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What is enlightened education? On one hand, enlightenment is the discovery of the truth about life. Enlightenment denotes the awakening that comes through the teachings of Buddhism. On the other hand, the Enlightenment in Europe was the movement to reform society through the exercise of reason rather than tradition, blind faith and superstition, and advance knowledge through science. Enlightenment from both East and West holds the key to the awakening of Australia in the Asian century.
Nan Tien Institute is a bridge between East and West. Our vision for enlightened education is to inspire learning that provides our region with a place for the exchange of western and eastern arts and culture, contributing to knowledge and understanding in an increasingly complex world.
Connecting the cultures is essential in many ways and lies at the heart of our mission. In ‘The Two Cultures’ (1959), C P Snow identified the dangers of the gap between scientists and literary intellectuals and condemned the overemphasis on the classics at the expense of science. Science brings us knowledge, but we must be able to question and think about scientific discoveries to unfold their layers of meaning. Robertson Davies in ‘The Deptford Trilogy: World of Wonder’ (1987) lamented ‘We have educated ourselves into a world in which wonder, and the fear and dread and splendor and freedom of wonder, have been banished. ’ Art is as necessary as science to provide meaning in our world.
I am delighted to introduce this exhibition ‘unfolding’ in which our artists unfold the meaning in different cultures through their personal experiences. They show us how artistic meditation finds inspiration in the unbearable lightness of a bird on a twig and how we can sense freedom by studying the natural world.
Folding and unfolding are leitmotifs in science and mathematics realising order in chaos. Here is a simple experiment. Take a long strip of paper and fold it in half (right half over left). Fold again in the same way (right half over left) and again and again as many times as you can. Now unfold the strip of paper so that each fold is a right angle. As you move along the strip, you will turn left or right at each fold and move a bit erratically until you reach the end of the paper. This exercise in unfolding produces the remarkable ‘Dragon curve’. So too, our artists allow us to see remarkable patterns in the world around us.
I thank Nan Tien Temple for ongoing support and encouragement for all the ventures of our Institute and for the quiet space for our exhibition.
I thank Friederike Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis for curating the exhibition and Siena Morrisey for bringing everything together.
I thank the artists for challenging and enlightening us with their works.
Emeritus Professor John Loxton Foundation Dean Nan Tien Institute
5 October 2012
lllawarra Association for the Visual Artscultivating_contemporary_visual_arts
cover image: Jennifer Portman, mono no aware (detail), watercolour on rice paper and carved board, 90 x 120 cm, 2012
acknowlegements
NTI and IAVA would like to thank Nan Tien Temple for providing the space for this this wonderful regional collaboration of artistic talent from the Illawarra region in NTI’s second regional group art exhibition. We also would like to thank the Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery Order of Australia, for acknowledging the idea behind unfolding as part of the cultural contributions to the Illawarra and beyond.
We thank all the participating artists for their willing support throughout the project and their commitment to the exhibition and the new opportunities that Nan Tien Institute are developing for regional artists; the South Coast Writers Centre (SCWC) and its poets for their part in the cultural dialogue across art forms, and to individual members of the Illawarra Association of the Visual Arts (IAVA) for their hands-on help and knowledge.
Special mention deserve: Jennifer Portman, Alena Kennedy for general organisation and administration of this project, and their indispensable advice throughout, and Greer Taylor for countless hours spent on making a record of unfolding in the form of a beautiful catalogue. We further thank Wollongong City Council, Particularly Megan McKell for their support and inclusion of unfolding as part of their Creative Dialogues series.
NTI would like to acknowledge Friederike Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis for her commitment and tireless efforts invested into curating this exhibition, coordinating all of the artists and poets and for her understanding of NTI’s mission to build relationships with the community through art complementing the cultural diversity of our region. We gratefully acknowledge Nan Tien Temple for their generous support and assistance in providing the gallery space in the lead up to one of their major cultural festive programs. Many more staff than those listed have made valuable contributions to the realisation of this exhibition including various media representatives, volunteers, members of the community, staff and extended colleagues. Thank you.
