Exhibitions featured below:
Darwin-Garramilla Shorebird Festival 2023 (Wall of Wings) 15 – 17 September 2023
Gallery Central, North Metropolitan TAFE, Perth WA (CORE) 14 June – 7 July 2023
Wall of Wings: Flyways Premier 6, 7 May 2023, Wynnum Majestic & New Farm cinemas, Brisbane QLD
Wall of Wings: EAAFP Meeting of Partners 12 – 17 March 2023, Royal on the Park Hotel, Brisbane QLD
Wall of Wings: Boondall 11 March - 19 May 2023, Boondall Wetlands Environment Centre, Boondall QLD
Wall of Wings: BIRD 8 February - 11 March 2023, Climarte Gallery, Richmond VIC
The Overwintering Project: Wodonga 15 - 29 October 2022, Creators Artspace, Wodonga VIC
Wall of Wings: Hobsons Bay 8 - 20 October 2022, Joel Gallery, Louis Joel Arts and Community Centre, Altona VIC
The Overwintering Project: Mallacoota 2 - 30 September 2022, Mallacoota Arts Space, Mallacoota VIC
Birds of a Feather 23 - 28 May, The Calyx, Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens NSW
The Miracle of Shorebird Migration 1 - 28 February 2022, Vancouver Arts Centre, Albany WA
17 February - 17 March 2022, Butter Factory Art Studios and Gallery, Denmark WA
9 March - 20 April 2022, Yongergnow Australian Malleefowl Centre, Ongerup WA
Overwintering: SAM 24 September - 14 November 2021, South Australian Museum, Adelaide SA
The Overwintering Project: Wild Island Tasmania 20 July - 20 August, Wild Island Tasmania, Hobart TAS
The Overwintering Project: Southern Tasmania 5 - 17 July 2021, Kingborough Community Hub, Kingston TAS
The Bigger Picture: Overwintering Project 4 June - 11 July 2021, Signal Point Gallery, Goolwa SA
The Overwintering Project: Western Port 6 March - 23 May 2021, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery VIC
Wall of Wings: Oak Hill Gallery 6 - 31 March 2021, Oak Hill Gallery, Mornington VIC
The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sanctuary 18 December 2020 - 7 February 2021, Burnie Regional Art Gallery TAS
Wetlanders: The Overwintering Project, Moreton Bay 25 October - 6 December 2020, Redland Art Gallery, Cleveland Qld
The Overwintering Project: Summer on the Swan 10 - 25 October 2020, Nyisztor Studio, Melville-Palmyra WA
The Overwintering Project 29 September - 18 October 2020, Estuary Arts Centre, Orewa New Zealand
The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sanctuary 14 March - 26 July 2020, Jervis Bay Maritime Museum NSW
Habitat - Overwintering Project Yamba 7 December 2019 - 18 January 2020, Yamba Art Space Gallery NSW
The Overwintering Project: Coffs Harbour 6 December 2019 - 8 February 2020, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery NSW
The Overwintering Project 11-24 October 2019, Alcoa Mandurah Art Gallery WA
Wetlanders 9-27 October 2019, me Artspace and Gallery, St. Leonards, NSW
The Overwintering Project 2 - 22 September 2019, Estuary Arts, Orewa New Zealand
The Overwintering Project Revisited at Hunter Wetlands 5 - 26 July 2019, The Hunter Wetlands Centre, Shortland NSW
The Overwintering Project: Charles Darwin University 28 June - 19 July 2019, CDU, Darwin NT
Overwintering Artists Book 8 June - 8 November 2019, Queensland State Library
The Overwintering Project: Hobson's Bay 10 May - 6 June 2019, Joel Gallery, Altona, Victoria
The Overwintering Project: Victoria's SW Coast 19 - 21 April 2019, Port Campbell Artspace Victoria
The Overwintering Project: Surf Coast Exhibition 11 - 28 April 2019, Surf Coast Artspace, Anglesea, Victoria
Wetlanders and the Overwintering artists book 2 - 30 March 2019, Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum Qld
Shorelines 8 February - 10 March 2019, Riddoch Art Gallery, Mount Gambier, SA; 15 March - 19 May 2019, Port Macdonnell Community Complex, SA
Overwintering 8 November - 31 December 2018, Wyndham Art Gallery Werribee, Victoria
The Overwintering Project: Maryborough, Queensland 30 October - 25 November 2018, Gataker's Artspace Qld
The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sanctuary 18 October - 10 November 2018, Moonah Arts Centre Tasmania
Across the Waves 26 September - 21 October 2018, The F Project Inc., Warrnambool Victoria
The Overwintering Project: Bound for Botany Bay 8 - 18 September 2018, Hazelhurst Art Centre NSW
Overwintering - Mapping Sanctuary Portland, Vic August 2018, Portland Bay Press Victoria
The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sanctuary (Newcastle) 23 - 24 June 2018, Newcastle Printmakers Workshop NSW
The Overwintering Project: Sydney 21 - 24 June 2018, Warringah Printmakers Studio Gallery NSW
Overwintering: Firestation Print Studio and Migaloo Press 20 June - 15 July 2018, Firestation Print Studio Gallery Vic.
Wall of Wings: Darwin-Garramilla Shorebird Festival 2023
15 – 17 September 2023
ABC Radio Darwin reported: 'The inaugural Darwin-Garramilla Shorebird Festival was a delight for all the senses. Every event was a love letter to the small but indefatigable birds, which fly endlessly from lands as far away as Siberia and Alaska before finally landing in front of an ecstatic clutch of nature lovers. To celebrate the arrival of the shorebirds, the local humans enjoyed shorebird poetry readings paired with locally made chocolate and coffee; performances of classical music by ARIA chart topping ensemble Bowerbird Collective; and a close encounter with the stars of the festival with the public viewing of the mighty migratory shorebirds as they replenished themselves in the warm rocks pools on Darwin's coast line.'
Presented by BirdLife Top End, the very first Darwin-Garramilla Shorebird Festival included a multitude of events across Darwin-Garramilla, Northern Territory. The aim of the festival is to engage and ignite the community of Darwin-Garramilla about shorebirds through the arts and sciences.
For the duration of the festival a beautiful selection of prints from the Wall of Wings took flight in the Lucky Bat Cafe in Darwin. Patrons and staff all loved sitting amid this swirling flock, that served as a very special accompaniment to the various festival events that were staged in the cafe.
Presented by BirdLife Top End, the very first Darwin-Garramilla Shorebird Festival included a multitude of events across Darwin-Garramilla, Northern Territory. The aim of the festival is to engage and ignite the community of Darwin-Garramilla about shorebirds through the arts and sciences.
For the duration of the festival a beautiful selection of prints from the Wall of Wings took flight in the Lucky Bat Cafe in Darwin. Patrons and staff all loved sitting amid this swirling flock, that served as a very special accompaniment to the various festival events that were staged in the cafe.
Overwintering over Winter: a Visual Story of Migratory Birds
Gallery Central, North Metropolitan TAFE, 29 May - 7 July
Perth WA
A collaboration between South Regional TAFE and North Metropolitan TAFE, this exhibition was the first ever collaboration between central and regional TAFEs in WA. It showcased the printmaking /art students and lecturers from South Regional TAFE and North Metropolitan TAFE (including campuses in Margaret River, Busselton, Bunbury, Denmark and Perth Metro). Students and lecturers made new works that were exhibited with selected works from the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio.
This was an amazing initiative - the first of its kind for the Overwintering Project and for the WA TAFEs. I am very grateful to Nikki Green, Artist and Art Lecturer at the Denmark Campus of South Regional TAFE who initiated this collaboration.
The purposes of the exhibition was:
1. To promote the VisualArts at TAFE WA
2. To showcase WA artists
3. To foster connections between regional and metropolitan communities
4. To build connections with the more than human world, raising awareness of the Miracle of Migratory Shorebirds
5. To use the print-media for effective and meaningful change
This was an amazing initiative - the first of its kind for the Overwintering Project and for the WA TAFEs. I am very grateful to Nikki Green, Artist and Art Lecturer at the Denmark Campus of South Regional TAFE who initiated this collaboration.
The purposes of the exhibition was:
1. To promote the VisualArts at TAFE WA
2. To showcase WA artists
3. To foster connections between regional and metropolitan communities
4. To build connections with the more than human world, raising awareness of the Miracle of Migratory Shorebirds
5. To use the print-media for effective and meaningful change
Wall of Wings: Flyways Premier
Wynnum Majestic Cinema, 6 May 2023
Wynnum QLD
I was approached by Sheena Gillman from BirdLife Southern Queensland who asked if she could have a Wall of Wings installation at the premier of the new Flyways film by Queensland film maker Randall Wood. The film is wonderful! It tracks the journeys of scientists following the flights of shorebirds through three Flyways, including the flight of the Eastern Curlew along the EAAF. It does not gloss over the challenges faced by our birds, so I hope that it will be a wonderful advocate for shorebird conservation. It also features spectacular footage of the birds and their habitat, and paints a portrait of the joys and frustrations faced by the scientists who work on these birds.
I sent a portion of our Wall of Wings, and they graced two showings, the World Premier on May 6 at the Majestic Cinema in Wynnum, and the Brisbane Premier at New Farm Cinemas, Brisbane on May 7.
Sheena wrote: ‘They were hugely effective…The Launch night went really well with 190 people; a full house to see the first screening of Flyways…That night over, we had a second release at New Farm where three cinemas sold out and people walked in off the street disappointed not to obtain tickets. So that saw Flyways well on its way to other cities and towns and it's just a wonderful achievement. Wynnum was a long corridor and one door - people were so much in admiration [of the prints]; New Farm was 3 cinemas - birds flew up the stairwell!’
I sent a portion of our Wall of Wings, and they graced two showings, the World Premier on May 6 at the Majestic Cinema in Wynnum, and the Brisbane Premier at New Farm Cinemas, Brisbane on May 7.
Sheena wrote: ‘They were hugely effective…The Launch night went really well with 190 people; a full house to see the first screening of Flyways…That night over, we had a second release at New Farm where three cinemas sold out and people walked in off the street disappointed not to obtain tickets. So that saw Flyways well on its way to other cities and towns and it's just a wonderful achievement. Wynnum was a long corridor and one door - people were so much in admiration [of the prints]; New Farm was 3 cinemas - birds flew up the stairwell!’
Wall of Wings: EAAFP Meeting of Partners
Royal on the Park Hotel, 12 – 17 March 2023
Brisbane QLD
This was a wonderful opportunity for the Overwintering Project: Wall of Wings, and a testament to the hard creative work of all the artists involved, worldwide, in this wonderful collaborative community environmental art initiative!
BirdLife Australia invited me to install a Wall of Wings in the Royal on the Park Hotel to be exhibited for the duration of the 11th East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership Meeting of Partners. The East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership is a network of partners within the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), the route followed by our migratory shorebirds from Australia and New Zealand to their breeding grounds above the Arctic circle. The East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) aims to protect migratory waterbirds, their habitat and the livelihoods of people dependent upon them. The Flyway is one of 9 major migratory routes recognised globally. Partners include National Governments, Inter-Governmental Organisations, International Non-governmental Organisations, and International Private Enterprise, which agree to support the objectives and actions under this Partnership.
Normally the Partners meet regularly to report against an Implementation Strategy, respond to emerging issues and priorities and discuss future collaboration, but due to the Pandemic this was the first meeting for some time.
It was an honour to be invited to include the Wall of Wings as part of the Meeting, and a wonderful opportunity to show international delegates both that the art community is engaged in the conservation of migratory shorebirds and that art has great power to engage people with migratory shorebirds. The Wall of Wings takes a full day to install, so many thanks to Sandra Taylor, Anna and Eden Leschke, Anthony Albrecht and Simone Slattery, and Pamela See for helping on installation day.
The delegates were very impressed with the final installation, which included over 700 prints of birds created by 250 individuals and 9 school groups from Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, USA, England, Scotland, Spain, Denmark, Hawaii, Ireland, Greece and Canada! Many were sad to see it come down at the end of the conference! The room with the display was where delegates broke out of meetings for meals, so everyone had plenty of opportunity to marvel at the prints. From the images below you can see that the room was greatly enhanced by our beautiful flock of artwork!
Many thanks to Dr Lindall Kidd and Dr Grainne McGuire from BirdLife Australia for the invitation, to Ms Vivian Fu, Senior Communication Officer of the EAAFP for her ongoing support for the Arts in the conservation of the Flyway, and also to the staff of the Royal on the Park Hotel for allowing us to install the Wall of Wings in their conference room.
Wall of Wings: Boondall
Boondall Wetlands Environment Centre, 11 March – 19 May 2023
Boondall QLD
This exhibition was been organised to coincide with the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership 11th Meeting of Partners in Brisbane in March, and featured an installation of the Wall of Wings on the Community Art Wall of the Boondall Wetlands Environment Centre and an accompanying exhibition of prints and ephemera in the adjacent cabinet.
Boondall Wetlands is located 15 kilometres north of Brisbane's CBD. Situated on the edge of Moreton Bay between Nudgee Beach, Boondall and Shorncliffe they are part of the Moreton Bay Ramsar site, and include approximately 1150 hectares of tidal flats, mangroves, saltmarshes, melaleuca wetlands, grasslands and open forest. It is home to a wide variety of native bird life inhabiting its tidal flats, mangroves and open forests. The wetlands offer habitats for over 190 species of birds, including migratory shorebirds.
The artwork in the cabinets included works by Sandra Pearce, Helen Kocis Edwards and Marama Warren.
