Tree Museum international exchange

Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre has developed an international exchange project with the Tree Museum in Canada. The project has been established to foster links between Australia and Canada, offering a unique encounter of each countries landscape, environment and place, and to promote the diversity of artistic practice in an international context.

The project enabled four artists from Canada and two artists from Australia to travel on a reciprocal exchange program. The artists experienced first hand the distinct environments of each country and developed a series of work in response to their experiences.

Beginning in mid-September 2009 four Canadian artists - Anne O'Callaghan, E.J. Lightman, Penelope Stewart and Jeannie Thib - undertook residencies in Canberra. The residencies were in collaboration with the Canberra Glassworks, Megalo Print Studio and Gallery, The Australian National University (ANU) School of Art Printmedia and Drawing Workshop, and Namadgi National Park. All four artists spent 10 days at the Namadgi National Park Ready-Cut Cottage before moving into their respective one-month residencies with the collaborative organisations.

In 2010 two Australian artists, Bev Hogg and Trish Roan, undertook their residency at the Tree Museum. The exhibition, afterLandscape, featuring the work of Penelope Stewart, Jeannie Thib, Bev Hogg and Trish Roan opened 5 September 2010.

Trish Roan, Meridian, 2010

Every thing is in constant motion, and this is what keeps us alive. I wanted to illustrate a fleeting moment within that movement, when fragments come together to make something whole - as if by chance - before disintegrating again. I'm interested in those glimpses of meaning, or understanding, that we can only grasp for an instant.
»Read more

Bev Hogg, View Finder - Gateway, 2010

Coming from Australia and arriving at the Tree Museum for the first time, I was overwhelmed by the greenness, the softness of the earth and the abundance of water. This contrasted dramatically with the desiccated Australian bush so familiar, with its recognisable bird calls and dry crunch underfoot. Seduced by the picture post card beauty and not knowing this landscape created a tension of ‘mystique' and anxiety.
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Also see Bev Hogg's Accredited Professional Member portfolio

Penelope Stewart, Cloche, 2010

Cloche is a larged double sided photograph on vinyl.  It is part of an on going project entitled Genius Loci; the genius of the place or disorder of the picturesque. This project began in 2006 with research into futuristic architecture and more specifically that of the large glass conservatories or greenhouses of the 19th and 20th centuries, the first modular architecture of the Industrial Revolution.
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Jeannie Thib, Equivalents (Tree Museum) after Muniz, after Stieglitz, 2010

The site work created for the Tree Museum consists of two parts - a cloud drawing on birch bark mounted on top of a large erratic and a circular marble moon placed on the ground nearby. The patterning on this lichen-covered, curving granite slope suggested a celestial sky and hence a suitable place for the moon.
»Read more

The four Canadian artists visiting Canberra give an account of their experiences in Australia and their residencies. Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre will host an exhibition of work resulting from this exchange in early 2012.

Anne O'Callaghan

Tree Museum Curator and artist, undertook a 10 day residency at Ready-Cut Cottage in Namadji National Park followed by a one-month residency at the ANU School of Art Printmedia and Drawing Workshop.

Working across a broad spectrum of mediums, including photography, sculpture, site installations and book making, I use narrations of nature to address a wide variety of issues. These range from political structures and the environment through to my personal relationship with nature. The residency in Australia gave me free reign to explore some of these concerns and the week at Namadgi National Park was the start of this research. I became fascinated with the gum trees and their history in Australia. During my residency at the ANU School of Art I spent a great deal of time in the library researching 700 species of eucalyptus, mostly native to Australia. This gave me an amazing overview of the history of Australia from early-settlement and an insight into how nature can impact on the politics of place.

This research eventually led me to create a large-scale print titled Crow, which referenced the fire of 2003 in Namadgi National Park. Crow was produced in two parts, both 96 inches by 24 inches, printed on steel using the Oce Arizona press at the ANU School of Art Inkjet lab facility. I manipulated an image of a burnt out log, superimposing a list of names and species of eucalyptus on top of the original image. On the second sheet of steel I printed a verse from a poem in the Crow series by Ted Hughes. Crow was one of several large prints that I made whilst at the ANU School of Art.

Working at the ANU School of Art opened up future possibilities and ideas that I continue to work on. I would like to say a special thanks to Anna Raupach from the Inkjet lab facility for her patience and amazing assistance. The time at ANU School of Art was enriching and productive.

EJ Lightman

Tree Museum Curator and artist, undertook a 10 day residency at Ready-Cut Cottage in Namadji National Park followed by a one-month residency at the ANU School of Art Printmedia and Drawing workshop.

Pinecone Seed, completed at the Tree Museum in 2004, is homage to nature: two elements, one with its roots in the northern landscape, the other combining elements of the exotic south and the Canadian landscape. Two bronze castings, created from found objects: pinecones, coral and a cardboard box; the castoffs of nature and urban life, given new meaning. One piece is made from many cones, dipped and covered in wax, cast in bronze, a homage to that quintessential Canadian symbol of the pine tree. The other is an altar like piece, comprised of coral, a cardboard box and a pinecone, working together as a space that promotes constant growth and change. The Pinecone Seed draws our attention to the tenacity of nature, and its endurance.

The challenge for me, in my work, is to engage the viewer by uncovering the organic world and describing its fragile vulnerability. By putting fragments together, that is, casting real pinecones, to form one component, one giant pinecone, in this bronze installation presents a different perspective of the "ordinary." It references the site and its possibilities of renewal, growth and the natural processes that surround us in our landscape. This is a personal response to the aesthetic in our natural environment.