unfoldingAustralian Artists in the Asian Century
2 - 22 November 2012
Hai Hui Hall, Nan Tien Temple, Berkeley, NSW, Australia
Print: Kwik Kopy, Wollongong NSW 2500 Graphic Design: Greer Taylor
ISBN: 978-0-9873627-1-1
Curatorial Team
Friederike Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis __ Curator Alena Kennedy _____________ Curatorial Assistance Jennifer Portman ____________ Curatorial Assistance
Management Team
Venerable Abbess Man Ko _ Abbess of Nan Tien Temple & Fo Guang Shan Australia Venerable Miao You _____ Secretary , Board of Directors Nan Tien Institute Siena Morrisey ________ Marketing Director Nan Tien Institute
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Following the British Century, the twentieth century was marked by American culture and politics which were seen as taking over local cultures with the clever marketing strategies and branding of products such as Levi’s blue-jeans, Coca-Cola and eventually McDonalds, using new visual technology and visual culture, such as film and television as the preferred mode of dissemination. Culturally, globalisation processes are those of adaptation, acculturation, assimilations and cultural appropriation that move both ways, geographically and ideologically. Economically, globalisation can be defined as the financial integration of economies around the world and as such trade and investment are crossing national and language barriers. In Australia, today’s visual culture carries these markers of political, social and economic shifts that in some ways reflect the heterogeneous nature of Asia as a geographical space with multi-national, multi-cultural, multi-lingual peoples.
Sue Smalkowski’s work Blue Water Reflections visually alludes to the shared seas between continents; at the same time, due to its anchorage in the Illawarra, the work creates a positive juxtaposition of the local and the global. The translucency of blue and green hues creates a shimmer effect, like light riding gently on the waves. The abstract shapes blur the lines between near and far and invite the viewer to step closer and be immersed.
In Portions, Flossie Peitsch investigates symbols and signs, such as the QR (Quick Response) Code, as aesthetic devices that can bridge language barriers. QR Codes are a kind of barcode that allows access to otherwise hidden information on a product. QR Codes were invented by a Japanese company in 1994, and seem to pop up like mushrooms after the rain, wherever we go. Peitsch’s installation can be seen as an exploration of cyberspace as a discovery zone, a space where we turn away from the local, and as Wendy Hui Kyong Chun suggests, ‘towards dreams of global connectivity and post-citizenship.’ It also puts forward the idea that computer encoding may gesture towards a democracy built on disembodiment where physical difference and cultural diversity do not matter. Peitsch explores the QR code, not only as a symbol of modern accessibility and mobility to cross-over barriers between the everyday and art, but as a ‘common language’. She applies Western aestheticism in her use of appropriated symbols and technique, and allows the viewer to recognise a visual ‘language’ that replaces the vernacular. Lisa Nakamura discusses this in the context of Internet travel, where
[…]the transnational language, the one designed to end all barriers between speakers, the speech that everyone can pronounce and that cannot be translated or incorporated into another tongue, turns out not to be Esperanto but rather IBM speak, the language of …technology.
Arguably, with this inter-spatiality and accessibility comes a set of limitations: narrowing the experience of the user to the retinal reception, where ‘common language’ does not go beyond opening doors, encountering the signifiers rather than entering the signified.
We discover a different approach to cultural convergence in Alena Kennedy’s work. Her work is deeply embedded in her all embracing spirituality and subtly layered in wafts of colour and abstracted form. While her works draw on the local landscape and nature, her paintings don’t depict country or the land itself; her life experience which saw her travel across the continents from a young age, her own family relations and her spirituality underpin every brushstroke – no realism or concrete shape distract from the ‘life force existing in all things’. There is a lightness in the misty, ethereal illumination present in her paintings that dissolves any perceived sharp lines and borders. That which is separate merges, folds into one harmonious existence. It is the space between these fading shapes and forms that open up to the gaze and invite the viewer to explore the relationship between spirituality and interconnectedness with nature. It is her gentle use of colour, both atmospheric and ethereal, that speaks to the senses from within, immersing the viewer into unseen spaces in the landscape.
The invisible in landscape has played an important part in Chinese art for centuries. Chinese landscape painting continues to this day a long history of cultural significance. From the escapism to nature in the late Tang Dynasty (680–906AD), to the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) when landscape painting of waterfalls and mountains ceased to be descriptive of the visible world, the paintings rather conveyed the inner landscape of the artist’s mind.
unfolding the Asian Century through the Eyes of the Illawarra
When the Nan Tien Institute invited local artists from the Illawarra Association for the Visual Arts to work with the theme of the Asian Century, it very soon became clear that the ideas were manifold about the way this could be approached. In this exhibition, artists explore the theme of unfolding – Australian Artists in the Asian Century in the light of economic relationships in the region, cultural hybridity, cultural multiplicity, spirituality, and mutual learning.