Boondall Wetlands is located 15 kilometres north of Brisbane's CBD. Situated on the edge of Moreton Bay between Nudgee Beach, Boondall and Shorncliffe they are part of the Moreton Bay Ramsar site, and include approximately 1150 hectares of tidal flats, mangroves, saltmarshes, melaleuca wetlands, grasslands and open forest. It is home to a wide variety of native bird life inhabiting its tidal flats, mangroves and open forests. The wetlands offer habitats for over 190 species of birds, including migratory shorebirds.
The artwork in the cabinets included works by Sandra Pearce, Helen Kocis Edwards and Marama Warren.
Wall of Wings: BIRD
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The Overwintering Project: Wodonga
Creators Artspace Wodonga, 15 – 29 October 2022
Wodonga VIC
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The Overwintering Project: Wodonga was a first for the Overwintering Project, as it was our farthest INLAND Overwintering project exhibition to date! All other exhibitions have been held, not surprisingly, in galleries close to the coast, focussing on coastal wetland habitat. Wonga Wetlands, the subject of many of the works in this exhibition, is over 300 km from the coast, yet shorebirds such as Common Sandpiper, Great Knot, Latham's Snipe, Marsh Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and Wood Sandpiper have been recorded there over the years. So this exhibition served as a great reminder that shorebirds can occur inland - whether they are taking advantage of ephemeral wetlands or heading from the south to staging sites further north leading up to migration time.
Some of the works in the exhibition were also inspired by Winton Wetlands, which is just south of the NSW border. Just like the twin city Albury Wodonga, which has the best of both worlds north and south of the state border, shorebirds take no notice of borders! Work for the exhibition started with a wonderful (if rainy!) site visit back in May, when a group of intrepid artists joined Prof. Dave Watson from Charles Sturt University and visiting ornithologist, Dr Alex Bond, Senior Curator in change of Birds at the London Natural History Museum to talk about shorebirds and do some drawing in the (very wet!) wetlands. This was followed by two very enjoyable days of printmaking workshops led by me (eco-printing) and Melbourne-based artist Bronwyn Rees (drypoint etching) at the Creators Artspace. |
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The resulting exhibition featured works in a variety of media, from tapestry and eco-printing to artists books and cyanotypes by artists including Lea Casey, Abi Thompson, Leanne O’Toole, Ellen Engwerda, Therese Pitman, Stephanie Jakovic, Anne Riggs, Jess Gray, Valma Cairns and Bronwyn Rees. It was opened by wonderful local independent MP Helen Haines.
Thanks so much to Lea Casey who has been the driving force behind this exhibition, and to the wonderful artists of Creators Artspace for their enthusiasm and hospitality.
Thanks so much to Lea Casey who has been the driving force behind this exhibition, and to the wonderful artists of Creators Artspace for their enthusiasm and hospitality.
Images above: Top: Wonga Wetlands photograph by Kate Gorringe-Smith. Bottom left: Valma Cairns, Safe Haven for Now, 2021. Linocut on ecoprint. Bottom right: Paul Temple, Misty Morning Wonga Wetlands, 2022, Cyanotype.
Wall of Wings: Hobsons Bay
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The biggest Wall of Wings yet, this exhibition featured prints by 222 individual artists and 5 schools, including contributions from artists in Australia, Mexico, England, the USA, Greece, New Zealand, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Spain and Scotland.
Also included in the exhibition were a series of whimsical shorebird sculptures made by students from St Mary’s Primary School, Colac, with artist Veronica Phillips. These sculptures are part of Phillips’ ongoing Extravagant Birds community art project that brings to life the need for habitat protection for endangered species in farming and rural communities. Students use farm waste – wire, haybale twine, metal, plastic and found objects such as tap heads and hose nozzles – to make sculptures about the region’s threatened bird species whose habitat is at risk when waste is not disposed of properly.
The opening also featured poetry readings by three students from Dandenong High School who had participated in the newest Overwintering Project initiative, Stories of Home. In May 2021, Stories of Home, a part of the project focussing on writing and performance, premiered as part of the World Migratory Bird Day festivities at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, featuring performances by Rea Dennis, Robin Oyales and Arman Tejani. Stories of Home invites young people to present migration stories, or stories of home, using migratory shorebirds as a starting point. By introducing young people who are not necessarily already engaged with the birds of the Flyway and the activities of World Migratory Bird Day and linking their personal experiences with the birds’ annual migrations, we hope to create a personal bond and interest between the participants and their communities and their local migratory birds and their habitat.
Stories of Home 2022 was a collaboration between the Overwintering Project, Connections Art Space (CAS) Dandenong (a small community-based art organisation), and Dandenong High School. Jessica Tanto, Program Co-ordinator at (CAS) liaised with Elena Dimascolo (Learning Specialist, Transitional EAL), Somayeh Farahani (student support teacher and translator) and Rebecca McPherson (Art Teacher) to work with a group of 35 students from refugee backgrounds who had been in Australia for under 12 months and spoke English as an additional language. The students were from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
The school picked the students, aged 14-18 who were keen to be involved. Half the group - those who were confident enough with their English Language skills - took part in a poetry workshop run by Chichi Nwokocha where migratory shorebirds were introduced as a concept and also as a metaphor for human migration. The children were invited to participate in creating a group poem and to write a poem of their own using the migratory shorebird metaphor. The other half of the group undertook a printmaking workshop with Kate Gorringe-Smith to make linocuts of migratory shorebirds which would both illustrate the poetry booklet and be part of the upcoming Wall of Wings exhibition at the Joel Gallery in Altona. Dandenong High School hosted both workshops. Both groups were given BirdLife Australia information on migratory shorebirds and were told about the birds, their migrations, and where they live in Melbourne and surrounds.
Three of the Dandenong High School students, Yakop, Maryam and Zuhra came with teachers Elena and Somayeh to the opening on October 8, where they performed their poems. Maryam and Zuhra, from Afghanistan, performed theirs in both English and their first language, Dari. They received a gift presented by the Mayor of Hobson’s Bay, Cr Peter Hemphill, who opened the exhibition.
Migratory birds offer the perfect metaphor for human migration as they are compelled by their biology to travel annually between two ‘homes’ – their breeding and non-breeding grounds. Their lives provide a metaphor free from political association or judgement, framing the phenomenon of migration as a global necessity shared by humans and animals – the desire to find safe haven. Through this activity we hope to bring a new audience to World Migratory Bird Day, engaging local youth and their friends, families and school communities. The activity aims to give a voice and build confidence in the group of young participants while also engaging a diverse audience who may not otherwise consider participating in a World Migratory Bird Day Event.
The 2022 iteration of Stories of Home, workshops, exhibition and performance was a beautiful experience. It was a great opportunity to work with a large school with a diverse community and introduce the story of migratory shorebirds to students, staff and families. The school was very pleased with the outcome and, despite Dandenong and Altona being on opposite sides of Melbourne, made the effort firstly to bring the three students who performed to the exhibition opening on October 8 and the entire class of 35 students to the gallery.
Helen Timbury, Overwintering Project artist and graphic designer worked to create a beautiful booklet of the poems illustrated by the student’s linocuts. Each of the students involved and the school received copies of the booklet.
Chichi Nwokocha, who ran the poetry workshop, wrote to me: ‘It went very well! The class was filled with beautiful and thoughtful young adults. We were able to achieve a group poem and most finished their individual poems. The response from the teacher's was very positive and they have asked me back.’ (email September 8 2022) and ‘I believe the students were happy, especially by the end of the workshop. Many of the students wanted to share or have their poems read out loud.’
It was a real honour to work with these young people. The 2022 Stories of Home Project was funded by an East Asian Australasian Flyway Partnership WMBD Small Grant and by Overwintering Project funds raised from artists’ fees.
The exhibition was opened on October 8, World Migratory Bird Day, by Hobsons Bay Mayor, Councillor Peter Hemphill and Karen Ingram, Manager of the Louis Joel Arts and Community Centre.
Also included in the exhibition were a series of whimsical shorebird sculptures made by students from St Mary’s Primary School, Colac, with artist Veronica Phillips. These sculptures are part of Phillips’ ongoing Extravagant Birds community art project that brings to life the need for habitat protection for endangered species in farming and rural communities. Students use farm waste – wire, haybale twine, metal, plastic and found objects such as tap heads and hose nozzles – to make sculptures about the region’s threatened bird species whose habitat is at risk when waste is not disposed of properly.
The opening also featured poetry readings by three students from Dandenong High School who had participated in the newest Overwintering Project initiative, Stories of Home. In May 2021, Stories of Home, a part of the project focussing on writing and performance, premiered as part of the World Migratory Bird Day festivities at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, featuring performances by Rea Dennis, Robin Oyales and Arman Tejani. Stories of Home invites young people to present migration stories, or stories of home, using migratory shorebirds as a starting point. By introducing young people who are not necessarily already engaged with the birds of the Flyway and the activities of World Migratory Bird Day and linking their personal experiences with the birds’ annual migrations, we hope to create a personal bond and interest between the participants and their communities and their local migratory birds and their habitat.
Stories of Home 2022 was a collaboration between the Overwintering Project, Connections Art Space (CAS) Dandenong (a small community-based art organisation), and Dandenong High School. Jessica Tanto, Program Co-ordinator at (CAS) liaised with Elena Dimascolo (Learning Specialist, Transitional EAL), Somayeh Farahani (student support teacher and translator) and Rebecca McPherson (Art Teacher) to work with a group of 35 students from refugee backgrounds who had been in Australia for under 12 months and spoke English as an additional language. The students were from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
The school picked the students, aged 14-18 who were keen to be involved. Half the group - those who were confident enough with their English Language skills - took part in a poetry workshop run by Chichi Nwokocha where migratory shorebirds were introduced as a concept and also as a metaphor for human migration. The children were invited to participate in creating a group poem and to write a poem of their own using the migratory shorebird metaphor. The other half of the group undertook a printmaking workshop with Kate Gorringe-Smith to make linocuts of migratory shorebirds which would both illustrate the poetry booklet and be part of the upcoming Wall of Wings exhibition at the Joel Gallery in Altona. Dandenong High School hosted both workshops. Both groups were given BirdLife Australia information on migratory shorebirds and were told about the birds, their migrations, and where they live in Melbourne and surrounds.
Three of the Dandenong High School students, Yakop, Maryam and Zuhra came with teachers Elena and Somayeh to the opening on October 8, where they performed their poems. Maryam and Zuhra, from Afghanistan, performed theirs in both English and their first language, Dari. They received a gift presented by the Mayor of Hobson’s Bay, Cr Peter Hemphill, who opened the exhibition.
Migratory birds offer the perfect metaphor for human migration as they are compelled by their biology to travel annually between two ‘homes’ – their breeding and non-breeding grounds. Their lives provide a metaphor free from political association or judgement, framing the phenomenon of migration as a global necessity shared by humans and animals – the desire to find safe haven. Through this activity we hope to bring a new audience to World Migratory Bird Day, engaging local youth and their friends, families and school communities. The activity aims to give a voice and build confidence in the group of young participants while also engaging a diverse audience who may not otherwise consider participating in a World Migratory Bird Day Event.
The 2022 iteration of Stories of Home, workshops, exhibition and performance was a beautiful experience. It was a great opportunity to work with a large school with a diverse community and introduce the story of migratory shorebirds to students, staff and families. The school was very pleased with the outcome and, despite Dandenong and Altona being on opposite sides of Melbourne, made the effort firstly to bring the three students who performed to the exhibition opening on October 8 and the entire class of 35 students to the gallery.
Helen Timbury, Overwintering Project artist and graphic designer worked to create a beautiful booklet of the poems illustrated by the student’s linocuts. Each of the students involved and the school received copies of the booklet.
Chichi Nwokocha, who ran the poetry workshop, wrote to me: ‘It went very well! The class was filled with beautiful and thoughtful young adults. We were able to achieve a group poem and most finished their individual poems. The response from the teacher's was very positive and they have asked me back.’ (email September 8 2022) and ‘I believe the students were happy, especially by the end of the workshop. Many of the students wanted to share or have their poems read out loud.’
It was a real honour to work with these young people. The 2022 Stories of Home Project was funded by an East Asian Australasian Flyway Partnership WMBD Small Grant and by Overwintering Project funds raised from artists’ fees.
The exhibition was opened on October 8, World Migratory Bird Day, by Hobsons Bay Mayor, Councillor Peter Hemphill and Karen Ingram, Manager of the Louis Joel Arts and Community Centre.
The Overwintering Project: Mallacoota
Mallacoota Arts Space, 2 – 30 September 2022
Mallacoota VIC
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The Overwintering Project: Mallacoota included prints by local artists destined to join the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio alongside a variety of other works including prints, paintings and a series of mobiles by sculptor Jade Oakley. Local school students made sculptural works to go down the middle of the gallery space, and works were also contributed by artists supported by Reclink Australia.