My residency in Canberra was a very valuable and unique experience. Also, many thanks are due to Nick Stranks who gave his expertise and time generously at the bronze casting studio in the Australian National University.

Picking up natural debris from the forest floor during our walks at Namadgi National Park, I accumulated and cast these once living forms to be used in future projects. It was similar to taking a photograph; making these forms still and eternal, capturing a time before they decomposed, as all natural things do. In this way the bronzes became observable phenomena; things that have become transformed by the bronze casting process so that we may look at them more closely and in a different conceptual state.

Penelope Stewart

Artist, undertook a 10 day residency at Ready-Cut Cottage in Namadji National Park followed by a one-month residency at the Canberra Glassworks.

I was excited to be a part of this project as my current research looks at the beehive metaphor in utopian architecture and Canberra, as a planned city based on the ideals of Burley Griffin, was a perfect site in which to continue this exploration.

The first 10 days of the residency were spent in the historic pre-fab Ready-Cut Cottage at Namadgi National Park. This was an incredible introduction to my visit as it was a unique isolated landscape and one that told a significant narrative of Australian settlement. Living in the remote hut with, literally, hundreds of kangaroos at my doorstep, hikes through the bush, discussions with the rangers and several groups of visiting artists, and the weather changes (that added greatly to the experience) set the tone for rest of the residency.

One unexpected but delightful project I undertook in the mountains was to set up a small wet darkroom and make a collection of pinhole cameras to explore the landscape. I was really pleased with many of the results - as both research and final projects. As a counter point, while in residence at the Tree Museum this summer, I will replicate the small wet darkroom and explore the Canadian boreal forest and lakes in a similar manner using the same collection of pinhole cameras.

On returning to Canberra I viewed the city drawings of Burley Griffin at the National Library, which I referenced to create a scale architectural model in cast glass that, in turn, referenced the social model of the beehive. In my research I had come across the rye straw beeskep, a man made beehive that has been used in beekeeping for centuries, and decided to cast this straw structure as an architectural model.

I must preface that I had no prior experience working with glass but the staff at Canberra Glassworks and Ruth Allen, who worked closely with me to realise my project, were incredible both as a resource and as mentors. Ruth Allen assisted me through each and every step to create two wonderful casts of the beeskep. From the complicated silicone mould, to the wax and the refractory mould, to the kiln and the cold working and finishing, Ruth Allen was there advancing, what I finally began to realise, an extremely ambitious project.
»See images of the cast beeskep.

Jeannie Thib

Artist, undertook a 10 day residency at Ready-Cut Cottage in Namadji National Park followed by a one-month residency at Megalo Print Studio and Gallery.

The first week of the residency spent at the Gudgenby Ready Cut Hut in Namadgi National Park served as an introduction to the landscape and history of that region and provided a wonderful opportunity to engage with and document it firsthand. Information provided by the park's rangers was very informative about the flora, fauna, history, geography and management practices in the park.

Later, during my five week residency at Megalo Print Studio and Gallery, I reworked selected photographs shot in Namadgi and combined them with redrawn images of clouds from historical wood engravings to create new composite constructed landscapes printed on Japanese paper. For these silkscreen prints the Namadgi images were filtered in various ways in the computer and then drawn and redrawn by hand until the imagery was broken down into a language of dots, lines and other repeating marks. These functioned as a shorthand for the various landforms and vegetation that worked well in combination with the found images of skies which also incorporate repetition and pattern in representing natural phenomena.

The cloud images I used came from both North American and Australian prints including a series of 1860s Australian landscapes from issues of the Illustrated Melbourne Post which I researched at the National Library in Canberra. I enlarged and redrew those skies and pieced fragments from various sources together in the final works. I showed the works in progress and gave an artist talk at the studio near the end of my residency. Thanks to Megalo Print Studio's Director Alison Alder, studio staff and artists who were so hospitable and supportive, my residency in Canberra was a rich and productive experience.

The two part installation work I made for the Tree Museum's After Landscape exchange exhibition in fall 2010 was directly influenced by the works produced at Megalo Print Studio and the prints themselves were also exhibited there. Concurrent with the Tree Museum exhibition the Megalo printworks were also shown in a solo exhibition Assembled Landscapes at Joan Ferneyhough Contemporary in North Bay, Ontario, Canada. The Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre/Tree Museum artist exchange and residency continues to represent an opportunity to interact with Australian artists, to engage with Australian landscape and culture and to develop new works.

 

• Amy Kerr,
• Communication and Event Manager, Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre
• December 2010

Images (top to bottom):

1. Trish Roan, Meridian, 2010. Photograph: courtesy of the Tree Museum
2. Bev Hogg, View Finder - Gateway, 2010. Photograph: courtesy of the Tree Museum
3. Penelope Stewart, Cloche, 2010. Photograph: courtesy of the artist
4. Jeannie Thib, Equivalents (Tree Museum) after Muniz, after Stieglitz, 2010. Photograph: courtesy of the Tree Museum
5. Anne O'Callaghan, Crow (detail), 2009, print on steel. Photograph: courtesy of the artist
6. Penelope Stewart, Bridge at Gudgenby 2, 2009, coffee can pinhole camera. Photograph: courtesy of the artist
7. EJ Lightman, Pinecone Seed, 2004. Photograph: courtesy of the artist
8. Jeannie Thib, Namadgi 2, 2009, screenprint on kozo paper, edition 4. Photograph: courtesy of the artist
9. Slideshow: All images taken at the Tree Museum in Canada. Photographs: courtesy of Bev Hogg