The artists and poets explore the Asian century as a lived experience rather than an anticipated phenomenon of the future; they provide perspectives on the global that are anchored in the local. The artworks by the twelve local visual artists, and the poems by the poets enter into a dialogue with each other and with the viewer, inviting us to reflect on our cultural ties and relationships in the region. Melissa Chiu, former director of Gallery 4a in Sydney, wrote over a decade ago that
‘[a]n interesting aspect of the current situation is the way Australia “imagines” itself within the region. By this I mean the way that Australia chooses to project and promote representations of itself within Asia.’ (2001)
She further points out how Asian-Australian artists have been increasingly contributing towards a cultural shift in Australia and that other Australian artists demonstrate a ‘consistent interest [that] demonstrates a broader cultural shift that is central to Australian contemporary art,’ including Indigenous art practice.
The curatorial concept of this show, to unfold intrinsic connections with Asian cultures (all the while keeping in mind that what is perceived as ‘Asian’ is continuously merging with main culture and has become part of our daily experience), aims to enter into this discourse of a cultural shift, by thinking about today and what the future may hold in this fascinating period in economic and social history. The selected works reflect the lived experience of Asian perspectives, teachings and knowledge in the artistic practice of artists working in the Illawarra.
While economic transformations have been taking place on a large scale globally, over recent decades Australia at large and the Illawarra in particular has been experiencing and acknowledging subtle cultural shifts that affect all areas of society. Federal politicians like Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard have been emphasising the common economic, political and cultural interests shared by the two continents, Australia and Asia, for years. ‘We share a region of the world; we share an ocean’ said Gillard during her trip to India in October 2012, a notion that has its impact on local culture as well.
Globalisation is a term that has become more widely used of late to demarcate the phenomenon of a shrinking world as it were, marked by technology and cyberspace, as well as transcultural citizenship. But globalisation did not start this century or even the last: the nineteenth century, dubbed the British Century marked the height of British colonialism, expanding over large parts of the world, feeding the engine of capitalist existence—industrialisation—that changed ways of life, not only in the so-called mother-country, but countries that the colonial endeavour touched alike. It was a time of great movement and exchange of goods and ideas in all directions, geographically, ideologically and artistically. Concepts and visual markers of culture changed their contexts, and were re-worked and re-thought continually.
These processes, while often forced and sometimes organically grown, melded existing visual cultures into new forged systems of knowledge – culture. When Jane Austen convinced her readers that what became to be known as the Paisley shawl was a must-have-fashion-item in Victorian England, nobody considered its original context. Named after a Scottish town, it belies its roots in Persia, and even its route via the Kashmir region of India to England. Its distinct pattern was so intricately woven and complex that direct imports from India could cost the equivalent of a house. Trade and commodification of cultural items of this kind from other countries became fundamental to the rise of the bourgeois establishment and changed local tradition and customs on either side of the oceans.
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Two artists focus on aspects of mutual learning by drawing on visual familiarity in their paintings; Arja Välimäki in her work The Joy conveys shared experiences between people of diverse background, away from their country of birth, while Mary Wingrave’s visual ‘appropriation’ of what would appear to the untrained eye as Chinese symbols cites the visual familiarity with cultural markers that are in constant flux in a multi-cultural community such as the Illawarra.
Symbols of spirituality across religions can become the tools to engage in making new connections and meanings. In the installation Crossings, Deborah Redwood encourages intercultural dialogue through the visual literacy propagated through religion and ritual through the suggestion of a bridge made of palm fronds.
Vyvian Wilson’s work Hold the Sound (vessels) embodies spiritual convergence through its allusion to the importance of sound and visualisation in Buddhist practice. The colour symbolism in Buddhist practice is a visual representation of the cyclical existence of life, the temporary re-birth represented in the wheel of life. The teapot’s vibrant colour, orange, is one of the six colours (the sixth colour being a combination of the five: blue, yellow, red, white and orange) of the aura which Buddhists believe emanated from the body of the Buddha when he attained Enlightenment, with orange – being the essence of Buddhist teachings – which is full of wisdom, strength and dignity. Wilson’s spiritual contemplation through the image of her grandmother’s Chinese teapot in her illuminated installation Hold the Sound (vessels) weaves personal memory into the colonial fabric of history, evoked by her practice of Mindfulness, maintaining constant awareness. Wilson beautifully pays homage to the truly inspiring space of the Nan Tien Temple and Nan Tien Institute for us all that allows us to reflect on our practice in context.