I was thrilled to join local environmentalist Leonie Daws on the afternoon of September 2nd to open The Overwintering Project: Mallacoota at the Sports Centre Hall on the traditional lands of the Gunai people. Many thanks to Yolande Oakley and her wonderful team of voluntary helpers for making this exhibition happen. |
Birds of a Feather
The Calyx, Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens, 23 – 29 May 2022
Sydney NSW
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This exhibition was a great credit to its artists, members of the Bathurst Street Printmakers and the Campbell Collective, and its driving force, organiser, artist and tutor Cilla Campbell. Due to multiple lockdowns, the exhibition was postponed four times between 2020 and it's final appearance in May 2022! But Cilla refused to give up or go online, and the result was a triumph! Many of the contributing artists chose to donate some or all proceeds from the sale of their works to the Overwintering Project, and I would like to extend a particular thank you to Helen White, who put her beautiful linocut and collage up for silent auction with all proceeds to go to the Overwintering Project and therefore, ultimately, to BirdLife Australia's migratory shorebird research and conservation projects. Tragically, Pamela Mansfield, another of the contributing artists, passed away before she saw the exhibition come to fruition. Pamela's works were still part of the exhibition, and I was deeply touched by her wish that all funds from sales of her work also be donated to the Overwintering Project. Many thanks to all who were involved. Bottom Left:: Helen White, 2022, Godwits Fly Home, Australia to Siberia Non-Stop!, linocut and collage. Artist's statement: Eyes narrowed against the elements, the courageous Bar-tailed Godwits make their annual overwintering journey from Siberia to Australia on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, a distance of over 10,000 km. They arrive battered & starving, on various mudflats in Australia after travelling non-stop to arrive at their feeding grounds in spring. Here they rest, recover, feed, replace body fat and damaged feathers until it is time to return to Siberia and breed until winter arrives and the cycle begins again. In 2007 a Bar-tailed Godwit made the longest known non-stop flight of any bird. Its flight of 11,026 km took approximately 9 days. Bar-tailed Godwits are threatened by habitat loss due to residential and commercial development, expansion of agriculture and mining, climate change, pollution, hunting and human disturbance. They deserve our awareness. |
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The Miracle of Shorebird Migration
Vancouver Arts Centre, 1 - 28 February 2022
Albany WA
Butter Factory Art Studios and Gallery, 17 February - 17 March 2022
Denmark WA
Yongergnow Australian Malleefowl Centre, 9 March - 20 April 2022
Ongerup WA
A collaboration between the Overwintering Project, the 2022 South Coast Festival of Birds and Biodiversity and Denmark Arts, The Miracle of Shorebird Migration featured the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio alongside works by local artists.
The South Coast Festival of Birds and Biodiversity is an amazing annual festival run by Green Skills Inc, an innovative organisation that develops and manages environmental and community projects across Perth and regional WA. The festival includes an array of entertaining and educational community events showcasing the unique and beautiful bird fauna and biodiversity of the south coast of Western Australia. The 2022 South Coast Festival of Birds & Biodiversity took place over the months of January through April. This year there was also a strong focus on climate action.
The Miracle of Shorebird Migration exhibitions feature the 336 original prints of the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio split between two beautiful venues in Albany and Denmark WA. Special thanks to Basil Schur of Green Skills Inc. for bringing the Portfolio over and including the exhibitions in the Festival. The exhibitions are supported by Lotterywest, Green Skills inc., BirdLife WA, Denmark Bird Group, the Butter Factory Studio Gallery, Arts Albany, Vancouver Arts and Denmark Arts. Many thanks to all those who have worked to make this possible.
The South Coast Festival of Birds and Biodiversity is an amazing annual festival run by Green Skills Inc, an innovative organisation that develops and manages environmental and community projects across Perth and regional WA. The festival includes an array of entertaining and educational community events showcasing the unique and beautiful bird fauna and biodiversity of the south coast of Western Australia. The 2022 South Coast Festival of Birds & Biodiversity took place over the months of January through April. This year there was also a strong focus on climate action.
The Miracle of Shorebird Migration exhibitions feature the 336 original prints of the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio split between two beautiful venues in Albany and Denmark WA. Special thanks to Basil Schur of Green Skills Inc. for bringing the Portfolio over and including the exhibitions in the Festival. The exhibitions are supported by Lotterywest, Green Skills inc., BirdLife WA, Denmark Bird Group, the Butter Factory Studio Gallery, Arts Albany, Vancouver Arts and Denmark Arts. Many thanks to all those who have worked to make this possible.
Overwintering: SAM
South Australian Museum, 24 September – 14 November 2021
Adelaide SA
The Overwintering: SAM exhibition was part of Adelaide's Nature Festival 2021. Many thanks to Maya Penck, the Collection Manager of Ornithology and to Tim Gilchrist, Exhibition Manager, at the South Australia Museum for making this wonderful event happen! It was such a thrill to see the prints at a national institution for the very first time.
Tim wrote to me at the exhibition's end to say, 'Thanks so much for letting us host the prints. I loved seeing our visitors stopping to contemplate them, along with the accompanying Museum specimens. They made such a great impact in the Museum’s foyer...Over the course of the exhibition (24 September – 14 November 2021) the Museum had 86,696 visitors. I can’t guarantee all of them stopped to see the Overwintering prints, however in the central location we have to assume a large proportion did. I’ve attached a few photos of the prints on display, they really did look great!' Tim oversaw the installation of the prints, and Maya curated a beautiful accompanying display of specimens from the Museum's collection.
Works by Julia Wakefield, Joanne Mildenhall, and Mary Pulford from the previous exhibition The Overwintering Project: the Bigger Picture by Bittondi Printmakers were also be on exhibition in the Museum during the Nature Festival of South Australia, 24 September – 4 October 2021.
It was a wonderful opportunity to have the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio at the Museum, as Adelaide is home to Australia's only International Shorebird Sanctuary. In addition to the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park - Winaityinaityi Pangkara, South Australia has significant migratory shorebird habitat throughout the State, including six Ramsar sites. The exhibition provided a great opportunity to focus on the importance of these wetlands and the role they play in our international ecology.
Below: The Overwintering Project Print Portfolio in the SAM foyer; Adelaide shown as part of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, the path flown by our migratory shorebirds from their breeding habitat in the northern hemisphere to their overwintering or non-breeding habitat in the southern hemisphere. Our Flyway passes through 23 countries from Australia and New Zealand to Siberia and Alaska, and is one of nine Flyways used by migratory birds that encircles the globe. Graphic courtesy of the South Australian Museum; Overwintering didactic; Mary Pulford's installation of '6 Degrees'; display of specimens by Maya Penck.
Tim wrote to me at the exhibition's end to say, 'Thanks so much for letting us host the prints. I loved seeing our visitors stopping to contemplate them, along with the accompanying Museum specimens. They made such a great impact in the Museum’s foyer...Over the course of the exhibition (24 September – 14 November 2021) the Museum had 86,696 visitors. I can’t guarantee all of them stopped to see the Overwintering prints, however in the central location we have to assume a large proportion did. I’ve attached a few photos of the prints on display, they really did look great!' Tim oversaw the installation of the prints, and Maya curated a beautiful accompanying display of specimens from the Museum's collection.
Works by Julia Wakefield, Joanne Mildenhall, and Mary Pulford from the previous exhibition The Overwintering Project: the Bigger Picture by Bittondi Printmakers were also be on exhibition in the Museum during the Nature Festival of South Australia, 24 September – 4 October 2021.
It was a wonderful opportunity to have the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio at the Museum, as Adelaide is home to Australia's only International Shorebird Sanctuary. In addition to the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park - Winaityinaityi Pangkara, South Australia has significant migratory shorebird habitat throughout the State, including six Ramsar sites. The exhibition provided a great opportunity to focus on the importance of these wetlands and the role they play in our international ecology.
Below: The Overwintering Project Print Portfolio in the SAM foyer; Adelaide shown as part of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, the path flown by our migratory shorebirds from their breeding habitat in the northern hemisphere to their overwintering or non-breeding habitat in the southern hemisphere. Our Flyway passes through 23 countries from Australia and New Zealand to Siberia and Alaska, and is one of nine Flyways used by migratory birds that encircles the globe. Graphic courtesy of the South Australian Museum; Overwintering didactic; Mary Pulford's installation of '6 Degrees'; display of specimens by Maya Penck.
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The Overwintering Project: Wild Island Tasmania
Wild Island Tasmania, 20 July – 17 August 2021
Salamanca Place, Hobart TAS
Wild Island in Hobart's Salamanca Place promotes and celebrates Tasmania's wild places through art and design, workshops and events. They do this by sourcing local, artisan made wares and ethically produced products and curating a yearly calendar of exhibitions, workshops and community events.
Wild Island hosted the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio in mid-2021. To coincide with the exhibition, on August 4 Wild Island hosted an event focussing on Migratory Shorebirds in Tasmania. The speakers were Andrew Darby, author of 'Flight Lines' and BirdLife Tasmania convenor Eric Woehler. The free event was fully booked.
Wild Island hosted the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio in mid-2021. To coincide with the exhibition, on August 4 Wild Island hosted an event focussing on Migratory Shorebirds in Tasmania. The speakers were Andrew Darby, author of 'Flight Lines' and BirdLife Tasmania convenor Eric Woehler. The free event was fully booked.
The Overwintering Project: Southern Tasmania
Kingborough Community Hub, 5 – 17 July 2021
Kingston TAS
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This exhibition featured the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio and the beautiful OVERWINTERING artists book by Victoria's Firestation Print Studio and Queensland's Migaloo Press. Many thanks to Caroline Choi for organising both this exhibition and the one at Wild Island Tasmania!!
Image below: OVERWINTERING artists book. Photo by Karen Neal. 
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The Bigger Picture: Overwintering Project
Signal Point Gallery, 4 June – 11 July 2021
Goolwa SA
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An exhibition curated by Bittondi Printmakers’ Association Inc., The Bigger Picture was a South Australian perspective on the Overwintering Project. Bittondi Printmakers’ Association Inc. widened the focus by considering the changing environments that our migratory shorebirds encounter due to climate change, industrial development, and agricultural practice, with particular reference to the South Australian coast and its specific local issues.
I was lucky enough to catch the very end of The Bigger Picture between Victoria's lockdowns. A fitting site for this wonderfully diverse exhibition, Signal Point Gallery lies at the mouth of the Murray River - the much contended body of water that flows into the Coorong, one of SA's most important sites for migratory shorebirds. Signal Point is a large gallery, light and spacious, and exhibition organiser Julia Wakefield told me that the gallery's size was a challenge to the Bittondi artists to make work as they had never done before! |
In her talk at the exhibition's opening, Julia said, 'I suggested the idea of an Overwintering exhibition to Bittondi Printmakers 2 ½ years ago, and we accordingly booked Signal Point Gallery, with the idea of challenging ourselves to work on a larger and more ambitious scale than we had ever done before as a group. Hence the name: the Bigger Picture – it’s not just about the scale of the artworks, but it’s also about conveying the increasingly vast scale of the problems that our shorebirds face during their journeys ... I want to express my sincere thanks to ... Mary Moore, a Bittondi member whose lifetime professional experience as a stage designer fired us all up with her vision of the dramatic possibilities of this space. She exhorted us to think beyond ‘prints on paper’, demonstrating the 3d possibilities that this space invited.'
The artists certainly rose to this challenge! The exhibition featured 2D images depicting landscape and seascapes as well as other birds and animals that inhabit the shoreline, artists’ books, installations and collaborative works. Playing in the theatrette next to the exhibition was a short video, Wrack or Ruin? about shorebirds by local birder Jennifer Hiscock, alternating with sound poem On the wings of a Godwit, a collaboration between Kate Gorringe-Smith and The Bowerbird Collective, Simone Slattery and Anthony Albrecht.
In her article for the Imprint blog, contributing artist and Print Council of Australia SA representative Mei Sheong Wong describes some highlights of the exhibition:
'Moore’s delightful mobile, Under our wings, suspends a flock of 52 bird forms along the wall. Atmospheric movement of these lightweight creations/shadows conveys the wonder of migratory shorebirds’ annual, airborne journeys, across the vast surface of our planet.
Boldly extending across the opposite wall, The Bigger Picture: Birds Eye View comprises 14 prints, based on the viewpoint/habitats of migratory shorebirds, by Caon, Moore, Lane, Wakefield, Mildenhall, Pulford Brown, Starkey Simon and Wright. Their diverse techniques include waterless lithography, etching, monotype, trace monoprint, cyanotype, intaglio monotype, blind embossing and rust on paper.
Mildenhall’s stunning cyanotypes (experimentally developed using tidal sea water and beach detritus) counterpoint her unique, free-form installation at the heart of the exhibition, The Invisible/Visible Threads of Connection. This ‘fish-net’ centrepiece playfully incorporates disparate elements – such as natural jute string, trace monoprint, cardstock, powdered pigment powder, tracing paper and jewellery elastic.
A sumptuous series of screen/digital prints by Przygonski (in collaboration with Victoria May) includes translucent, hanging panels of drafting ‘vellum’ sheets in Adrift. Flotsam and jetsam motifs were developed from marine debris. Sophisticated imagery of ocean trash – consumed by wildlife, polluting their breeding grounds – highlights ecological disaster for bird colonies.
Pulford Brown’s quirky installation, The Overwintering Project: Six Degrees, includes more than 90 delightful, hand-printed postcards of shorebirds – out of about 250 that were sent out, to places as distant as Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Taiwan. These have been duly posted back to Adelaide, from participants far and near – in Alaska, British Columbia, Ireland, Siberia, interstate, SA, etc. Apart from raising awareness of shorebird journeys, this appealing, interactive project manifests our interpersonal connections, within a complex and diverse eco-system.
Seaweed Mounds by Starkey Simon comprises a minimalist, ‘quiet’ installation of dainty etchings on Nepalese paper – also translated into individual, hand-coloured etchings. This sensitive work tenderly alludes to personal, haptic responses towards transient shorebird habitats/activity along the coast.'
You can read Mei's full review here. You can also hear an interview with exhibition co-ordinator Julia Wakefield, speaking with Emma Wotzke on Radio Adelaide here.
The Bigger Picture featured works by Bittondi artists Nadia Caon, Mary Moore, Sandra Starkey Simon, Geoff Gibbons, Lloma Mackenzie, Wendy Wright, Kim Horn, Andrea Prygonski, Michelle Lane, Mei Sheong Wong, Joanne Mildenhall, Camilo Esparza, Victoria May, Janette Nicholls, and exhibition co-ordinator Julia Wakefield.
