Roving Tea Plantation

The live art work Roving Tea Plantation is coming to Brunswick, Coburg, and Fawkner, as part of MoreArt18 this November and December, details soon to be announced.

The Roving Tea Plantation is a post-colonial meditation on tea.  Harnessing the incantation of the tea party, “fancy a cuppa?” and its revolutionary power to swing elections, start wars, and bring down colonies, this tea trail traverses the brewing arts and ceremony of Moreland’s historic and contemporary tea culture. A tea chest brimming with tea plants is pedalled along the art trail, laying down roots at five gathering grounds. Rovers enjoy a cuppa while listening to invited speakers discuss the importance of the drink in their culture.

Speakers include indigenous artist Cassie Leatham, Plant Biologist Dr. Tien Huynh, and the President of CWA’s Brunswick branch. Venues include Merlynston Progress Hall, Fawkner Cemetery, and Joe’s Market Garden.

Roving Tea Plantation

Tiny Tea Salon

The Tiny Tea Salon will be at Victoria Street Mall as part of the Coburg Carnivale, 11am - 3pm, Saturday 22nd September 2018.

The live artwork will sit alongside The Imaginarium outside the library.

Come and sip some liquid amber from a selection of preparations of the leaves from the queen of the camellias, whilst choosing, by chance, insights plucked from The Book of Tea, the 1906 treatise on the beverage.

Tiny Tea Salon


Cultivating Tastes as part of Pinpoint

Cultivating Tastes will be installed in unexpected places around Banyule as part of the  Pinpoint, Art in Public spaces program, during the month of September.

10 - 24 September                  Greensborough - Greensborough Walk (outside Watermarc)
24 September - 4 October     Heidelberg - Fred Lasslett Reserve (cnr Yarra & Mount Streets)
4 - 14 October                       Heidelberg West - Shop 48, Bell Street Mall

Cultivating Tastes

CSIRO artist in residence

I'm delighted to have been selected as a Synapse artist in residence with the CSIRO in Clayton, starting in July.

I will work with Xavier Mulet, JJ Richardson and the research team in Metal Organic Frameworks to investigate how such frameworks and their proposed biomedical applications might influence our understanding of what it is to be human. Metal organic framework materials are an advanced structure that is extremely ordered, porous and customisable. They grow in a crystal form and are extremely flexible, especially when combined with nanoparticles for additional functionality or attributes.

The residency was organised by ANAT and supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.  

Presenting at Future Artist-Maker Symposium

I will be skyping into the Future Artist-Maker Symposium this Friday to talk about my recent residency. My talk is titled 'Reflections on Ultralab Madrid residency / What came to matter in the relationally-defined assemblages that emerged'. There is a really interesting line-up of speakers so if you can make it — at the Nerve Visual Gallery, Ebrington on Friday 24 February from 11 am to 4 pm GMT — RSVP Karen Friel, k.friel@nervecentre.org 

From the printing press to colour photography to powerful laser cutters, the creativity of each generation’s artist-makers evolves in relation to new technologies. Find out how artist-makers from across Europe are critically engaging with the FabLab ethos of open-source design and creative collaboration, and how the combination of ‘new machines, new materials and new networks’ are beginning to make their mark. This is an opportunity for artists and makers to see the exhibition, hear from artists involved, network, and discuss new ways forward in using FabLab technologies.

More information about the Symposium can be found here

Ultralab, Madrid

I will be heading off to Spain over the summer to work at Ultralab as part of the Future Artist-Maker Labs project. I've been chatting with Gustavo, who directs operations there, to get a sense of the equipment I'll have access to and the materials that these machines are happy with. The good news is that Gustavo is a great believer in anything may be possible.

ultralab

Future Maker Artist Labs

I am delighted to have been selected as the artist representing Northern Ireland on the Future Artist-Maker Labs, an exciting international programme of art-making, exhibition, and networking.

Future Artist-Maker Labs will include artist residencies in each of the FabLabs during which established international artists will create new pieces of work for display in a major touring European Future Artist-Maker Exhibition scheduled for late 2016 / early 2017.

 

Invite: Exhuming the Archive Symposium

MCAC is holding a symposium exploring the themes of the exhibition Exhuming the Archive. This event will examine the unstable materials relied upon in contemporary remembering, the bodies that they reconfigure, and how they come to matter. This half day symposium will include lunch followed by presentations from three speakers, Michael O'Rourke, Tina Kinsella, and Rachel O'Dwyer. Matt Packer (Director, CCA Derry~Londonderry) will lead discussion afterwards.

exhuming the archive symposium

 

21 January 2016, 1-3.30 PM FREE. Places are limited, to book your free place contact geraldine@millenniumcourt.org or call MCAC on 0044(0) 28 3839 4415.

More information about the symposium here