Unfolding alludes to the concepts of discovery and revelation, as well as meaning transported in time and space. In that sense, the art and poetry in unfolding peels back the layers of experiences in an intercultural and transcultural environment that have shaped history before and after the arrival of colonialism in Australia. It acknowledges the ongoing relationships and merging of cultures within the Asia-Pacific region by unfolding the many relationships and connections that have grown over centuries with the merging of peoples and ideas into contemporary culture in the Illawarra and beyond.
Friederike Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis IAVA Curator, Curator of unfolding, Director South Coast Writers
References
Ames, F. (1988). The Kashmir Shawl. Woodbridge: The Antique Collectors’ Club
ABC Lateline (2012). PM Stumbles in India, Wednesday, 17 Oct. 2012, http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3613066.htm
Barnhart, R. M., et al. (1997). Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Chiu, M. (2001) Asian-Australian artists: Recent Cultural Shifts in Australia. Apexart Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - July 2001 http://www.apexart.org/conference/chiu.htm
Department of Asian Art. “Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368)”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/yuan/hd_yuan.htm (October 2012)
Hui Kyong Chun, W. (2004). ‘Othering Space.’ In Mirzoeff, N. The Visual Culture Reader, second edition, Routledge: London, p.255-263
Nakamura, L. (2004). ‘”Where do you want to go today?” Cybernetic Tourism, The Internet, and Transnationality.’ In Mirzoeff, N. The Visual Culture Reader, second edition, Routledge: London, p.243-254
Shohat, E. and Stam, R. (2004). ‘Narrativising Visual Culture: Towards a Polycentric Aesthetics.’ In Mirzoeff, N. The Visual Culture Reader, second edition, Routledge: London, p.37-59
Similarly, mountains become visual markers in Jennifer Jackson’s paintings. She finds her inspiration, like Kennedy, in the local landscape of the Illawarra. Visually however, they allude to the symbolic language firstly associated with Chinese Landscape painting. Jackson playfully inserts feathers and newspaper snippets instead of painting delicate birds and calligraphy, moving confidently through the conceptual landscape of postmodernism.
Another kind of conceptual landscape or nature painting is what Jennifer Portman illustrates through the borrowing of the Japanese concepts of nature in Motoori Norinaga’s (1730-1801) expression ‘mono no aware’ - describing the ephemeral nature of things with a ‘sorrow at evanescence’. It made me notice the blooming cherry trees at the Nan Tien Temple flowering beautifully one day, and upon my return a few days later, the pink petals were replaced by green shoots to mark the coming of spring. No trace, but the memories of pink and gentle perfume remain. The cherry tree is metaphorical of all life and through its beauty we are made to stop – gasp – and reflect on the impermanency of our own existence. This knowledge carries on into contemporary culture; in the story-telling of manga artists and in anime we discover elements of mono no aware as a thread weaving through the story of passing moments of pain, sorrow and happiness, past and present – interwoven realities.
A commonly used phrase springs to mind reminding us to put all emotions into perspective: ‘This too shall pass’ is a proverb that re-occurs in many cultures; most famously adopted from the story about King Solomon’s fear of getting caught up in a moment of extreme emotions, he asked for a remedy and the phrase was presented to him inscribed in a ring. But stories travel and we hear the same tale in India. Here, the Maharajah spares the lives of three wise men after having received the gift of consolation carried in the phrase, and this phrase has lived on in Hebrew folktales, Turkish folktales and Persian Sufi poets and the modern vernacular in English-speaking countries to this day.
Journeying stories are present in the title Kendal Heyes chose for his work, The Breeze at Dawn, which is borrowed from the Sufi poet Rumi, also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207-1273), a Muslim poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. Heyes’ anchors his work in reading and drawing, and explores spirituality and philosophy through poetic truths by paying attention to the artistic process and conceptualisation. By using pyrography – writing with fire – which is one of the oldest techniques used across all continents, he offers a metaphorical communication between cultural ideas, a visual translation of philosophical concepts found in cultures often conceived as ‘other’. His practice reflects an experimental approach to being in a particular place at a particular time and in the pyrographical drawings, referencing Rumi’s words of a specific place and time.