Some of the works from The Bigger Picture were also featured in The Overwintering Project: SAM at the South Australian Museum.
Below: Mary Moore, 2021, Under Our Wings, 52 suspended birds, waterless lithograph and digital print on archival paper (detail).
Images below. Top Left: Julia Wakefield, 2021, Fragile (Nine Days), water-based relief printing on tissue paper, collaged on organza silk with archival glue, Tasmanian Oak, leather, brass screws, steel staples (detail). Top centre: Mary Pulford, 2021, The Overwintering Project: Six Degrees, installation of originally printed and posted postcards, size variable (detail). Top right: Joanne Mildenhall, 2021, The Invisible/Visible Threads of Connection, multi-media, dimensions variable (detail). Centre left: Sandra Starkey Simon, 2021, Seaweed Mounds, etching, dimensions variable. Photography: Graham Houghton. Centre right: Geoff Gibbons, 2021, Coexistence. Bar-tailed Godwits and Coastal Development, etching (detail). Bottom left: Joanne Mildenhall, 2021, The Invisible/Visible Threads of Connection, multi-media, dimensions variable (exhibition view). Bottom right: Mary Pulford, 2021, The Overwintering Project: Six Degrees, installation of originally printed and posted postcards, size variable (exhibition view).
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The Overwintering Project: Western Port
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 6 March – 23 May 2021
Mornington VIC
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Western Port, Victoria's large shallow bay to the east of Port Phillip and about an hour's drive from Melbourne, is a globally significant, unique environment. This is recognised through the heritage and custodianship of its traditional owners, the Boon Wurring people, and its national and international ecological significance as a Ramsar site (or wetland of international importance), a BirdLife Australia Key Biodiversity Area and a UNESCO Biosphere protected and recognised by numerous international treaties.
Western Port has numerous overwintering sites for migratory shorebirds. According to Western Port’s Ecological Character Description as a Ramsar site, ‘It is one of the three most important areas for migratory waders [i.e. shorebirds] in Victoria. Wader surveys indicate that Western Port supports about 10,000 waders (approximately 12 per cent the Victorian population).’ In fact, ‘The Ramsar site is one of the most important areas for migratory waders in south-east Australia. Wader surveys indicate that the site supports up to 39 species, and includes 10 000 to 15 000 summer migrants, which is approximately 12–16 per cent of the Victorian population.’ |
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To celebrate this unique place, as well as featuring the entire Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, the Overwintering Project: Western Port included works in a variety of media by 18 curated artists and two scientists, 15 of whom made works specifically for the exhibition in response to the Western Port environment. The creation of these works was in part supported by a grant from Creative Victoria. The content of the exhibition was also supported by the Western Port Biosphere Foundation and the Victorian wader Studies group. The exhibition celebrated the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Ramsar convention, and was dedicated to the memory of Dr Clive Minton, father of Australian shorebird research.
The exhibition featured works by curated artists Alexis Beckett, Andrej Kocis, Beverley Meldrum, Byron Scullin, Heather Hesterman, Dominic White, Hank Tyler, Helen Kocis Edwards, Jan Parker, Kate Gorringe-Smith, Khue Nguyen, Lindy Yeates, Liz Walker, Magda Miranda Arnone, Rea Dennis, and Simeon Lisovski, all of whom made works in response to the Western Port environment; Cathryn Vasseleu and Raymond Arnold who have donated works to the project; Amanda Lilleyman who permitted us to reproduce and display figures from her current research on the Eastern Curlew; and the artists of the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio |
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In her review of the exhibition for the Imprint blog, Bec Westlund wrote:
Kate Gorringe-Smith’s latest iteration of the project strikes a careful balance between the ecological light and the dark. It cultivates hope for the future while conveying the very real threat of habitat destruction, presenting the beauty and fragility of the local Western Port ecosystem and pushing back in protest against AGL’s gas plans for Western Port Bay. Every one of the 20 curated artists featured in the exhibition has represented their chosen subject matter with tenderness and honesty, either the birds themselves or the biodiverse habitats that nurture them, with 15 of these artists responding directly to Western Port through their artwork.
On entering the gallery space of The Overwintering Project: Western Port, you find yourself transported into a captivating sensory experience. A plinth of both cast and collected treasures from the ocean rests on a bed of sand [1] in the foreground of a human-sized fragmented Eastern Curlew print [2]. This larger-than-life print is juxtapositioned alongside a life-sized pair of meticulously crafted metal Eastern Curlew wings [3].
A flock of shorebirds fly in a mesmerising dance on a screen [4], while others call and sing through the gallery sound system [5], surrounding you with the hum of birds that are both everywhere and nowhere. In one of the most poignant pieces, experienced in action only at the opening of the exhibition, a shorebird sculpted from frozen paint melts while the artist dances in a representation of grief and loss of home. All that is left behind for future gallery visitors is a skeleton-like wire form, with the bird now disappeared into a pool at its feet [6].
The exhibition continues on to include poetry [7], hand-carved wooden sculptures[8], etchings [7], chromogenic print [9], linocuts, monoprint and collage[10], embroidery [11], installation pieces [12, 13], video works [14, 15], live plants [12], maps [16], digital artworks [17, 18], drawing [19], photography, a wearable Hooded Plover sculpture [13], and even a classical music composition [20]. The curated artists who produced these works include Raymond Arnold, Alexis Beckett, Rea Dennis, Hank Tyler, Heather Hesterman, Andrej Kocis, Helen Kocis Edwards, Simeon Lisovski, Beverley Meldrum, Magda Miranda Arnone, Khue Nguyen, Jan Parker, Liz Walker, Cathryn Vasseleu, the Bowerbird Collective, Dominic White, Lindy Yeates, Byron Scullin and Kate Gorringe-Smith herself.
Of course, The Overwintering Project: Western Port features the print portfolio itself, a collection of prints by 260 artists from Australia and New Zealand. Artworks donated to the project have been made in response to each artist’s local shorebird habitat, in all types of printmaking mediums, and all to the size of 28 x 28 cm. Exhibited on the far wall of Mornington Peninsula Gallery, 306 portfolio prints are presented together in a grid formation that takes up an overwhelming space 10 metres wide and 2.5 metres tall.
Shown in this way the prints come together as a glorious mixed flock of all types of shorebirds, along with their habitats, in both colour and black and white.'
I'd like to thank all the artists involved in this exhibition and the staff of the MPRG who made it so memorable. The exhibition also included an extensive public program which included a site visit for members of the public accompanied by local scientific experts from the Western Port Biosphere Foundation, talks, workshops, guided tours and a beautiful World Migratory Bird Day celebration on May 8.
Works referred to above: [1] Beverley Meldrum; [2] Kate Gorringe-Smith; [3] Liz Walker; [4] Cathryn Vasseleu; [5] Byron Scullin; [6] Magda Miranda Arnone; [7] Raymond Arnold's etching Eastern Curlew featuring Sarah Day's poem; [8] Hank Tyler; [9] Jan Parker; [10] Helen Kocis Edwards; [11] Alexis Beckett; [12] Heather Hesterman; [13] Dominic White; [14] Rea Dennis; [15] Simeon Lisovski; [16] Amanda Lilleyman; [17] Khue Nguyen; [18] Andrej Kocis; [19] Lindy Yeates; [20] the Bowerbird Collective.
Below: Top left: Beverley Meldrum, 2019, Grounded Memories, bronze, found shells/bone, coral. Dimensions variable (detail). Top right: Andrej Kocis, 2021, Western Port Air Corps, digital insignia designs on cardboard model spitfires. Below left: Alexis Beckett, 2021, Mementoes and Memories, cotton, linen, jute and silk. Individual bags 29.5 x 21 cm (detail). Below right: Hank Tyler, 2005, Dunlin Sandpiper pair, Osage Orange Wood, 19.5 x 30.5 x 12.5 cm. One in a series of 6. Centre image: Heather Hesterman, 2021, Islands (habitat model), welded steel, plywood and acrylic mirror, plastic, LED grow lights, soil, water and plants. Domensions variable. Second from bottom: Dominic White, 2021, Hoodie Empathy Suit, wattle saplings, cotton thread, kelp and epoxy resins. Performance documented by Andrew Kopp. Bottom: Kate Gorringe-Smith, 2021, Eastern Curlew, Western Port Icon: I am My Habitat, linocut on ecoprint, 300 x 250 cm.
Wall of Wings: Oak Hill Gallery
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The Wall of Wings was first created by Overwintering Project artist Penelope Lawry as part of the Coffs' Harbour Regional Art Gallery Overwintering Project exhibition over the summer of 2019-2020. It is an inclusive print-based community installation, open to artists of any age.
The Wall of Wings at Oak Hill Gallery occurred concurrently with the Overwintering Project: Western Port at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. It was a beautiful complementary exhibition, as Oak Hill is only a 500 m walk from the MPRG.
The Wall of Wings at Oak Hill Gallery occurred concurrently with the Overwintering Project: Western Port at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. It was a beautiful complementary exhibition, as Oak Hill is only a 500 m walk from the MPRG.
The Oak Hill exhibition was the first full-gallery iteration of the Wall of Wings, and was also the first international Wall of Wings! Artists from as far away as Greece participated, although sadly some artists overseas were unable to send their contributions as the pandemic caused postal services to be shut down.
Despite this disappointment, many artists were still able to contribute prints to the final exhibition, including the Mangrove Warriors of St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Crib Point. Excitingly, St Joseph's participation in the Wall of Wings was recognised in the Victorian Tidy Towns 'Keep Victoria Beautiful' awards, as the Mangrove Warriors were finalists in the 'Environment' section for their environmental advocacy through art! Accompanying the Wall of Wings in the surrounding gardens of Oak Hill Gallery was the wonderful Flock Oz from Hobson's Bay!
I'd like to thank the Oak Hill Committee and especially Yvonne Watson for initiating this beautiful exhibition.
Below: Some examples of contributed prints from the Oak Hill Gallery Wall of Wings
Despite this disappointment, many artists were still able to contribute prints to the final exhibition, including the Mangrove Warriors of St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Crib Point. Excitingly, St Joseph's participation in the Wall of Wings was recognised in the Victorian Tidy Towns 'Keep Victoria Beautiful' awards, as the Mangrove Warriors were finalists in the 'Environment' section for their environmental advocacy through art! Accompanying the Wall of Wings in the surrounding gardens of Oak Hill Gallery was the wonderful Flock Oz from Hobson's Bay!
I'd like to thank the Oak Hill Committee and especially Yvonne Watson for initiating this beautiful exhibition.
Below: Some examples of contributed prints from the Oak Hill Gallery Wall of Wings
The Overwintering Project
Burnie Regional Art Gallery, 18 December – 7 February 2021
77-79 Wilmot Street, Burnie Tasmania
This was Tasmania's second iteration of the Overwintering Project, the first being the inaugural exhibition held at Moonah Art Gallery in 2018! It was wonderful to see how the Print Portfolio had grown over the life of the Project! The prints of the Portfolio were augmented with works by Tasmanian artists, including Raymond Arnold.
The exhibition also featured the beautiful collaborative artists book Overwintering, by Migaloo Press (Qld) and the Firestation Print Studio (Vic.), and Cathryn Vasseleu's wonderfully evocative video, As If One Bird that she created especially for the Overwintering Project from footage filmed at Darwin's Lee Point.
Images below:
From top: Grace Gladdish, Cygnet Sanctuary, hand-coloured linocut; Melissa Smith, Tundra to Tamar, intaglio collagraph; Kit Hiller, Ruddy Turnstones, hand-coloured linocut; Exhibition images.
The exhibition also featured the beautiful collaborative artists book Overwintering, by Migaloo Press (Qld) and the Firestation Print Studio (Vic.), and Cathryn Vasseleu's wonderfully evocative video, As If One Bird that she created especially for the Overwintering Project from footage filmed at Darwin's Lee Point.
Images below:
From top: Grace Gladdish, Cygnet Sanctuary, hand-coloured linocut; Melissa Smith, Tundra to Tamar, intaglio collagraph; Kit Hiller, Ruddy Turnstones, hand-coloured linocut; Exhibition images.
Wetlanders: The Overwintering Project, Moreton Bay
An exhibition by Migaloo Press Artists Collective Moreton Bay
Redlands Art Gallery, 25 October – 6 December 2020
Cnr Middle and Bloomfield Streets, Cleveland Qld
Wetlanders was a collection of prints, artists books and drawings sourced from sojourns across Moreton Bay. Known as Migaloo Press Artists Collective, to research their work the artists met and collaborated with other artists, birdwatchers and environmentally concerned people around Moreton Bay. Their documentation and drawing was an exploration of life in the intertidal zones along the shores of the bay and its southern islands. Like many marine environments close to cities Moreton Bay wetlands are under threat of development.
Wetlanders was the third iteration of this ongoing project by Migaloo Press Artists Collective, following on from 2019 exhibitions in Gladstone and Sydney. The exhibition featured works by Jen Conde, Sandra Pearce, Sue Poggioli, Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura, Helen Sanderson, Evelyne Upton and Pat Zuber.
Works below by (clockwise, starting in top LH corner): Helen Sanderson; Anna Bonshek; Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura; Pat Zuber; invitation text; Sandra Pearce.
Wetlanders was the third iteration of this ongoing project by Migaloo Press Artists Collective, following on from 2019 exhibitions in Gladstone and Sydney. The exhibition featured works by Jen Conde, Sandra Pearce, Sue Poggioli, Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura, Helen Sanderson, Evelyne Upton and Pat Zuber.
