe as junk.


However, for Liz all found objects and junk present a possibility to re-use, manipulate and to tell a story, usually exploring social and environmental issues which are close to her heart.  As seen in ‘junk mail’ (2009) the found objects and recycled materials are always carefully sorted, manipulated and thoughtfully incorporated initiating amazing sculptures and installations.


 
junk mail (2009)
Lorne Sculpture Biennale 
Emerging Artist Winner


The old Gainger Bros Garage transformed into WINDOWSPACE-BEEAC, is an appealing space for someone like Liz to show her work.  She has a love of old and a huge commitment to sustainability practice and contemporary art in community spaces, Liz states, 'in recent years’ community engagement through creative workshops and collaborative project delivery has become increasingly important to my practice and development as an artist'. 



The salt crusted, altered pieces of aluminium placed on a distressed chair conjure up the depths of what might be found in and around the lake, natural plant life struggling while at the same time surviving.  These pieces are the colour of the lake and although distressed, sit with a strong sense of regeneration over numerous found and manipulated objects randomly scattered by Walker.

Salt Lake (detail) 2018

The football, the leaves, the bottles, the mechanics tool, the domestic objects all tell a story of what was and what is.  The salt crusted nest made from rusted wire sitting on the floor makes reference to the beauty of the water birds that come to the lake to feed on Brine Shrimp and find sanctuary; regardless of the changes it has had to bear and the 'junk' that is sometimes left Lake Beeac continues to bounce back and give. 



Found objects 2018

In Walker's words Salt Lake is ‘an imagined conversation between the past and the present, exploring notions of life and death, regeneration and hope.’ 



Take time to look, imagine and treasure the beauty of the lake.  Go for a wander.............



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Liz has recently moved from Brunswick to Red Hill, on the Mornington Peninsula and is currently working on a new body of work responding to the grounds and architecture of historic Montsalvat which will be exhibited outdoors from August – October this year. She is also preparing to deliver a new series of environmental workshops and undertake the Grain Store residency www.thegrainstore.org at Nathalia with Avis Gardner.



Liz has exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions, undertaken public artworks, received awards, grants and residencies and her work is held in public and private collections in Australia, Japan, Malaysia and Ireland.




Liz will be running a workshop as part of Lorne Sculpture Biennale http://lornesculpture.com/program-2018.php .





Liz Walker

Visual artist



instagram: @lizwalkerart








Sunday 18 February 2018

Arts OPPORTUNITIES







Conspicuous Presence,
Trocadero Guest Curator Program 2018
OPENING WEDNESDAY 21ST FEB - Please join us!


Image Khi - Lee Thorpe, Unseeable, 2017


Conspicuous Presence makes visible the work of five Australian women artists. Through the heightened material presence of their work, the artists’ deploy conspicuous methods of commanding our attention.
The Women’s Art Register, historically inclusive of a wide range of cultural and political identities, shares our IWD platform with these five contemporary artists.

All women of colour, we acknowledge their presence and listen to their voices.
Artists: Georgia MacGuire (Indigenous Aust), Khi-Lee Thorpe (Indigenous Aust), Sofi Basseghi (Iran/Aust), Su Yang (China/Aust), Ema Shin (Japan/Aust).

Gallery 2 will feature material selected from across 43 years of the archive of the Women’s Art Register, with a projection program in the Trocadero 'Nooky' space.
 
Exhibition Dates: Feb 21 - March 10, 2018
 
Launch event: Wednesday, February 21, 6-9pm
Artist Talks: Saturday,  March 10, 4-5pm (final day of show)
 
Venue: Trocadero Artspace, Lvl 1, 119 Hopkins Street Footscray          
 
Hours: Wed-Sat 12-5pm

Catalogue essay by Sophia Cai





 The WAR Diaries - The Women's Art Register at The Roundtable

Image by Carmel O'Connor


Please join us on Sunday, March 25th, from 1-3 pm at ACCA for a discussion at The Roundtable. Part of ACCA's Unfinished Business, the Roundtable is a participatory component of the exhibition.

WAR committee members, volunteers and friends will discuss a number of questions;

What is the Unfinished Business of the Women's Art Register?

Is WAR undervalued and under-recognised by major institutions?

How can we (re)position WAR's unique place in Australia's history as a critical force in contemporary politics and culture?

In what ways are WAR's unique open access policies and grass-roots management indicative of the collaborative and participatory nature of past and present feminist practices?