Of a more narrative character is the work Settling in by Garry Jones. His work enters into a dialogic interaction with fragments of past-present in relation to place that play into the way (local) identity is formed. A boat sailing in the background, a Macassan vessel or a ship of early European colonial endeavour, in the foreground an Adirondack chair, Jones connects past and present through landscape or Country, embodied by the cabbage trees and the sea and land animals on the flowery print of the fabric in the middle ground. The ambiguous male figure, which may look like a missionary haunting the grounds, like ghosts of unresolved issues in history that linger, is in fact a reference to the way Ulladulla Mickey represented himself in his self-portraits. Jones challenges stereotypical representations of and views on what an ‘authentic’ Aboriginal person looks like. His work re-evaluates cultural relationships, allowing for a polycentric vision where ‘the visual [is] located’, as Shohat and Stam identified, ‘between individuals and communities and cultures’. Drawing on Aboriginal artist Ulladulla Mickey who negotiated his identity in the face of the colonisers in the 19th Century, Jones emphasises the importance of open-mindedness towards a transcultural and transitive place that is the Illawarra, from which to look and to be seen by the world.
In Robert Reid’s A Garden from the Indus an overlapping of two artistic processes, poetry and painting takes place. He uses romantic elements of imagination and the reconciliation of perceived binary concepts behind black and white, ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’, by drawing black lines across a white canvas. Reid’s use of symbolism and myth, simultaneously suggesting many things, as the lines of black and shades of white, upon closer looking, quietly dissolve.
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Unfolding
Morning light, then slow shimmering sounds begin a new day for the faithful.
Sounds of the Buddha reverberate from North to South in ever increasing vibrations.
Gentle thoughts are offered to embrace a new life in search of a pathway to spiritual peace. Cleansing sounds to despatch anxieties and free the karmas of burdened souls.
The white light knew nothing in the South until the sound of the gong turned heads.
The drum of spiritual fulfilment has sounded and called to those with furrowed brows.
The temple of Life has arisen in our midst. Available to the world are the ancient arts,
teaching pathways to peace and tranquillity through ancient practices taught with humility.
Our land is enriched by people from Asian countries blending their ways with those who are here,
ancient and modern, and have been infused into a new mosaic.
An added dimension has arisen; spiritual nourishment.
A philosophy of seeking space in one’s mind, influenced by the rays radiating from
the Holy Body of the Buddha.
People of the Illawarra love opportunities that nurture their minds in the arts
who respond to creative philosophies and discoveries, with welcoming arms.
Ken Chellanor
You Are 21 Now I
This is the time to unfold the map of love-thy-neighbour and let’s lay it out on the table. Read the map now. Just don’t take it for granted that mountains are always brown trees are always green seas are always blue etc. For all you know mountains could be blue too.
II
You sound funny when you say you don’t like going to Chinatown when the word China is clinging to your body you don’t realise your appearance is practically made-in-china or watching Bollywood movies they are too ridiculously happy you don’t realise you sneak in spontaneous moves horse- dancing to gangnam style or eating Thai green curry you say it’s too hot you don’t realise you always take your sushi with large chunks of wasabi.
III
You are 21 now big enough to seek companion of others. You’ve been a mama’s boy for so long you don’t realise you’ve been worshipping her like Hamlet too attached sometimes he forgets she’s his mother not his queen. You’ve grown so fond of your Uncle Sam too you wish he had been your father.
IV
Now it’s time to celebrate differences not just by skin colours or geographical families but also through accents not Aussie enough to you.
Nash AK
Conversing
koi converse in colour lighting fire to the water and our imagining... Nasirin leans on a eucalypt experimenting with sonnets and haiku poised in concentration a heron, foot raised reminds me of a poem, forgotten Bluewren presents himself, a vivid compliment to the pinkblossom.
Rhiannon Hall
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Intimate Moments 1-4, mixed media on paper, 28 x28 cm (framed), image 10 x10 cm, 2012
My paintings revolve around depictions of the landscape from differing, multiple perspectives. I often use multiple images to suggest a sequence or various stages in the journey. Here we see memories of moments in time: tiny fleeting moments passing through an imagined or remembered landscape. We view the scene from a cropped composition creating a cut off effect, which is an Eastern practice adopted by the West. Text is used to bring a moment of intimacy to the artworks. You pause to read and ponder on the words and images.
The “scene” is a landscape of melded images, signs and memories experienced in the Eastern manner of journeying though the painting.
My paintings concentrate on markmaking and abstraction with reference to Eastern art, combined with atmospheric depictions of the landscape. I endeavour to show my experience and memory of places visited and of the Illawarra where I live.
I use mixed media and collected items to suggest a narrative in the painting. They are clues only and the story of the work unfolds to the viewer though their own eyes and experiences.
The paintings are a personal, spiritual and intimate reflection of my evolution as an artist.
Jennifer Jackson
The Breeze at Dawn, pokerwork and flame on paper, 80 x 170 cm, 2011
The title for this drawing is from a poem by 13th Century Sufi poet Rumi: “The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep….”