Works below by (clockwise, starting in top LH corner): Helen Sanderson; Anna Bonshek; Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura; Pat Zuber; invitation text; Sandra Pearce.
The Overwintering Project: Summer on the Swan
Nyisztor Studio, 9 – 25 October 2020
Opening: October 10, 2020, World Migratory Bird Day
391 Canning Highway, Melville – Palmyra, 6156
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Overwintering: Summer on the Swan focussed on the natural habitat provided by the Swan River Estuary - its unique combination of physical and biological features that makes it a place for migratory shorebirds to return to year after year. The exhibition was a collaboration between The Overwintering Project, the Printmakers Association of Western Australia and the Swan Estuary Reserves Action Group. It was been part-funded by the City of Melville.
The exhibition featured the entire Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, including new works made by local artists in response to the the unique nature of the shorebird habitat provided by the Swan Estuary Marine Parkand other important local resting and foraging sites - such as Thomsons and Forrestdale Lakes. In the face of plummeting numbers of migratory shorebirds, the exhibition aimed to complement the work of the Swan Estuary Reserves Action Group by raising local awareness of the vital need to protect and conserve their habitats - including the Estuary’s remaining mudflats and shallows, sandbars and beaches, and fringing vegetation used for foraging and resting. |
Local artists were: Lyn Barry, Frank Batini, Brenda Brooks, Haya Hagit Cohen, Shelley Cowper, Aileen Hoath, Veta Holmes, Penny Hudson, Pippa Lightfoot, Clare McCarthy, Liz Morrison, Rosemary Mostyn, Perdita Phillips, Petra Saravanamuthu, Maija-Liisa Schreider, Kati Thamo, Eunie Watson and Joanne Wood. |
Images below
Top left: Aileen Hoath, Holding Ground, linocut. Top centre: Kati Thamo, Winter Light, etching. Top right: Elizabeth Morrison, Saltwater paperbark and Samphire, monotype bleed print. Bottom left: Pippa Lightfoot, Refuge, linocut with hand colouring, over screenprint. Bottom centre: Petra Sara,
Avocet Wading in Shallow Water, drypoint and collagraph. Bottom right: Shelley Cowper, Red Samphire Grass, hand-coloured etching.
Top left: Aileen Hoath, Holding Ground, linocut. Top centre: Kati Thamo, Winter Light, etching. Top right: Elizabeth Morrison, Saltwater paperbark and Samphire, monotype bleed print. Bottom left: Pippa Lightfoot, Refuge, linocut with hand colouring, over screenprint. Bottom centre: Petra Sara,
Avocet Wading in Shallow Water, drypoint and collagraph. Bottom right: Shelley Cowper, Red Samphire Grass, hand-coloured etching.
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Review
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This article appeared on the Print Council of Australia blog, 21 October 2020
2020, this strange year, has been marked by isolation and social distancing, yet it also seems to have generated a sense of community in the view of ‘being in this together’. I find the state of being ‘together-apart’ reflected in my role as a printmaker artist as well member of a printmaker’s association. Working in isolation and in the familiarity of my studio is where my ideas find a form. On the other hand, the connection with the (art) world around us, with other creatives and thinkers is imperative to taking stock, to contextualising one’s ideas and approaches. This, of course, can be done in many ways. Printmakers are a sociable kind of makers with many groups and associations to join where action, interaction and exchange are key aspects. Through regular gatherings ideas, skills, knowledge of techniques and processes are shared and shown off in group exhibitions.
The current exhibition of the Overwintering Project in Western Australia: Summer on the Swan at the Nyisztor Gallery is one such example local artists have joined to participate in the conservation art project. Initiated and coordinated by Kate Gorringe-Smith, the aim of the ongoing project is “to seek to raise awareness for our migratory shorebirds and their habitat by inviting to make them visible”.[1]
The inclusive project not only joins local artists of the Printmaker’s Association of Western Australia (PAWA) but through its travelling exhibitions joins many artists nationwide. Just like the migratory birds on their annual circuit or flyways through numerous countries, the Overwintering Project’s body of prints travels long distances across borders that, for now, are closed to us sandgropers. With the show coming over to us such projects open up horizons for distant printmakers like here in WA, where we feel currently even more distanced than in pre-COVID-19 times. The project offers the opportunity to show alongside other practitioners we might have heard about or seen only in digital or printed format.
The Overwintering Project though connects on yet another level. The passionate and very knowledgeable introductions to the burning issue and the visitation of local bird habitats on the Swan River by volunteers of organizations of wildlife protection – here the Swan Estuary Reserves Action Group Inc. (SERAG) – gave many of us print artists new insights into the precarious journeys these birds are undertaking and the uncertain future they’re facing due to rapidly diminishing habitats and safe havens needed to survive such enormously long passages.
In this project conservationists and artists connect as passions combine through printing and creating imagery that observes, quietly ponders and urges us to look, bringing attention to a devastating loss. Artists may even become conservationists or vice versa. The interest in the print exhibition is therefore not just one of an artistic concern and attracts a wider audience than usual art circles.
The main interest for me though is that such projects have the ability to connect and form wider networks that show concerns well beyond the humble idea of producing a beautiful print, with issues far more pressing. I consider the collaboration between printmakers, their association, the conservationists and environmentalists and the audience as the actual artwork. It’s a work bigger than an individual could possibly achieve. New connections and awareness are forming as the exhibition keeps travelling in time and space.
The exhibition Overwintering: Summer on the Swan was organised on behalf of PAWA by Shelley Cowper and members of the Committee and SERAG founding member Margaret Matassa and Catherine O’Neill.
[1] https://www.theoverwinteringproject.com/
2020, this strange year, has been marked by isolation and social distancing, yet it also seems to have generated a sense of community in the view of ‘being in this together’. I find the state of being ‘together-apart’ reflected in my role as a printmaker artist as well member of a printmaker’s association. Working in isolation and in the familiarity of my studio is where my ideas find a form. On the other hand, the connection with the (art) world around us, with other creatives and thinkers is imperative to taking stock, to contextualising one’s ideas and approaches. This, of course, can be done in many ways. Printmakers are a sociable kind of makers with many groups and associations to join where action, interaction and exchange are key aspects. Through regular gatherings ideas, skills, knowledge of techniques and processes are shared and shown off in group exhibitions.
The current exhibition of the Overwintering Project in Western Australia: Summer on the Swan at the Nyisztor Gallery is one such example local artists have joined to participate in the conservation art project. Initiated and coordinated by Kate Gorringe-Smith, the aim of the ongoing project is “to seek to raise awareness for our migratory shorebirds and their habitat by inviting to make them visible”.[1]
The inclusive project not only joins local artists of the Printmaker’s Association of Western Australia (PAWA) but through its travelling exhibitions joins many artists nationwide. Just like the migratory birds on their annual circuit or flyways through numerous countries, the Overwintering Project’s body of prints travels long distances across borders that, for now, are closed to us sandgropers. With the show coming over to us such projects open up horizons for distant printmakers like here in WA, where we feel currently even more distanced than in pre-COVID-19 times. The project offers the opportunity to show alongside other practitioners we might have heard about or seen only in digital or printed format.
The Overwintering Project though connects on yet another level. The passionate and very knowledgeable introductions to the burning issue and the visitation of local bird habitats on the Swan River by volunteers of organizations of wildlife protection – here the Swan Estuary Reserves Action Group Inc. (SERAG) – gave many of us print artists new insights into the precarious journeys these birds are undertaking and the uncertain future they’re facing due to rapidly diminishing habitats and safe havens needed to survive such enormously long passages.
In this project conservationists and artists connect as passions combine through printing and creating imagery that observes, quietly ponders and urges us to look, bringing attention to a devastating loss. Artists may even become conservationists or vice versa. The interest in the print exhibition is therefore not just one of an artistic concern and attracts a wider audience than usual art circles.
The main interest for me though is that such projects have the ability to connect and form wider networks that show concerns well beyond the humble idea of producing a beautiful print, with issues far more pressing. I consider the collaboration between printmakers, their association, the conservationists and environmentalists and the audience as the actual artwork. It’s a work bigger than an individual could possibly achieve. New connections and awareness are forming as the exhibition keeps travelling in time and space.
The exhibition Overwintering: Summer on the Swan was organised on behalf of PAWA by Shelley Cowper and members of the Committee and SERAG founding member Margaret Matassa and Catherine O’Neill.
[1] https://www.theoverwinteringproject.com/
The Overwintering Project and Taonga o te Ngahere
Estuary Arts Centre, 29 September - 18 October 2020
214 b Hibiscus Coast Highway, Orewa New Zealand
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Overwintering was held in conjunction with the Forest and Bird exhibition, Taonga o te Ngahere. The exhibition involved 21 artists, including a display by the local Hibiscus Coast Branch of Forest and Bird.
Overwintering featured artworks from a study of the habitats of local migratory birds, eg godwits, oystercatchers, wrybills etc. These habitats are being threatened by introduced plants, loss of habitat through housing developments (and related causes like the silting of the local estuary), predation by stoats, rats and hedgehogs, and climate change. Food sources are under threat, roost areas being lost and/or the birds disturbed. Taonga o te Ngahere featured photography from the local ecology of the area. Taonga species include bats, fungi, beetles, weta, geckos, butterflies etc and the little blue penguin. These species are vital to the overall functioning of the ecology of forest, bush or estuary and are seldom noticed. The blue penguin is included here as it and its habitat are also under threat. Images below: gallery shots from the Orewa Overwintering exhibition at the Estuary Arts. The beautiful linocut below is Godwit over Firth by Sandra Morris. |
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The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sanctuary
Jervis Bay Maritime Museum and Gallery, 14 March - 26 July 2020
Woollamia Road, Huskisson NSW
This exhibition featured 147 prints from the 253 prints currently in the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio; the wonderful collaborative artists book, OVERWINTERING by 32 artists from Migaloo Print Studio in Queensland and the Firestation Print Studio in Victoria; and Cathryn Vasseleu's beautiful short film of shorebirds on Darwin's East Point.
Images below: Exhibition shots by Emma-Lee Crane
Images below: Exhibition shots by Emma-Lee Crane
Habitat - Overwintering Project Yamba
Yamba Art Space Gallery, 7 December 2019 - 18 January 2020
44 Wooli Street, Yamba NSW
A group exhibit featuring mixed media art work and installations in response to migratory shorebirds, their threatened habitats and amazing resilience. Featuring artworks by Jessica Grantely, Tony Belton, Nick Magasic, Jeff Keyes, Mickey Hatch, Deborah Keyes, Karl O'Keefe, and Kerrie Howland.
This wonderful exhibition featured art works created & inspired by Australia's migratory shorebirds. Featuring Mixed Media & installation art by Northern Rivers artists, the exhibition was a satellite art project coodinated by local artists Tony Belton & Kerrie Howland, in collaboration with The Overwintering Project - an environmental art project that unites artists around Australia to raise awareness for our most endangered group of birds, migratory shore birds, and their habitat.
The exhibition also featured a Flock of around 60 birds cut out by the gentlemen of the Iluka men's shed and by the tireless Tony Belton who drove the Yamba Overwintering project. The Iluka Flock were decorated students from Iluka pre-school.
This wonderful exhibition featured art works created & inspired by Australia's migratory shorebirds. Featuring Mixed Media & installation art by Northern Rivers artists, the exhibition was a satellite art project coodinated by local artists Tony Belton & Kerrie Howland, in collaboration with The Overwintering Project - an environmental art project that unites artists around Australia to raise awareness for our most endangered group of birds, migratory shore birds, and their habitat.
The exhibition also featured a Flock of around 60 birds cut out by the gentlemen of the Iluka men's shed and by the tireless Tony Belton who drove the Yamba Overwintering project. The Iluka Flock were decorated students from Iluka pre-school.
The Overwintering Project: Coffs Harbour
Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, 6 December 2019 - 8 February 2020
cnr Coff & Duke Streets, Coffs Harbour NSW
The Overwintering Project: Coffs Harbour was an amazing exhibition that was the culmination of two and a half years work by the dedicated team at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery and their wonderful artistic community. This multidisciplinary environmental art project brought together artists, local high school students, scientists, birders and poets to address environmental impacts on migratory shorebirds and their habitats, including special places on the Coffs Coast.
The exhibition included printmaking, artists’ books and sculpture, incorporating the following elements:
The exhibition included printmaking, artists’ books and sculpture, incorporating the following elements:
- The Overwintering Project portfolio of prints – over 250 prints by artists from around Australia and New Zealand
- Steamroller prints by Woolgoolga High School and Toormina High School students
The steamroller prints (using a road roller) component was lead by local artists Sara Bowen, JP Willis and Jo Elliott. Over 6 weeks, they worked with 80 Year 9 and 10 students from Toormina and Woologoolga High Schools to create linocuts of migratory shorebirds. Over the course of the project, students spent time in local shorebird habitat and worked with the artists, National Parks and Wildlife Service rangers including local Gumbaynggir elder Uncle Mark Flanders, volunteers from Birdlife Australia, and eco-poet John Bennett to learn about migratory shorebirds, once plentiful on the Coffs Coast but now threatened and endangered. The prints were first printed individually and then as a combined print, printed by a road roller. These combined prints were what greeted the visitor as they entered the Gallery.
