Here She Is | Ten Days On The Island
I had the pleasure of working with Anne Morrison and Jessie Pangas on the first iteration of Here She Is as part of the Ten Days on the Island festival program. As one of 5 key artistic contributors we met over the course of a year to curate and collect stories of women from and connected to the North West Coast of Tasmania, developing creative responses that resulted in the highly successful exhibition Here She Is at the Stewart Street Gallery, Devonport launched in celebration of International Women’s Day. As an illustrator my role included the visual documentation of the stories and conversations during the development stage of the project that combined participant quotes with figurative illustrations. These drawings were further developed and incorporated into the large-scale artist map of the North-West Coast that included layers of visual, audio and community participation providing a critical storytelling thread that wove through the installation.
Photography: Lauren McKinnon
Project O | Big hArt
This year I have been a visiting artist for BIGhART's Project O, a project driving change in rural, regional and isolated communities affected by family violence. As a part of this primary prevention program young women develop new skills and learn how to create change in their community. My role for Project O was to listen to these young women's stories and reflect it back to them in an illustration, demonstrating that they have an important and beautiful story to tell! We sat with the Project O girls, one on one, for a short conversation, and I then illustrated a small moment of the conversation as a gift to them, celebrating their story! It was evident to me as I listened to the conversations, how important the work of Project O is on the North West Coast. It was such an amazing opportunity to witness the beauty and strength of these young women and to reflect that back to them.
Photography: Rachel Small
Treatment flightlines | Public Art
Treatment Flightlines was the sequel to the successful public art event situated at the Western Treatment Plant in Werribee. Six local artists were chosen to create site-responsive artworks within the plant, included the abandoned village of Cocoroc, a town for the workers, once bustling with 600 residents. The event was curated by Dr. Cameron Bishop, and I was invited to be assistant curator for this project after having been a Deakin intern for the inaugural treatment in 2015. Treatment was sponsored by Melbourne Water, Deakin University, Wyndham Community Cultural Foundation and the Wyndham City Council.
Photography: Xavier Smerdon, Jessie Pangas
Mountain to Mouth Festival
Mountain to Mouth is a biennial extreme arts walk - a two-day, 80km walk from the You Yangs to the mouth of the Barwon River. The walk follows the ephemeral artwork Canoe as it leads people on a journey, creating a contemporary songline through the heart of The City of Greater Geelong.
For this project I worked as the Canoe Coordinator, ensuring the smooth and graceful movement of the procession leading artwork of Canoe as it made its way to its cremation in the Bass Straight. I worked alongside the City of Greater Geelong Arts and Culture Department with the late Meme McDonald, the M~M artistic director, as my supervisor.
Photography: Ed Sloane