This is a pyrographic drawing, made with heat and flame. It combines hand-drawn lines, burned into the paper using an electric pokerwork machine, with the shadow traces of flamed-over objects. The drawing is made to be explored close up; it includes passages of text from the poem, and because the pokerwork lines are scored into the paper, it subtly changes with the movement of the viewer. In this sense it unfolds and reveals with close viewing, reflecting the theme of the poem, of truths revealed through striving and attention.
Although founded in Islam, Rumi’s work, with its incisive mystical and psychological insights and the inventiveness with which he addresses his themes, creates a bridge between cultures and religions. Coleman Barks, translator of Rumi’s work, identifies as fundamental to Rumi’s idea of Islam, that ‘for Muhammad the way was always unfolding’.** Barks, Coleman, 1995, The Essential Rumi. Harper Collins.
Kendal Heyes
1110
Globes in the Grass, acrylic on canvas, 91x102 cm, 2011
My art is inspired both by my interest in the natural world and by my spirituality. I practice a spiritual exercise which originated in Java, Indonesia. The founder called it Subud and it is based on surrender or openness towards the infinite presence, sometimes referred to as God, the creative life force, the universal energy. This approach transcends barriers of religious and cultural belief systems and harmonises with my personal understandings and views on life.
My spirituality intersects well with my interest in the natural world as I am absorbed with how everything is connected; the cosmic processes of forming and evolution and patterns in nature.
I glaze layers of paint over each other, building translucent images which suggest landscapes or life forms. I attempt to explore the ‘space between’ – an un-mapped, unknown region which exists between and around objects – beyond the seen – the matrix within which all things are suspended.
Alena Kennedy
My art practice is motivated by my interests in cultural identity, particularly where these revolve around issues of indigeneity and post-coloniality, and the contemporary struggle for authenticity in ‘representations of self’ and ‘connection to place’. Settling In draws on the work of the late 19th century south coast artist Ulladulla Mickey, whose art effectively documents the evolving inter-relationships between Aboriginal and European communities on the coast, and their corresponding yet incommensurate connections to that place.
As with elsewhere across Australia, the negotiated roles that many south coast Aboriginal communities must have played in the viability of early local industries, are far from recognised. In this regard there are resonances with Asian Australian experiences, particularly through the 19th century colonial practices of Aboriginal and Asian labour exploitation, where labourers and their families were denied civil and human rights, as later legislated under the White Australia Policy.
My work represents a subjective response to Mickey’s art through my own sense of connection to the Illawarra, referencing colonial history and the emergence of contemporary Aboriginal art as an ongoing site of resistance and accommodation in this continually transforming physical and cultural landscape.
Settling In, screenprint, 76 x 56 cm, 2009
Garry Jones
1312
My work for unfolding explores personal memories, relating to the sense of mono no aware, evoked by the captivating beauty yet underlying impermanence of the cherry blossom. The cherry blossom embodies the transient nature of things, love and life; blooming with breathtaking magnificence for a short time and – when a breeze hits the tree – the delicate flowers drift to the ground, provoking a sadness at their passing.
The most famous of the cherry blossoms are the white-blossomed Yoshino from Japan, which were introduced into Korea and Taiwan during the Japanese Colonial Period in the early C20th and can now be found in abundance throughout Australia – including my old garden in Blackheath, in the Blue Mountains.
The propagation of cherry trees throughout Asia was accompanied by the tradition of cherry blossom viewing parties (Hanamis). Hanamis are very significant events in Japan and having a picnic lunch under a blossoming cherry tree is a popular Japanese tradition which has since been embraced and weaved into the culture of many Asia-Pacific countries, most recently into Australia’s spring calendar. Cherry Blossom festivals in Auburn and Cowra encourage visitors to bring along a picnic, sit under the trees and engage in a traditional Japanese celebration.
mono no aware, watercolour on rice paper and carved board, 90 x 120 cm, 2012
Jennifer Portman
PORTIONS, mixed media, 40 x 30 x 10 cm plus, 2012
Instead of drawing attention to how the cultures differ, I wish to highlight where cultures align – the commonality of community / spirit / communication through the world wide net. From my recent visit to China, it is apparent to me that we share equally and energetically through IT, a common language.
