My Water Falls Installation.

My installation, ‘Water Falls’ opened last Friday night.  There were many young faces in the  crowd…Joe, Tyla, Sam.  It was great to  catch up with them.  In the two years since they left Bundaberg they have each matured in so many ways…both in their  creative pursuits  and also in their personal development.  It is just wonderful  to witness that.   Thankyou Staff of Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery, (especially Trudie), for your assistance.    And thankyou all for kind words.  A special thank you to Joe for your fabulous songs.

My installation 'Water Falls' is made of 12 or so bridal veils.

I like to collect the veils as they are beautiful and have an air of mystery about them. They also carry with them a sense of innocence, promise and good fortune.  But veils hide, as well as reveal.

Veils have a gentle and elegant aspect. Their fall to the ground mimics a real waterfall.

This is why I was interested to create the 'Water Falls' installation.

Although inspired by the recent floods in Bundaberg, it explores the more gentle, forgiving and nurturing aspects of water.

Place Activation Project

CreativeRegions have developed quite a few Place Activation projects in Bundaberg since the floods. I will be involved with the latest one.

The project is about targeting some of the ‘tired’ business areas, particularly in North Bundaberg and revamping them into vibrant, livable spaces.

Bundaberg City Council has approved to have the North Bundaberg CBD area a trial street-side dining zone for 3 months.

Project mentor is the very talented architect Tomas O’Malley.

Place activation artists are Jennifer McDuff, Marlies Oakley and myself. 

                                                                                         

This project has a very small materials and trade budget, so a challenge has been set for us to come up with some stunning and innovative ideas, within that budget.

Art auction

Congratulations to the enterprising and caring staff of the Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery, who held an art auction to raise funds for some of their volunteers who were badly affected by the floods.  This event was very successful. Buyers were delighted with their purchases.

 

Thanks must also go to the artists who gave so generously from their collections. Many of the artists and staff of BRAG purchased works as well. 

 

But one can only wonder where all the Councillors were....and where was the Mayor???   I heard many voters voicing  their disappointment.

 

 

 

Great flood song and film clip. Check it out!

http://youtu.be/sGZ50wR2XAc







This is a great film clip and song by Jessie Lovejoy!

Exclusion Zone Clean-Up | Bundaberg NewsMail

Exclusion Zone Clean-Up | Bundaberg NewsMail   

Click that link for some amazing photos of the exclusion zone (North Bundaberg), which sustained the most devastating flood and storm damage.

Bundaberg's mud army | Bundaberg NewsMail

Bundaberg's mud army | Bundaberg NewsMail

Bundaberg Floods 2013

rain came with the beast-shrieking wind
waterboarding the land
until it gave in

bursting open like a poorly healed wound

and we are stuck in mud again

More floods

The rains came last week.  Tornadoes too.  Six of them. The shrieking and howling of the wind is something I will not forget.   Nor will I forget the sound of a young boy weeping for his lost toys.

We had record breaking flooding.  Now it's time to clean up.

Once again, our lives are piled up in soggy heaps of domestic detritus -  all over town.

Human Ventures

The Human Ventures team who are in Bundaberg  compiling the digital stories for AFLOAT (about the floods), showed Sam and I some  techniques in stop animation yesterday.

I recorded a voice over for a short video about roses....and flood waters.  You will see it soon on this blog. It was a very pleasant and  informative afternoon.

The Bride

This is a recent work I think I will call 'The bride wore white'.  I am looking for a white satin horseshoe to finish the piece.  I know I will find it soon.  When you work with found objects, they often seem to come to you when needed.

The rusty old iron gate represent the home of an older generation of women, the fifties I would guess. The white tablecloth represents the bride who's life centred around the family and home.

Objects from the  fifties and sixties are in particular, the objects society is discarding.  The values of that generation seem to be cast aside to some degree also.

I will be making several works about the bride in the next few months. These works also reference recent flooding as in the 'Water Falls 1' piece.


Till soon,

c x

Setting up

It was a busy day yesterday. Susan Hutton and I left Cordalba early, in a ute full of 'Suburban Goddesses'.  We had a suprisingly good run through to the Pine Rivers Art Gallery in Strathpine - a Northern suburb of Brisbane. There was not a great deal of evidence of  the latest flooding in  Gympie, just  a lot of dull brown silt  masking the low lying grounds.  Council workers , with their gurneys sprayed the sludge away revealing hints of the green carpets below.

We couldn't stop to see if  the little mossy back tortoises were all right in their murky pond.

When we arrived at the gallery, we saw that half of the digital prints from the 'Broken Woman' series had been hung with magnets.  They looked quite impressive.

Susan's friend Lorraine came to help us set up the installation.  It only took us three hours.  The SG's look great in this beautiful gallery with it's white walls  and floor.

Gallery Curator Tracey Wallace is a very nice person to work with and has made this a very positive experience for me.

Susan and I celebrated a successful day with dinner at a local Indian restaraunt,  then travelled North to Eaton's Hill to stay with Susan's son whose  house is around the corner from mine. (Which is now  leased.)

I will post some pictures Friday!   Hope you can be at the opening!!   Friday March 2, 6pm.

Not on the road!!

Not on the road!!!  The Bruce  Highway was cut by floods in the Gympie area...a couple of hours south of here. ( I hope my little mossy back tortoises are okay. They live in the  ponds and lakes in Gympie, and I have been photographing them there lately. ) 

Susan and I may leave as late as Tuesday morning now, depending on the road reports. 

I will have to email the curator at the Pine Rivers Art Gallery, to let her know what is happening.

I took some more photos of the Lifescape installation.  It will be dismantled and reassembled when I get home next week.

Well I hope my exhibition will be opening this Friday!!      

Till soon.   c x

Brisbane floods

The Brisbane floods are almost incomprehensible. Heartbreaking. I am fortunate that my youngest son Ben and his lovely wife Sarah are on high ground at Eaton's Hill. They have a baby girl due in 3 weeks.

Ben has been working through the day filling sandbags. Good effort Ben. XX