Patterns of my Days -Rights of Nature was to be exhibited at The Centre, Beaudesert, Scenic Rim Council area 27 March-15 July 2020 but due to COVID 19 the Exhibition had to be cancelled . Workshops linked to this exhibition were also cancelled. I have instead created some Online Workshops to accompany this Exhibition for Scenic Rim Council. They are currently free till July 15th and can be found at: www.liveatthecentre.com.au/Workshop-2020-ONLINE-Therese-Flynn-Clarke-pg33038.html
Patterns of my Days -Rights of Nature Exhibition
My art practice has long held a deep connection to place and the opportunity to visually and viscerally connect to many places in remote and regional Queensland, Australia is the inspiration for the 'Patterns of my Days’ component within the title of this exhibition. Over many years I have travelled across the landscape of the eastern states of Australia by car and plane. Some were short 3 day working visits; others part of extended family holidays. Flying into locations and viewing the land from the air has long held a fascination for me artistically. Impressions of place and changes in geographical landscapes have long been a source of inspiration. Arriving in different localities, photographing the landscape, buildings and the nature, picking up seedpods and ephemera – this became a source of inspiration incorporating found plant fibre, materials, paper ephemera within the body of work.
I began to think about the people in regional and remote locales- their connection to the land and where they live, alongside the connection of indigenous people who have long cared for country and hold deep links to the landscape geographically and spiritually. I was documenting and celebrating the beauty of nature and landscapes as I saw it as I travelled and the changes made by people within this landscape as they lived their everyday lives.
Exploring the concept of people’s interaction with the land, I discovered an organisation called Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) who are attempting to align contemporary industrial civilisation with the interconnectedness of nature in Australia through the creation of laws that give rights to nature . The focus of these ‘earth laws’ is about encompassing the rights of nature but allowing coexistence with people who have respect for the resource that is our landscape and all it provides. Australian Earth Laws Alliance seeks to move the current ‘human-centred’ legal system away from treating the environment as ‘resource’ and move to create laws that curb the excesses of our current system, allowing people and nature to exist and flourish together.
Patterns and Rules as words within the title are a direct juxtaposition of concept which this exhibition seeks to explore. This exhibition documents the coexistence of people and nature through observational mixed media landscapes and nature observations, as well as hand-stitched textiles and sculptural work that celebrate the diversity of our natural world. It tells the story of the landscapes in which we all live- both locally and across the state, the people within the landscape and the complexities we face in caring for the land which sustains us.
Documentary Patterns of My Days by Kerry Warnholtz https://youtu.be/dHzWfl81mE8
Coastal Component
Rural Component
Outback Component
In Transit
As part of my working and travelling I spent an inordinate amount of time in transit…waiting at airports, train stations, ferry terminals…it gave me time to observe fellow commuters and travellers and rendered quick sketches of them. These became a series of machine embroidered works to accompany the story that is the Patterns of my Days.
A Place is Made
The following work was created as part of the Double Vision Artist Exchange I attended, between council areas in Logan, Qld and Onkaparinga, S.A.some years ago
As I travelled by plane enthralled by the lines, patterns and colours created through the geology and geography of the land I came to realise that a place can be beautiful, interesting or complex but it is also the people who live there that connect you to the land. They too are a visceral tie to country and create the essence of that place. They are represented here in their diversity in stitched plant fibre circles. They literally and metaphorically represent actual people in my life. They are ‘pebbles in a pond’ rippling across the landscape, connected and interconnected- a web of life! The eco dyed silk is literally the landscape ‘made of the land’ dyed using plants collected in S.A. and Qld. Land and people connected yet separate.
The literal journey became a personal, internal journey for me of growth in many areas of my life. A journey made, in any form, always brings discovery.
Peripatetic River
Peripatetic-travelling from place to place, in particular working or based in various places for relatively short periods.
This work was created as part of the Double Vision Artist Exchange between council areas in Logan, Queensland and Onkaparinga, South Australia.It is my literal journey to South Australia and back to Queensland – the aerial landscape viewed from the plane window and the incredible lines, colours and patterns observed. The ceramic vessels tell the story of this journey…the landscape changing as I crossed this vast country, Australia and gathered plants that tie me to both Logan, Queensland and Onkaparinga, South Australia… the Albert and Logan rivers in my locale and the Onkaparinga River in South Australia winding through the countryside. The rivers have deep roots in indigenous culture, as a food source and in storytelling. An eco-dyed ‘river of silk’ using plants (gathered sustainably from both states), dyes the fabric that is the winding, wending, peripatetic river connecting the ‘landscape’ and the story of my journeys within it.
Patterns of my Days -Rights of Nature was to be exhibited at The Centre, Beaudesert, Scenic Rim Council area 27 March-15 july but due to COVID 19 had to be cancelled . Workshops linked to this exhibition were also cancelled.
I have instead created some online Workshops to accompany this Exhibition for Scenic Rim Council.
They are currently free till July 15th and can be found at: http://www.liveatthecentre.com.au/Workshop-2020-ONLINE-Therese-Flynn-Clarke-pg33038.html