My recent work with QR Codes designed initially by my Shanghai-living son, seems to fit very well into this discourse. The QR Codes (Quick Response) used transcend other language barriers. I playfully design art which offers access – not to those with traditional ‘art knowledge’– but those with IT gadgets, such as iphones. ACCESS presents QR codes morphed potentially as both art and the entrance to art. PORTIONS articulates the admirable Japanese and Chinese cultural attention to beautiful presentation and delicate packaging. It compactly suggests the collection of preconceived ideas one culture has about another, shown in deeply layered ‘prepackaging of identities or truisms’ while showing the impossibility of storing all these notions. Intricate decoration – infused with usable QR Codes – is referenced in ENCODE. All installations translate equally well cross-culturally. The workable QR Codes used here actually link to websites which interspatially extend the discourse on Art, Asia and Information Technology.
Flossie Peitsch
1514
I have created this work by painting over the text of my poem ‘A garden from the Indus’. The surface of the painting was created by drawing and painting many layers of text and gesso on linen. The aim of this process was not to illustrate the poem but to create a surface from the act of writing. As the surface of this painting emerged the text of the poem dissolved, revealing the spaces between the words.
A garden from the Indus
A magic carpet floated south emerald green and golden. Threads and knots of blue and red untangled by the ocean. A tree a peacock pond and flower their paradise unspoken.
In the poem an image of a paradise woven into a magic carpet is untangled and unspoken, by the ocean. In the artwork the image is created by the viewer from the lines and boundaries, visible and imagined.
A garden from the Indus, 90 x 90 cm charcoal and gesso on linen, 2012
Robert Reid
Crossings, wood, steel and copper, 150 x 140 x 48 cm, 2012
The base for this work is the unfolded pattern for a Japanese fan (the sensu). I chose the fan as the base since it represents one of the first cultural items to be adopted by the west (in the early 1800’s). Its uses in Asia go beyond just keeping cool, it has been used to send signals in wars, to signify social status, in dance and so on.
The unfolded fan also approximates the shape of many ancient bridges in Asia. It is across this bridge that two unfolded palm frond shells unite, hence the name “Crossings”. The movement of the two palm frond shells is reminiscent of Yoga and Tai Chi, intricately curving and delicately balanced, suggestive of the meeting of East and West.
While the palm tree is significant in Christian religion, considered a gift from God, hanging from the palm frond shells are “Peepal” leaves, important to both Hindus and Budhists. In Hindu religion it is considered that a trinity of gods resides in the Peepal tree. The Peepal tree is also known as the “Bodhi” tree under which Buddha meditated and received enlightenment.
“Crossings” attempts to symbolise the principles of spirituality creating harmony between merging cultures.
Deborah Redwood
1716
The Joy I, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 122 cm, 2012
This painting talks about the freedom that one can have in a peaceful mind and the intersections between Australian and Asian cultures. It relates to my personal experiences during meditation classes taken over a two year period at the Nan Tien Temple.
It shows the intersections between Australian culture, my Finnish cultural background and Asian cultures.
The bright colours in the painting discover and play in a harmonious and peaceful manner. The act of spreading the paint with a paint brush onto a canvas is one of the ways that I meditate in my daily activities.
I recognise the colour in ‘The Joy I’ as the colour I wear and have in my home and have also seen at the Nan Tien Temple. The play between the colours indicates to me the joy and freedom that I can achieve within spiritual practice.
The three cultures interlink in my artwork and are intertwined and crossing each other’s pathways discovering a feeling of joy. It depicts the fact that it all starts in one’s heart and spreads from there like a ripple effect – the love that is created by spiritual practice is strong and it is pure, clean and free from suffering.
Arja Välimäki
Blue Water Reflections (detail), oil on canvas, 128 x 300 cm, 2010
Asian techniques like scroll painting, calligraphic drawings, ink brushwork, compositional devices such as multiple viewpoints in Chinese landscape paintings, Asian art disciplines with their many rich layers of fluid paint, varnishes and patinas, capture between them the random events of experimental techniques. I lavish textured contemporary paintings with the subtleties of Asian demographic and tradition, in which cultural heritage is drawn upon as a source of inspiration.
As early as mid twentieth century the traditions of metaphysical speculation in Hinduism, Taoism, and Zen Buddhism have provided artists with a conceptual basis for the understanding and representation of the visionary, spiritual, and universal potential of abstract art.
My work, primarily abstract, is increasingly informed by my response to landscape. Individually, and collectively, my paintings oscillate between portraying the minutiae of rock pool and tidal life on the shores of the South Coast, to depicting the magnificence of the Illawarra escarpment. These responses to nature are layered and intricate, the thematic emphasis on lines and rhythms within the work suggests not only the passage of nature and the seasons, but also its intricate architecture and finely-woven interconnectedness.