How does the cross-generational collection represented by the Women's Art Register contribute new insights into current mainstream discourses that, at times, overlook the historical record? 

This is a free event, however bookings are required here via the ACCA website.
 

Friday 9 February 2018

Irene Pagram - Floor Talk



IRENE PAGRAM - FEBRUARY 2018









 FLOOR TALK 


WINDOWSPACE-BEEAC
79 Main Street BEEAC 

'Creating sense of place within a personal narrative'









Irene's  interest in caring for the land and her experimentation with natural colours,
textures and paper tablecloths inspired the beautifully haunting 'Cool Burn'. 



You are invited to listen to Irene speak about inspiration and process 





Saturday 17 February @ 2 pm



WINDOWSPACE-BEEAC

79 Main Street BEEAC 



Light refreshments provided

RSVP preferred

windowspacebeeac@gmail.com

All welcome























I

Thursday 1 February 2018

IRENE PAGRAM - COOL BURN


IRENE PAGRAM - FEBRUARY 2018



WINDOWSPACE-BEEAC     FEBRUARY 2018



'Cool Burn'

Irene Pagram



Cool Burn (detail) 2018



When Irene Pagram met her artist hero John Wolseley, at the arc Yinnar Drawing Award in 2016 he asked if she had a work in the show and when Pagram pointed it out and tentatively proffered her copy of the catalogue of his NGV survey show, Landmarks 111, in the hope he might autograph it, Wolseley wrote: ‘For Irene, distinguished artist’.




He confided to her – ‘You distinguished yourself by caring. By caring enough to make art, to make art about the landscape, and the environment, and about the state of things, and to put your art out into the world, that others may think and perhaps care about these things.’


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Cool Burn, (2018), was inspired by visits to the extraordinarily beautiful remnant grassland meadows of Cobra Killuc Reserve in south west Victoria (see Flora Victoria’s facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/GrasslandsFloravic/  ).
Testament to land management techniques practised over thousands of generations, the area is park-like with stands of trees and swathes of grasses starred with myriad jewel-coloured wildflowers in late Spring. In thinking about the writings of Bruce Pascoe and Bill Gammage, together with such evidence of the beauty of fire-managed landscape, it seemed evident to Pagram that a mosaic of fuel-reduction cool burns are urgently required to address 200 years of land management neglect. This WINDOWSPACE work is a testament to that need.


The elements of Cool Burn depict the clean forest floor in winter where orchids will soon appear, their germination aided by components of smoke. Tree trunks show blackened evidence of a cool burn at their base, each with a hint of an understory of wildflowers, small shrubs and vines that will reappear along with the soft grasses of spring. Clean upper trunks reach skyward.





Evoking the cool burn flames


In a nod to a past life, the tree trunks have been eco-printed onto disposable paper tablecloth, turning this ephemeral product back into an artwork with something of the longevity our forests deserve. 


Forming the first tree trunks for Cool Burn


Pagram works with natural dyes on silk, wool and paper, often to make a ground for drawing, or a base for hand stitching. Having discovered India Flint’s publication Eco Colour (2008), Pagram found there was a better way to do the natural dyeing she had first learnt in the 1970s. Rather than using toxic metal powder mordants and salt fixatives of the past, Flint has pioneered a bundling method of botanical eco-printing using just water and the dye-pot as mordant. The results give substantive colours reminiscent of the landscape where the leaves are gathered. Utilising wind-falls, and a garden gathering of leaf litter are paramount. The plant material can then be returned to the earth as compost or mulch. Nothing harmful is discarded into the environment. This sustainable and eco-friendly natural dyeing method harmonises perfectly with Pagram’s life-style in the Otways hinterland. She is an eco-colour convert.


Pagram exhibits locally and further afield: hand-stitched art cloths, graphite drawings, framed textiles, eco-printed lengths of pure silk, artist’s books and mixed media artwork.



It’s all over Red Box, Baby Blue

A bright winter’s night (detail)


Irene Pagram’s exhibition month at WINDOWSPACE- BEEAC will include a discussion of eco-printing methods.



Free floor talk on Saturday 17 February at 2pm.



All welcome.







Imminent local events:





As part of the 17-18 March 2018 Colac-Otway Arts Trail  Irene Pagram will have a weekend pop-up studio at Echidna House, Kawarren Reserve, 2 Kawarren East Road Kawarren VIC 3249 https://www.colacotwayartstrail.com/kawarren.html





Pagram teaches handmade recycled papermaking to small groups. The next workshop is at Gellibrand Community House 10 February 2018