Wildflowering by Design (Wild/flower Women IV)
Hervey Bay Regional Gallery, 16 April-29 May 2022
Women’s connection to nature has long been explored through art and design, beginning with Traditional Custodians and the women artists who helped document Australia’s native plants with colonial botanists. This exhibition seeks to explore contemporary responses to our botanical and wildflower heritage with female artists creating new work across the art and design spectrum. Through bringing nature into people’s homes and lives, we help create a ‘botanical culture’ building broader awareness of our native ‘wildflower’ heritage and appreciation for Country. This exhibition speaks to the work and concerns of Queensland artists/environmentalists Kathleen McArthur and Vera Scarth Johnson, while also inspired by the work of Florence Broadhurst and her desire to create an Australian design culture. Artists from Bundaberg, the Fraser Coast and beyond have taken a fresh look at the historical legacy, engaged with local landscapes, and extended their practice to create new, re-imagined works, and a dynamic exhibition experience.
Artists included:
Julie Appo & the WildCrafters,Nicole Jakins, Marlies Oakley, Shelley Pisani, Edith Rewa, Cara Ann Simpson, Marni Stuart, Emma Thorp, Annette Tyson & Cate Verney.
The Hervey Bay exhibition also features work by Butchulla women and others connected to the region:
Karen Hall, Rose Barrowcliffe, Nai-Nai Bird, Francis Blair, Jan Williams & Joolie Gibbs.
Curated by Dr Susan Davis
Bundaberg Regional Gallery 13 Nov 2021-30 Jan 2022
Hervey Bay Regional Gallery 16 Apr – 29 May 2022
('Wildflowering by Design: Wild/flower Women IV' exhibition was one of two exhibitions that featured for the re-opening of Hervey Bay Regional Gallery in 2022. The Hervey Bay exhibition also featured work by Butchulla women and others connected to Hervey Bay.)
A catalogue publication is available online. See also the extra Hervey Bay insert
Video walkthrough Bundaberg
https://youtu.be/Yi4zlI-CHBY
Acknowledgement of Country
Across the Bundaberg region, we acknowledge the traditional Country and custodianship of the Taribelang Bunda, Gooreng Gooreng, Gurang, and Bailai Peoples and recognise that this Country has always been and continues to be of cultural, spiritual, social and economic significance.
For the Fraser Coast region we acknowledge to the east, the Butchulla (Badtjala) and to the west, the Kabi Kabi (Gubbi Gubbi) People, their connection to Country (land, sea and sky) and recognise the many places of cultural, spiritual, social and economic significance in the community.
Acknowledgements
Image Credit: Marni Stuart, The Paths, The Women, 2021, pattern design.
This exhibition was supported by Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery and Bundaberg Regional Council. It was also supported by Hervey Bay Regional Gallery and Fraser Coast Council through its RADF Program. The Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Fraser Coast Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
Artists included:
Julie Appo & the WildCrafters,Nicole Jakins, Marlies Oakley, Shelley Pisani, Edith Rewa, Cara Ann Simpson, Marni Stuart, Emma Thorp, Annette Tyson & Cate Verney.
The Hervey Bay exhibition also features work by Butchulla women and others connected to the region:
Karen Hall, Rose Barrowcliffe, Nai-Nai Bird, Francis Blair, Jan Williams & Joolie Gibbs.
Curated by Dr Susan Davis
Bundaberg Regional Gallery 13 Nov 2021-30 Jan 2022
Hervey Bay Regional Gallery 16 Apr – 29 May 2022
('Wildflowering by Design: Wild/flower Women IV' exhibition was one of two exhibitions that featured for the re-opening of Hervey Bay Regional Gallery in 2022. The Hervey Bay exhibition also featured work by Butchulla women and others connected to Hervey Bay.)
A catalogue publication is available online. See also the extra Hervey Bay insert
Video walkthrough Bundaberg
https://youtu.be/Yi4zlI-CHBY
Acknowledgement of Country
Across the Bundaberg region, we acknowledge the traditional Country and custodianship of the Taribelang Bunda, Gooreng Gooreng, Gurang, and Bailai Peoples and recognise that this Country has always been and continues to be of cultural, spiritual, social and economic significance.
For the Fraser Coast region we acknowledge to the east, the Butchulla (Badtjala) and to the west, the Kabi Kabi (Gubbi Gubbi) People, their connection to Country (land, sea and sky) and recognise the many places of cultural, spiritual, social and economic significance in the community.
Acknowledgements
Image Credit: Marni Stuart, The Paths, The Women, 2021, pattern design.