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- The Wall of Wings Community Art Project
Local artist Penelope Lawry initiated and co-ordinated the Wall of Wings as a way for local artists and art groups to become part of the Overwintering Project. Artists were invited to contribute prints of individual migratory shorebirds which were then attached directly to the gallery wall. Together they formed a magificent Wall of Wings of the many species that visit the Coffs Coast over the summer. The Wall of Wings was created by local artists aged 6-94, some of whom had never done printmaking before! Nearly 400 birds were part of this community installation. Contributing groups included - Headspace Art Group, Nambucca Lands Council, Artlink, Coffs Coast Creative Arts Group, Coffs Coast Printmakers, Sawtell Art Group and Woolgoolga Art Group.
- 10 artist books by BookArtObject international artist book collective
Inspired by the literary work of Valla Beach-based poet and avid birder John Bennet, this component of The Overwintering Project exhibition at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery included books by Rhonda Ayliffe, Sara Bowen, Angela Callanan, Fiona Dempster, Caren Florence, Robyn Foster, Avril Makula, Anna Mavromatis, Cindy Tonkin and Amanda Watson-Will. BookArtObject is an informal group of book artists, scattered globally, who create small editions of artists books in response to texts and share them with each other around the world.
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- Winners of the ANSTO primary school art competition
This competition was made possible by ANSTO, (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) who generously donated school education packages to local winning schools including Sawtell Public School, Ulong Primary School & Casuarina Steiner School.
Below Left: First prize winner for the Year 3-4 category, Bush Stone-Curlewby Marley McDermott from the Casuarina Steiner School. Below Right: First prize winner from the Year 5-6 category, Sooty Oystercatcher by Aurora-Jayne Cochrane from the Ulong Public School. Congratulations to both winners and to all the other students who entered the competition!
- Transmigration shearwater sculptures by Jeremy Sheehan
This was a local showing of Jeremy’s project created for Sculpture by the Sea 2015, involving artists from 22 nations visited by shearwaters. Transmigrationis a project about creating a map of the migration of wedge-tailed shearwaters - the local Coffs mutton birds - at actual size. 22 mutton bird sculptures, with a skeleton of collected ocean plastic, overlaid with materials that slowly break down, were sent to individual islands in the Pacific. Artists and communities on each island made similar birds that were sent back to Australia. The swap echoes the migration of the birds and the simultaneous installation of works forms a 1:1 map of the flight path overlaid with the migration of ocean plastic.
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- Call to Action!
The exhibition also contained a Call to Action space where postcards were provided, featuring prints of migratory shorebirds, on which people could write messages to politicians.
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The Overwintering Project: Coffs Harbour was supported by Create NSW’s Audience Development Fund, a devolved funding program administered by Museums & Galleries of NSW on behalf of the NSW Government.
The Overwintering Project
Alcoa Mandurah Art Gallery, 11-24 October 2019
Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, Ormsby Terrace, Mandurah WA
In October 2019, the Alcoa Mandurah Art Gallery hosted an exhibition of the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, including local artists’ submissions in response the Peel Region wetlands and migratory birds that visit here. The exhibition opening was part of many events planned to celebrate the local wetlands in honour of World Migratory Bird Day.
This project was supported by Peel-Harvey Catchment Council, through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.
The Peel-Harvey Estuary lies in the Perth Basin, on the western edge of the Swan Coastal Plain bioregion, and was formed approximately 8,000 years ago. A Ramsar site, the Estuary lies within Pinjarup country, a dialect group of the Nyoongar people. The Peel-Yalgorup region is considered a sacred place, where traditional life can be remembered and practiced, and continues to play a strong role in present day Noongar spirituality.
The Peel-Yalgorup System Ramsar site covers more than 26,000 hectares and is the most important area for waterbirds and shorebirds in Southwest Australia, regularly supporting over 20,000 birds. A total of 86 species of waterbirds have been recorded in Peel Inlet and Harvey Estuary, including five darters and cormorants, 12 herons and allies, 12 ducks and allies, five rails, 35 shorebirds and nine gulls and terns; 35 species are listed under the Japan-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (JAMBA) and the China-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (CAMBA) and are specially protected by the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999).
This project was supported by Peel-Harvey Catchment Council, through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.
The Peel-Harvey Estuary lies in the Perth Basin, on the western edge of the Swan Coastal Plain bioregion, and was formed approximately 8,000 years ago. A Ramsar site, the Estuary lies within Pinjarup country, a dialect group of the Nyoongar people. The Peel-Yalgorup region is considered a sacred place, where traditional life can be remembered and practiced, and continues to play a strong role in present day Noongar spirituality.
The Peel-Yalgorup System Ramsar site covers more than 26,000 hectares and is the most important area for waterbirds and shorebirds in Southwest Australia, regularly supporting over 20,000 birds. A total of 86 species of waterbirds have been recorded in Peel Inlet and Harvey Estuary, including five darters and cormorants, 12 herons and allies, 12 ducks and allies, five rails, 35 shorebirds and nine gulls and terns; 35 species are listed under the Japan-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (JAMBA) and the China-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (CAMBA) and are specially protected by the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999).
Wetlanders
me Artspace and Gallery, 9-27 October 2019
25 Atchison Street, St. Leonards, NSW
An exhibition by Migaloo Press, a group of artists and printmakers from Brisbane Bayside, about coastal foreshores and wetland habitats.
Wetlanders is a collection of prints, artists books and drawings sourced from sojourns across Moreton Bay. The artists have been meeting and collaborating with other artists, birdwatchers and environmentally concerned people around Moreton Bay, drawing, documenting and exploring life in the intertidal zones along the shores of the bay and its southern islands. Like many marine environments close to cities Moreton Bay wetlands are under threat of development.
Eight artists from Migaloo Press Artists Collective participated in Wetlanders exhibition at Me Gallery and Art Space, St Leonards, Sydney in October 2019. Five artists, Pat Zuber, Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura, Sandra Pearce, Cathy Money and Jen Conde travelled to Sydney during the exhibition to manage the Gallery, work on their own projects in the studio art space, run workshops and Friday Unwind and visit other Printmakers and their studios. While in Sydney they were able to see wonderful exhibitions and best of all meet Sydney artists who are keen to further opportunities for collaborations with Migaloo Press.
Wetlanders is a collection of prints, artists books and drawings sourced from sojourns across Moreton Bay. The artists have been meeting and collaborating with other artists, birdwatchers and environmentally concerned people around Moreton Bay, drawing, documenting and exploring life in the intertidal zones along the shores of the bay and its southern islands. Like many marine environments close to cities Moreton Bay wetlands are under threat of development.
Eight artists from Migaloo Press Artists Collective participated in Wetlanders exhibition at Me Gallery and Art Space, St Leonards, Sydney in October 2019. Five artists, Pat Zuber, Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura, Sandra Pearce, Cathy Money and Jen Conde travelled to Sydney during the exhibition to manage the Gallery, work on their own projects in the studio art space, run workshops and Friday Unwind and visit other Printmakers and their studios. While in Sydney they were able to see wonderful exhibitions and best of all meet Sydney artists who are keen to further opportunities for collaborations with Migaloo Press.
The Overwintering Project
Estuary Arts, 2 - 22 September 2019
214B Hibiscus Coast Highway, Orewa NEW ZEALAND
Through their participation in the Overwintering Project, Hibiscus Coast artists have been encouraged to make a study of their local migratory bird habitats, flora and other native fauna, and ways in which surrounding industry or housing development is impacting on the habitat. Many artists saw this as an opportunity to research non-bird species. Eels have been one such study. Mangroves in the Orewa estuary have been the subject of local controversy and change so have become another focus for artists as has the invasive nature of weeds in areas of native forest.
Taking part were printmakers Val Cuthbert, Kerry Cleverdon, Vivien Davimes, Merryl Houghton, Nichola Holmes, Kim Ingram and Bev Head. Six embroiderers from a group organised by Joan Hamilton were also involved and there was also work from installation artists Ursula Christel and Sue Hill, and photographer Deborah Martin. Although the group had birds as their starting point, Nichola Holmes wanted to look at her home farm and decided that the habitat of the eels living in their waterways were being affected by so many problems she wanted to focus on them. Deborah Martin had early on decided that monarch butterflies were her subject as they are slowly being hit by the wasp population. Unfortunately for her ill health intervened so she fell back on her wonderful photographic skills of migratory birds.
The habitats of wrybill, godwit, shearwater, gannet and dotterel have been well represented in print, lino, etching, and screenprint. Val Cuthbert, instigator of the Orewa exhibition, chose to look at the small remnant of native forest lining the local estuary which habitat for gecko, skinks and butterflie as well as birds. She focussed on the weeds that are choking so much of the native habitat. Val made a painting on canvas of some weeds (hundreds to choose from) and a huge 50 x 70 print of over 13 drypoint images of forest trees. Kerrie Cleverdon did some excellent images around mangroves and their habitat. Two local installation artists came up with an amazing variety of ideas looking at local habitats being directly damaged by litter and runoff from building sites. The most amazing news is that they all want to do it again next year! There are plans afoot to extend and invite some schools to participate and for the larger gallery at Estuary Arts Centre to be used.
The focus will be on habitat and migratory birds, but I have the feeling that other creatures might invade the theme again.
Report by Val Cuthbert.
Taking part were printmakers Val Cuthbert, Kerry Cleverdon, Vivien Davimes, Merryl Houghton, Nichola Holmes, Kim Ingram and Bev Head. Six embroiderers from a group organised by Joan Hamilton were also involved and there was also work from installation artists Ursula Christel and Sue Hill, and photographer Deborah Martin. Although the group had birds as their starting point, Nichola Holmes wanted to look at her home farm and decided that the habitat of the eels living in their waterways were being affected by so many problems she wanted to focus on them. Deborah Martin had early on decided that monarch butterflies were her subject as they are slowly being hit by the wasp population. Unfortunately for her ill health intervened so she fell back on her wonderful photographic skills of migratory birds.
The habitats of wrybill, godwit, shearwater, gannet and dotterel have been well represented in print, lino, etching, and screenprint. Val Cuthbert, instigator of the Orewa exhibition, chose to look at the small remnant of native forest lining the local estuary which habitat for gecko, skinks and butterflie as well as birds. She focussed on the weeds that are choking so much of the native habitat. Val made a painting on canvas of some weeds (hundreds to choose from) and a huge 50 x 70 print of over 13 drypoint images of forest trees. Kerrie Cleverdon did some excellent images around mangroves and their habitat. Two local installation artists came up with an amazing variety of ideas looking at local habitats being directly damaged by litter and runoff from building sites. The most amazing news is that they all want to do it again next year! There are plans afoot to extend and invite some schools to participate and for the larger gallery at Estuary Arts Centre to be used.
The focus will be on habitat and migratory birds, but I have the feeling that other creatures might invade the theme again.
Report by Val Cuthbert.
Overwintering Revisited at Hunter Wetlands
The Hunter Wetlands Centre, 5 - 26 July 2019
1 Wetlands Place, Shortland NSW
The Newcastle Printmakers Workshop held an exhibition at the Hunter Wetlands Centre, Shortland, Newcastle in the month of July as a response to an invitation by Mark Kempton, the current arts director. ‘Overwintering Revisited’ was the title of the show and was an offshoot from ‘Overwintering’, an exhibition held in 2018 at our workshop attended by Kate Gorringe-Smith.
We were excited to see a number of different artists create new works inspired by the Overwintering Project theme as part of the show as it helps to raise awareness on the plight and importance of protecting habitat for these extraordinary birds. The opening was held on Saturday 6th July and was well attended by artists and their families as well as local identities, notably Sharon Claydon, Member of Parliament. Gina McDonald (Newcastle Printmakers) and Roger McFarlane (Hunter Sculptors) opened the exhibition and spoke briefly about their group’s participation in the show and future collaborations with the wetlands. Again we thank Kate for bringing this theme to our attention as the Overwintering Project expands across the country.
We were excited to see a number of different artists create new works inspired by the Overwintering Project theme as part of the show as it helps to raise awareness on the plight and importance of protecting habitat for these extraordinary birds. The opening was held on Saturday 6th July and was well attended by artists and their families as well as local identities, notably Sharon Claydon, Member of Parliament. Gina McDonald (Newcastle Printmakers) and Roger McFarlane (Hunter Sculptors) opened the exhibition and spoke briefly about their group’s participation in the show and future collaborations with the wetlands. Again we thank Kate for bringing this theme to our attention as the Overwintering Project expands across the country.
The Overwintering Project: Charles Darwin University
The Nan Giese Gallery and the Northern Editions Gallery, CDU, Darwin, 28 June - 19 July 2019
7 Ellegowan Drive, Brinkin, Darwin, NT 0810
This exhibition was timed to coincide with the 2019 Australasian Ornithological Conference (3 – 5 July 2019), to be hosted by Charles Darwin University. The exhibition will featured the prints of the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio alongside works by CDU students and local artists.
Along with the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, the exhibition featured works by CDU students and staff. These works explored themes associated with Darwin as an important site(s) for migratory waders/shorebirds. The concept of observations in the field informing narratives and visual art was a major theme.
Work for the exhibition began with field trips to view the waders at three major roost sites around the shores of the Darwin environs. Then students and some staff visited the MAGNT wet and dry collections to make observations including examining the skins of waders in the collection.
The exhibition included video, soundscapes, sculpture, photography, painting as well as printmaking.
The works by Ian Hance, CDU artist-in-residence, along with those of other artists, particularly Lee Harrop and Nicolas Bullot, have the concepts of endangerment, absence and extinction as major themes. These works, that examine the threats to the waders along with their special requirements, formed the main nucleus in the Northern Editions Gallery. Along with a colourful plastic mobile by Korin Lesh that plays with shadowy coloured images cast along adjacent walls, works by Jane Anderson of waders constructed out of sewn remains of denim with a map of flightpaths of the waders were installed.