Sue Smalkowski
1918
As a child born and schooled in the Illawarra, I have always been aware of the multicultural society in which I live. A rich history of migration from the Asia-Pacific region to the gold fields in Southern NSW and Victoria form a part of the local history of those regions, one where my great grandfather participated as a publican. More recently I have become involved in a small way with meditative practice, the martial arts, and an interest in Chinese art and calligraphy.
When visiting the AGNSW, one of my favourite places is the Asian gallery. Books based on Chinese history and culture are also on my ‘favourites’ list.
Visually, I see some Chinese influence on my own artwork of mono-prints, using symbols and ciphers in an abstract format that resemble Chinese script.
Ciphers, monoprint, 52 x 59 cm (framed), image 30 x 35 cm, 2011
Mary Wingrave
Hold the sound (vessels) detail, digital photo on paper, 29 x 41 cm, 2012
Mindfulness meditation is a beautiful gift to us from Buddha.
It is employed successfully by Western psychology to alleviate a variety of physical and mental conditions………….I struggle with the practice of mindfulness.
Its hard for me to let go of the self-talk, the self scolding and the worries….but I strive to be in the moment, nowhere else….just to hold the sound – the whip bird’s calling, echoing down from the escarpment, the sea pounding, the crackle of fire, the trickle of tea pouring from the pot, leaves brushing their mother trunks in that extraordinary afternoon light……just to hold the sound and nothing else.
In this work I will attempt to create my own state of mindfulness by playing with repeat images of a golden teapot. The digital image repeated on paper scrolls is of a gold aluminium teapot lit mysteriously from within. This particular teapot is an object that nurtures in me a sense of calm & well being and which also invokes a nostalgia for many afternoon teas shared with my grandmother and her special ‘golden teapot from China’.
Vyvian Wilson
2120
unfolding artists
about IAVAlllawarra Association for the Visual Arts (IAVA) is a not-for-profit artist run initiative (ARI), it is a network that promotes and cultivates Illawarra contemporary art and its artists.Catering for professional, practicing contemporary visual artists and art workers it provides a forum in which to network cooperatively in the Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama LGA’s.IAVA aims to:�
• raise the profile of contemporary visual art in the Illawarra• promote Illawarra visual art beyond the region• coordinate IAVA group exhibitions• support solo exhibitions by members• conduct artist workshops• encourage and facilitate knowledge sharing• coordinate travelling exhibitions
The Hanging Space Art GalleryIAVA runs a gallery space in Woonona that features monthly exhibitions by IAVA members.For more information about IAVA and The Hanging Space Art Gallery visit : www.iavacontempart.org
Kendal Heyespainting | drawing | printmaking | photography
[email protected] kendalheyes.blogspot.com
0416 527 929
Deborah Redwood sculpture | installation
Jennifer Jacksonmixed media painting
[email protected] 0409 659 193
Robert Reidpainting
[email protected] www.robertreidart.net
04 2393 9514
Garry Jonesscreen printing | painting | sculpture
[email protected] 622 129
Sue Smalkowskipainting | drawing
[email protected]@bigpond.com
Alena Kennedy painting
0425 316 469
Arja Välimäkipainting | sculpture
[email protected] 0415 659 244
Flossie Peitschinstallaltion | performance | painting
[email protected]://flossiepeitsch.com
0457 726 257
Vyvian Wilsonpainting | drawing
Jennifer Portmanpainting | drawing
Mary Wingravedrawing |printmaking | mixed media
about SCWC
unfolding poets
The South Coast Writers Centre provides the essential infrastructure for Australian literary culture in the Illawarra, Kiama, Shellharbour, the Southern Highlands, and South Coast of NSW incorporating the local government areas of Bega Valley, Eurobodalla, and Shoalhaven. The South Coast Writers Centre’s mission is:� to provide effective resources and networks for writers and readers in the South Coast and Southern Highlands region
• to promote the development of writing and literary culture in a regional context • to facilitate a high standard of professional development and practice by writers
in the region • to develop existing and new audiences for writers and writing • to value the distinct literary cultures of the South Coast and Southern Highlands • to maintain an awareness of issues of access and equity in all the activities of the Centre,
including employment policies, promotion of writers, community development and audience development
• to maintain the participation of membership in the running of the Centre • to develop the SCWC as part of the arts and cultural infrastructure of the South Coast
and Southern Highlands region
Nash [email protected]: http://www.facebook.com/nash.kencana
Rhiannon Hallhttp://rhiannonhall.blogspot.com.au/[email protected]