This exhibition was supported by Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery and Bundaberg Regional Council. It was also supported by Hervey Bay Regional Gallery and Fraser Coast Council through its RADF Program. The Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Fraser Coast Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
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Julie Appo & the WildCrafters
Julie is from the Gooreng Gooreng peoples. Her traditional lands are in the Burnett Region, Wide Bay, Queensland. She works in the areas of art and fashion. In more recent times, Julie has focussed on digital designs to produce unique fabrics for her fashion garments. She is a fashion designer and artist. Julie initiated the Wild Crafter group as an outcome of being involved with the Wildflowering by Design project as she likes to share her skills and knowledge with others. She had met some quilters whose skills really interested her and she proposed working together to create wildflower inspired work in a style related to Julie’s dramatic aesthetic. Together they transferred their skills to the specification of interpreting wildflowering and that of fashion. The Wild Crafters are Julie Appo, Ann Montague, Jenny Cook, Lesley Henry, Katrina Carey and Maria Lines. Article ABC 07032021 |
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Karen Hall (Butchulla advisor and Fraser Coast exhibition)
Karen is a Butchulla woman now living on Country at Hervey Bay after completing a long career in education and community support. Karen is continuing in her artistic journey and has recently complete4d a number of commissioned pieces for Fraser Coast Regional Council, Queensland Health, schools and community organisations, as well as private individuals. Karen continues to share culture on country via visits and creation of art pieces, murals, felt stories and language support resources. Article Fraser Coast Chronicle |
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Nicole Jakins
Nicole’s arts practice is informed by her natural environment, with sculptural mixed-media works depicting Australian native flora and fauna imagery. Her current area of study focuses on resilience, death and rebirth found within the Australian bush. Nicole works as sustainably as possible by mindfully incorporating salvaged, remnant, recycled, discarded and found objects, combining these with an interest in experimenting with natural fibres, ochres, resins and saps. Websitewww.nicolejakins.com.au/ Insta |
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Marlies Oakley
Marlies’ main love is ‘cutting and gluing’, and her collage works are all intricately hand cut, with no digital trickery. Using images sourced from new and vintage magazines, discarded used books, encyclopaedias and postage stamps, each image is only used once, making the artworks totally original, caught in a time and place. Her subject matter ranges from 'familiar icons and kitsch subjects' to ‘surreal imagery’ intermixed with social commentary and personal stories. Website Insta |
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Shelley Pisani
Within a few years of graduating from her fine art degree, Shelley Pisani started her ceramic studio in Brisbane teaching painting techniques and selling homewares. After 20 more years of working as an artworker in various roles from curating to consulting, Shelley is now turning back to her art and enjoying exploring her natural surrounds in the beautiful Bundaberg region through printmaking, textiles and ceramics. Website - The Ideas Distillery Facebook - Ink Block Designs |
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Edith Rewa
Edith Rewa is an Australian Illustrator and Textile Designer currently based in Meanjin/Brisbane. Her work is grounded in protecting the diversity of Australia’s natural environments. She is often looking for new ways to entwine the worlds of traditional botany with the contemporary Art + Design space whilst exhibiting native plantscapes that are particularly under represented. Her works can be found on her silk scarves and art prints, on book covers, stationary, and printed textiles. She has a particular fondness for the flowers of Australian heathlands and for the past 2 years has enjoyed exploring the wallum of South East Queensland. Website Insta |
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Cara-Ann Simpson
Cara-Ann Simpson is an artist, curator, cultural heritage expert, author and consultant, Her own practice is engaged with creativity, cultural heritage, landscape and how people interact with their environment. Much of her work has a strong connection to land and the environment, whether it is natural, built, landscaped, urban, rural or otherwise. In her current series, Furari Flores, this connection is more intimate – a series of one-on-one interviews and observations with specific plant specimens – a form of active observational engagement within the sensory realm. Website Insta |
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Marni Stuart
As a child Marni dreamed of growing up to be a rainbow farmer, she has since built a multifaceted practice working as a surface pattern designer, researcher and design educator. Her patterning practice is inspired by regionalism and sense of place and celebrates the overlooked wildflowers of the Wallum coastal heathland. Website Insta |
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Emma Thorp
Emma is a visual artist from the Fraser Coast who works in digital media and works on paper. Drawing on her life experience, she combines sketches, photography and memories to create detailed images of life events. Her garden is her refuge, and the calming space that she enters when creating botanical drawings provides a tranquil breather in a busy life. Website Insta |
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Annette Tyson
Annette lives by the beach in beautiful Bargara. She loves the spontaneity and transparency of watercolour and has always worked in this medium. The main subjects of her work are the beautiful native birds she sees around her. Her interests have broadened since she co-curated an exhibition of the work of Vera Scarth Johnson at the Bundaberg Regional Gallery in 2020 and she has begun exploring the possibilities and surprises of ecodying on paper. Insta |
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Cate Verney
Cate Verney is a visual artist from Apple Tree Creek who works with mixed media of oil paint, natural materials, botanical printing, and clay. Her interest in nature is inspired by her 20 acre home base. Through her work she seeks to find the balance between pure nature and the technological world humans have created. Trying to set the scales to even the balance is the premise for her ongoing explorations. Insta |
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Susan Davis is an independent curator, teacher, artist, writer and researcher and initiator of the ‘Wild/flower Women’ series of exhibitions and projects. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor with the School of Education and the Arts with CQUniversity after serving in various roles including arts lecturer and teacher, Deputy Dean Research. She is curator of the ‘Wild/flower Women” series of exhibitions which have featured the work of women artists and activists historical and contemporary. The initial inspiration was from Kathleen McArthur and Judith Wright and their efforts to ensure national parks and reserves were created and our native wildflowers were known, appreciated and loved. This inspiration for 'Wildflowering by Design' began when Sue was invited to speak at the Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery’s International Women’s Day afternoon team in 2020. The exhibition ‘Finding Vera’ was on show, featuring works created by Vera Scarth-Johnson during her time living in the region, and curated by Annette Tyson and Stef Story. Hearing about the ‘Wild/flower Women’ exhibitions which involved contemporary artists from the Sunshine Coast and Gympie regions creating work in response to their local wildflower reserves and stories, the proposal for a Bundaberg and Fraser Coast iteration started to grow. The opportunity to exhibit alongside the ‘Florence’ exhibition planned for the Bundaberg gallery, provided a further frame of reference for the show. The legacy of Florence Broadhurst inspired a broader consideration across the art and design spectrum of work, influencing the selection of some of the artists involved and opening up the parameters for new work to be created. Over the past 12 months Sue has worked with the artists, exploring the wallum areas of the Bundaberg and Fraser Coast region, hosting several community workshops and conversing with the artists as they’ve developed their unique responses.
Facebook: @wildflowerwomenaustralia Insta |