Lee Harrop’s large photographs speak about absence, as well as the intersect of scientific data and art, as do Ian's sculptures. Lee and Ian also created a collaborative print. Nicolas' sound-scape of the tidal mangroves at East Point similarly evoked the flux or passage of the tide and the fauna (including man) that occupy that area.
Along the walls of the Printmaking Building, student works were exhibited along with prints from the Northern Edition collection representing both Indigenous and European perspectives regarding habitat.
Cathryn Vasseleu's video and soundscape As if One Bird is a major work that set the context within the print collection in the Nan Geise Gallery. Ian's large abstract steel sculpture was also in this gallery.
Below: Installation images by Cathryn Vasseleu
Along with the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, the exhibition featured works by CDU students and staff. These works explored themes associated with Darwin as an important site(s) for migratory waders/shorebirds. The concept of observations in the field informing narratives and visual art was a major theme.
Work for the exhibition began with field trips to view the waders at three major roost sites around the shores of the Darwin environs. Then students and some staff visited the MAGNT wet and dry collections to make observations including examining the skins of waders in the collection.
The exhibition included video, soundscapes, sculpture, photography, painting as well as printmaking.
The works by Ian Hance, CDU artist-in-residence, along with those of other artists, particularly Lee Harrop and Nicolas Bullot, have the concepts of endangerment, absence and extinction as major themes. These works, that examine the threats to the waders along with their special requirements, formed the main nucleus in the Northern Editions Gallery. Along with a colourful plastic mobile by Korin Lesh that plays with shadowy coloured images cast along adjacent walls, works by Jane Anderson of waders constructed out of sewn remains of denim with a map of flightpaths of the waders were installed.
Lee Harrop’s large photographs speak about absence, as well as the intersect of scientific data and art, as do Ian's sculptures. Lee and Ian also created a collaborative print. Nicolas' sound-scape of the tidal mangroves at East Point similarly evoked the flux or passage of the tide and the fauna (including man) that occupy that area.
Along the walls of the Printmaking Building, student works were exhibited along with prints from the Northern Edition collection representing both Indigenous and European perspectives regarding habitat.
Cathryn Vasseleu's video and soundscape As if One Bird is a major work that set the context within the print collection in the Nan Geise Gallery. Ian's large abstract steel sculpture was also in this gallery.
Below: Installation images by Cathryn Vasseleu
OVERWINTERING Artists Book
and accompanying prints
The Australian Library of Art Showcase
Queensland State Library, 8 June - 8 November 2019
During this time the Overwintering artists' book and prints were on display with a selection of other related artists books at the QLS in the Australian Library of Art Showcase. The showcase featured the artists' book OVERWINTERING, a collaborative project between Migaloo Press and the Firestation Print Studio where artists were invited to map a personal response to the richness of their local shorebird habitat.
Measuring over 900cm, the collaborative artists book, OVERWINTERING incorporates prints by 32 artists from Migaloo Press in Queensland and the Firestation Print Studio in Victoria. The project was organized by Edith May (FPS), Jennifer Stuerzl and Sue Poggioli (Migaloo Press). The letterpress on the title page was created by Marian Crawford and the feather was embossed by Karen Neal. The book’s binding and construction was hand crafted by Jennifer Stuerzl and Sue Poggioli.
The print artists are (in order as their works appear):
Karen Neal, Margaret Marks, Jen Conde, Sue Top, Anna Bonsheck, Jennifer Stuerzl, Evelyn Upton, Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura, Nyrel Saunders, Domenica Hoare, Kay Watanabe, Gwenn Tasker, Anastasia Kotzapavlidis, Vivian Broadway, Jan Liesfield, Wendy Leason, Sue Martin, Monica Oppen, Geraldine Connolly, Sue Poggioli,Linda Chandler, Edith May, Jennifer Rogers, Nicola Moss, Belinda Kopietz, Carol Kite, Peter Ward, Trudy Rice, Michelle Hallinan, Catherine Money, Alexandra Irini and Pat Zuber.
The Overwintering artists book is on loan to the Overwintering Project for the duration of the Overwintering Project. The exhibition at the Firestation Print Studio, 20 June – 15 July 2018, of the book and accompanying prints, which are now incorporated into the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, was the third Overwintering Project exhibition.
Below: the Overwintering collaborative artists book on display at the Queensland State Library
Measuring over 900cm, the collaborative artists book, OVERWINTERING incorporates prints by 32 artists from Migaloo Press in Queensland and the Firestation Print Studio in Victoria. The project was organized by Edith May (FPS), Jennifer Stuerzl and Sue Poggioli (Migaloo Press). The letterpress on the title page was created by Marian Crawford and the feather was embossed by Karen Neal. The book’s binding and construction was hand crafted by Jennifer Stuerzl and Sue Poggioli.
The print artists are (in order as their works appear):
Karen Neal, Margaret Marks, Jen Conde, Sue Top, Anna Bonsheck, Jennifer Stuerzl, Evelyn Upton, Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura, Nyrel Saunders, Domenica Hoare, Kay Watanabe, Gwenn Tasker, Anastasia Kotzapavlidis, Vivian Broadway, Jan Liesfield, Wendy Leason, Sue Martin, Monica Oppen, Geraldine Connolly, Sue Poggioli,Linda Chandler, Edith May, Jennifer Rogers, Nicola Moss, Belinda Kopietz, Carol Kite, Peter Ward, Trudy Rice, Michelle Hallinan, Catherine Money, Alexandra Irini and Pat Zuber.
The Overwintering artists book is on loan to the Overwintering Project for the duration of the Overwintering Project. The exhibition at the Firestation Print Studio, 20 June – 15 July 2018, of the book and accompanying prints, which are now incorporated into the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, was the third Overwintering Project exhibition.
Below: the Overwintering collaborative artists book on display at the Queensland State Library
Above: OVERWINTERING artists book. Photo by Karen Neal.
The Overwintering Project: Hobson's Bay
Joel Gallery, Louis Joel Arts and Community Centre, 10 May - 6 June 2019
5 Sargood Street, Altona, Victoria
To create this exhibition, Hobson's Bay City Council worked with The Overwintering Project and its partners including Bird Life Australia to highlight the unique birdlife and habitats that we have within our local area. The exhibition was the result of a series of free workshops and site visits run monthly between September 2018 and April 2019.
Through a series of workshops and site visits led by artists Ellise Roberts, Geoffrey Ricardo, Rob Mancini and Kate Gorringe-Smith, participants were allowed to experiment with a variety of printmaking techniques while learning about the area's local migratory shorebirds and habitat, and their current vulnerability.
Artists attending the workshops at the Woods Street Art Space in Laverton were invited to contribute original prints created in response to the unique nature of local Hobsons Bay bird habitats. Following the workshop program a selection of prints by artists attending the Overwintering Project workshops as well as some by invited artists were displayed from May to June 2019 at the Louis Joel Gallery in Altona. The exhibition was part of the 2019 Hobson's Bay World Migratory Bird Day Festival and World Environment Day.
All the prints in the exhibition have joined the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, and all proceeds from print sales went to the Overwintering Project funds to donate to BirdLife Australia's migratory shorebird conservation projects.
Local shorebird lover and storyteller Jackie Kerin also ran community workshops to create an installation of The Flock which was a great success among the local community, and made a great focal point for the exhibition in the gallery gardens.
Many thanks to the participants, workshop leaders and Hobson's Bay City Council for supporting this project.
Prints below: (Top, L-R) Echelon by Bron Ives; Invasion of the Oystercatchers by Colin Clark; Altona Stint by Kate Gorringe-Smith. (Centre L-R) Bar-tailed Godwit by Paula O'Shea, Arrival by Prue Myers, Twilight in the Marsh by Susan Lowe. (Bottom L-R)Journey to the next habitat by Kerrie Taylor, In the Mangroves by Sue Poggioli, Untitled by Ellise Roberts. Below these are pictures from the workshops held at the Woods Street Arts Space, Laverton.
The Overwintering Project: Victoria's SW Coast
Port Campbell Artspace, 19 - 21 April 2019
50 Lord Street, Port Campbell, Victoria
Port Campbell Community Group Inc. raised awareness of migratory shorebirds, the threats to migratory shorebirds, and our responsibility to preserve their habitat with an exhibition at Port Campbell Artspace over the Easter weekend. The opening night was well attended with Corangamite Shire Cr Simon Illingworth opening the exhibition. Over 200 people attended across Easter Saturday and Sunday. Artists came from Port Campbell, the greater Corangamite Shire, Port Fairy, Warrnambool and Melbourne. Artists included: Barry Breen, Delia Crabbe, Laura Fazzalari, Ben Fennessy, Sue Ferrari, Jean Gleeson, Jodie Honan, John Irving, Lyndall Jones, Helen Langley, Marion Manifold, Ian McConnell, Jill Quirk, Andrea Radley, Maree Stewart, and Heather Wood.
The exhibition was preceded by two printmaking workshops at Marion Manifold’s Camperdown studio where artists created linocuts and etchings.
The Port Campbell Overwintering Project was an extension of a greater Australian and New Zealand project created by Melbourne artist Kate Gorringe-Smith. Many of the Port Campbell works will join the greater project which raises funds to save these birds.
Some of the prints highlighted the impact of plastics on birds and the threats of losing habitat to development, including the threats to the Latham’s Snipe from development of the Princetown wetlands.
Thank you to sponsors Corangamite Shire and Coastcare.
For further information on Port Campbell Community Group Inc. environmental projects and membership
Contact: Marion Manifold
Secretary
Port Campbell Community Group Inc. A0051688U
mmanifold@ansonic.com.au
The exhibition was preceded by two printmaking workshops at Marion Manifold’s Camperdown studio where artists created linocuts and etchings.
The Port Campbell Overwintering Project was an extension of a greater Australian and New Zealand project created by Melbourne artist Kate Gorringe-Smith. Many of the Port Campbell works will join the greater project which raises funds to save these birds.
Some of the prints highlighted the impact of plastics on birds and the threats of losing habitat to development, including the threats to the Latham’s Snipe from development of the Princetown wetlands.
Thank you to sponsors Corangamite Shire and Coastcare.
For further information on Port Campbell Community Group Inc. environmental projects and membership
Contact: Marion Manifold
Secretary
Port Campbell Community Group Inc. A0051688U
mmanifold@ansonic.com.au
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Overwintering: a Sonnet
Cutting the blank linoleum with sharp steel tracing the shapes, the knobbly knees, long legs, big feet, the shorebirds from the other world, great bills curved to probe, or flat-tipped like spoons to sweep sideways, short stabbing bills, thin delicate bills, emerging now on this lino, birds that can fly around the world and do, or halfway anyway and back, riding air currents and prevailing winds, resting in traditional tracts, lakes and littorals, reeds and coastlines, whatever has been left for them, coming in on formidable wings to winter here and I like to think that I may conjure them to rest a little longer on my linoleum. B.A. Breen Left: B.A. Breen, Curlew Running, linocut. |
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The Overwintering Project: Surf Coast Exhibition
Surf Coast Artspace, 11 - 28 April 2019
Great Ocean Road, Anglesea, Victoria
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This exhibition opened on Thursday April 11 with a performance of 'Tales From The Flyway' by storyteller Jackie Kerin and violinist Sarah Depasquale. The gallery was transformed into a performance space, with the artists' collaborative banners gently swaying as Sarah's evocative violin helped Jackie describe the flight of Tom the Red-necked Stint from Newport, Vic. to Alaska and back. After the story finished and the spell was broken, visitors turned their attention to the wonders of this Overwintering exhibition which featured works by nineteen local artists, inspired by visits to the Western Treatment Plant in Werribee. The exhibition ran over the school holidays and attracted around 1,000 visitors! The participating artists also generously donated 10% of takings, amounting to over $800.00, to the Overwintering Project to donate to BirdLife Australia's migratory shorebird conservation projects!
Words below by participating artist, Bron Ives: 'You might have visited a print exhibition in Anglesea over Easter, and if so, you were one of the 1,000 people that visited to see the prints, to have a chat and support our local artists or perhaps you commented on how thoughtful and beautiful the works were. Some people left smiling, others reflective or a little melancholy, and a few shed some tears. For me, what was most moving was that it engaged with a whole lot of people on something invisible to most of us - migratory shorebirds. Who knew that these small, quiet, brown birds were so talented but also our most endangered birds - and that thousands and thousands of them live very close by over the summer? Over the past six months the Anglesea Art House printmakers have been working on a group exhibition about the astonishing number and variety of shorebirds that ‘overwinter’ every year at the Western Treatment Plant, Werribee. This amazing place is one of Australia’s top bird-watching sites and is an internationally-recognised bird habitat under the RAMSAR Convention. Elizabeth, Jill and Nicola chose to work on prints of the Eastern Curlew (Critically Endangered), Lee was inspired by the Latham’s Snipe (Secure), an occasional visitor to the Allan Noble Sanctuary in Aireys Inlet, Maggi and Matt worked on Curlew Sandpipers (Critically Endangered) and I couldn’t go past the Great Knot (Critically Endangered).' Images Top: Monoprinted banners by Bron Ives. Centre left: Artists' book by Elizabeth Rickey. Below left: Western Treatment Plant. Below right: detail of banner by Jill Giles. |
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Wetlanders and OVERWINTERING
Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum, 2 - 30 March 2019
Cnr Goondoon & Bramston Sts, Gladstone, Qld.
In March this exhibition, by members of Migaloo Press and friends, was exhibited at the beautiful Gladstone Regional Gallery and Museum alongside the collaborative artists' book Overwintering, and Jill Sampson's amazing environment art and print project, Bimblebox 153 Birds.
Image above: Sue Poggioli, Mangrove Book, hand-stitched linocut and collage, 3 x 1.2 m.
Image above: Sue Poggioli, Mangrove Book, hand-stitched linocut and collage, 3 x 1.2 m.
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Wetlanders, featuring work by Anna Bonshek, Jen Conde, Sandra Pierce, Helen Sanderson, Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura, Jennifer Stuerzl, Evelyne Upton, Sue Poggioli and Patricia Zuber, was steered by Migaloo Press's Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura, Sandra Pearce and Jen Conde, who gathered a group of Migaloo members to make art around the Overwintering Project concept. In preparation, the group spent days at tidal areas drawing and photographing, and making prints of the migratory birds of the Southern Moreton Bay region. They had meetings and viewing days with the Queensland Waders Studies Group, and visited numerous overwintering sites along the shores of Moreton Bay and on some of the Southern Moreton Bay islands.
Wetlanders was an exhibition of prints, artists’ books and drawings about the wetlands of Moreton Bay and the migratory shore birds that overwinter in the region every year. Created by members of Migaloo Press Artist Collective, the exhibition examined the artists’ responses to the importance of intertidal zones for these shorebirds’ diminishing feeding grounds.The exhibition was inspired by the Overwintering Project - Mapping Sanctuary. The exhibition was beautiful and very evocative of place, featuring a wall of shorebirds, another 'sketchbook' wall featuring field notes and sketches, and an epic hand-stitched linocut and collage work, Mangrove Book, by Sue Poggioli 3 x 1.2m in size (pictured below)!
A second iteration of Wetlanderswill be held this October at me Artspace and Gallery, St Leonards NSW.
Images below: exhibition shots of the Wetlanders exhibition, also featuring the Overwintering artists book. Bottom centre: Pat Zuber, collage and cyanotype.
Wetlanders was an exhibition of prints, artists’ books and drawings about the wetlands of Moreton Bay and the migratory shore birds that overwinter in the region every year. Created by members of Migaloo Press Artist Collective, the exhibition examined the artists’ responses to the importance of intertidal zones for these shorebirds’ diminishing feeding grounds.The exhibition was inspired by the Overwintering Project - Mapping Sanctuary. The exhibition was beautiful and very evocative of place, featuring a wall of shorebirds, another 'sketchbook' wall featuring field notes and sketches, and an epic hand-stitched linocut and collage work, Mangrove Book, by Sue Poggioli 3 x 1.2m in size (pictured below)!
A second iteration of Wetlanderswill be held this October at me Artspace and Gallery, St Leonards NSW.
Images below: exhibition shots of the Wetlanders exhibition, also featuring the Overwintering artists book. Bottom centre: Pat Zuber, collage and cyanotype.
Shorelines
Riddoch Art Gallery, 8 February - 10 March 2019
1 Bay Road, Mount Gambier, SA
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Port Macdonnell Community Complex 15 March - 19 May 2019
5-7 Charles Street, Port Macdonnell, Limestone Coast, SA
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These exhibitions, the first Overwintering Project exhibitions in South Australia, featured work by members of the Thumb Print Workshop Inc. & friends: Anne Miles, Bronwyn Mibus, Bronwyn Rees, Libby Altschwager, Julie Bignell, Kate Gorringe-Smith, Mary Pulford, Bob Stone, Stephanie Yoannidis, Diana Wiseman, Jean McArthur, Sally O’Connor, Trudy Tandberg and Mary Pulford.
Instigated by Thumb Print Workshop artists, Shorelinesdrew inspiration from the fragile and exquisite ecosystems that support the phenomenal lives and journeys of migratory shorebirds. Inspired by the Overwintering Project, Thumb Print organised an excursion to the Coorong and Port MacDonnell in 2018, with a carefully selected group of fellow printmakers from South Australia and Victoria in order to capture this vulnerable, yet vital, ecosystem. The culmination of this trip was Shorelines, an exhibition located somewhere between the land, sea and sky, and in the flight path of these incredible migratory birds. |
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Images
Top left: exhibition title and series of monoprints by Anne Miles; top pair of images: exhibition shots at the Riddoch Gallery; middle pair: works by Julie Bigness; bottom pair: monoprint by Anne Miles (left) and stencilled mono print, 'Birds Walking' by Sally O'Connor. Left: 'Ruppia on Coorong' by Sally O'Connor. |
Overwintering
Wyndham Art Gallery, 8 November - 31 December 2018
177 Watton Street, Werribee, Vic.
Storyteller Jackie Kerin (R) tells a Story from the Flyway, illustrated by her kamishibai, a traditional Japanese storytelling ' picture theatre', accompanied by Sarah Depasquale's eloquent violin.
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'...the real beauty of this project is that it contextualises the local activity of individual artists and print groups within a much bigger, global story of these incredible little birds...'
Marguerite Brown, from her opening speech for the Overwintering Project at Wyndham Art Gallery. The second core exhibition for 2018 was opened by General Manager of the Print Council of Australia, Marguerite Brown, and Master Storytelling duo Jackie Kerin and Sarah Depasquale. The opening was well attended despite terrible weather! The Overwintering Project Print Portfolio was exhibited alongside the beautiful collaborative artist book, Overwintering, by members of Melbourne's Firestation Print Studio and Brisbane's Migaloo Press, as well as works by Cathryn Vasseleu, Kate Gorringe-Smith, Heather Hesterman, and local artists Sue Anderson, Rob Mancini and Robyn Fry. The gallery also commissioned sound artist Byron Scullin to create a site-specific soundscape for the exhibition. |
The Wyndham Art Gallery runs over two floors. Upstairs, Byron Scullin's soundscape, created from the calls of birds found at local shorebird haven and Ramsar site, the Western Treatment Plant, played, bringing habitat into the space. This was beautifully enhanced by Cathryn Vasseleu's ten-minute video of shorebirds on Darwin's Lee Point, As If One Bird, (below left) that Cathryn created especially for the Overwintering project. The video was projected onto an entire wall of the upstairs gallery, and could be seen as one walked about the space. The Overwintering artist book made a wonderful centrepiece, while Heather Hesterman's flock of godwits printed on aluminium referenced the human-made environment through which they travel, and her stack of digital prints (which gallery goers were invited to take), were both a gift and a poignant reminder of the ongoing attrition of species (below right).
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As visitors entered the Cultural Centre, which houses the gallery, their first glimpse of the exhibition was Sue Anderson's amazing painting of the Western Treatment Plant (pictured below left), a refuge for many bird species only ten minutes from the gallery. Rob Mancini is a local artist and birdwatcher. His paintings of shorebirds against urban textures also conveyed the challenges our shorebirds face as the urban encroaches upon their habitat (below right).
Over the duration of the exhibition we ran three bus bus trips from the gallery to the Western Treatment Plant so that people could experience the birds and the kind of habitat depicted in the prints of the Portfolio. These were attended by shorebird experts Penny Johns, Dr Danny Rogers, and Roger Standen, and participants were thrilled to see the actual birds in their local habitat. The gallery also ran an artists talk and a workshop, both of which were well attended.
Imprint editor Andrew Stephens wrote a wonderful piece for Melbourne's newspaper, The Age, which was syndicated in numerous other national newspapers, which brought visitors flocking to Wyndham. Curator Megan Evans said that she thought our show was the best attended they had ever had! I also spoke to Eddie Ayres on Radio National's The Hub, and was joined by Victorian Wader Studies Group chair, Roger Standen, and Migaloo Press artist, Jennifer Steurzl in speaking to Myf Warhurst on 774.
I would like to say a huge thank you to all the artists who encouraged me and made work, and to all the other friends of the Overwintering Project who have brought together such beautiful and moving exhibitions throughout 2018.
Over the duration of the exhibition we ran three bus bus trips from the gallery to the Western Treatment Plant so that people could experience the birds and the kind of habitat depicted in the prints of the Portfolio. These were attended by shorebird experts Penny Johns, Dr Danny Rogers, and Roger Standen, and participants were thrilled to see the actual birds in their local habitat. The gallery also ran an artists talk and a workshop, both of which were well attended.
Imprint editor Andrew Stephens wrote a wonderful piece for Melbourne's newspaper, The Age, which was syndicated in numerous other national newspapers, which brought visitors flocking to Wyndham. Curator Megan Evans said that she thought our show was the best attended they had ever had! I also spoke to Eddie Ayres on Radio National's The Hub, and was joined by Victorian Wader Studies Group chair, Roger Standen, and Migaloo Press artist, Jennifer Steurzl in speaking to Myf Warhurst on 774.
I would like to say a huge thank you to all the artists who encouraged me and made work, and to all the other friends of the Overwintering Project who have brought together such beautiful and moving exhibitions throughout 2018.
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Below are installation images of the Overwintering project Print Portfolio. The top right image also pictures the Firestation Print Studio-Migaloo Press collaborative artists' book, Overwintering.
Clockwise from top left: World shorebird authority Dr Danny Rogers and exhibition visitor Sarah Coffey on a gallery-run tour to the Western Treatment Plant; landscape at the WTP with spotting scope set up! Roger Standen, Chair of the Victorian Wader Studies Group leads another tour (he his the tall central figure with hat and binoculars!); bottom left - the bird haven that is the WTP.
The Overwintering Project: Maryborough, Queensland
Gataker's Artspace, 30 October - 25 November 2018
311 Kent Street, Maryborough, Queensland
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Overwintering along the shores of the Great Sandy Straits off the coast of Southern Queensland has many advantages for shorebirds visiting this part of the world. The Straits are situated between Hervey Bay in the north, along the Mary River estuary and the mainland shoreline just north of Rainbow Beach. Fraser Island makes up its eastern boundary. The Straits are very tidal and wide sandbanks bordered by extensive mangroves provide a mostly safe and extensive habitat for the migratory birds - unlike parts of Hervey Bay, where the birds often compete with human and canine disturbance. It is in this region that many of the Queensland artists have sourced their subject matter for the exhibition. Interstate artists have sourced material from their respective regions.
The exhibition featured prints, artists books, assemblages, small sculptures, textiles and ceramics. Fractured Habitat, the centrepiece of the textile installation, was made up of 4 sheer panels (one each by artists Vicki Worland, Kim Ende, Rhonda Simonis and Chris Evens), enclosing a central panel of birds in flight. |
Above: Fractured Habitat by Vicki Worland, Kim Ende, Rhonda Simonis and Chris Evens
Participating Artists
Printmakers: Carol Seeger, Jennifer Sanzaro-Nishimira, Ann Brown, Sue Pogglioli, Jen Conde, Brian Davidson, Trevor Sphor, Jazmin Wilkins, Sandra Pearce, Val MacIntosh, Pat Zuber, Jennifer Rogers, Susanne Newton, Catherine Rose, Sandra Taylor, Cecile Espigole, Judy Taylor, Anna Bonschek, Stephanie McLennan
Textiles: Vicki Worland, Kim Ende, Rhonda Simonis, Chris Evans (collaborative installation) Ann Chan (woven tapestries)
Ceramics: Ellen Appleby
Maryborough artist Ann Brown put together a Sway presentation of the exhibition which you can see here.
Below: A selection of images from the exhibition.
Printmakers: Carol Seeger, Jennifer Sanzaro-Nishimira, Ann Brown, Sue Pogglioli, Jen Conde, Brian Davidson, Trevor Sphor, Jazmin Wilkins, Sandra Pearce, Val MacIntosh, Pat Zuber, Jennifer Rogers, Susanne Newton, Catherine Rose, Sandra Taylor, Cecile Espigole, Judy Taylor, Anna Bonschek, Stephanie McLennan
Textiles: Vicki Worland, Kim Ende, Rhonda Simonis, Chris Evans (collaborative installation) Ann Chan (woven tapestries)
Ceramics: Ellen Appleby
Maryborough artist Ann Brown put together a Sway presentation of the exhibition which you can see here.
Below: A selection of images from the exhibition.
The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sanctuary
Moonah Arts Centre 18 October - 10 November 2018
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This was the first 'Core' Overwintering exhibition, or exhibition to include all the prints of the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio to date. The exhibition featured 157 Portfolio prints by artists from every state and territory in Australia (except the ACT) as well as two from New Zealand. This stunning array of prints - in every medium - was augmented by a variety of other works by the following artists: Martin King (printmaking, Vic.), Cathryn Vasseleu (video; NT), Sophie Carnell (gold and silversmithing; Tas.), Fernando do Campo (video; NSW), Helen Kocis Edwards (installation; Vic.), Andrej Kocis(photography; Vic.), Heather Hesterman (printmaking & installation; Vic.), Deb Mostert (sculpture; Qld), Alexis Beckett (installation; Vic.), Pamela See (paper cutting; Old), Perdita Phillips (print installation; WA) and me, Kate Gorringe-Smith (printmaking; Vic.).
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The exhibition opening, which included the 'ice breaker' event for the 2018 Australasian Shorebird Conference, was opened jointly by Tasmanian PCA Representative, Melissa Smith, and BirdLife Tasmania Chair, Dr Eric Woehler. Celebrated storyteller, Jackie Kerin, also performed one of her 'Tales from the Flyway' to a warmly receptive audience. Combining a conference event with the exhibition opening gave the scientific community an opportunity to see how engaging art can be in conveying people's passion about migratory shorebirds and their conservation. The exhibition was well attended throughout its duration, and featured in two articles published in The Mercury.
Images below:
Top L: Helen Kocis Edwards' installation, Skittles, in front of part of the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio (this is a shot during installation; the gaps you can see between prints were filled with artists' statements). Top R: Alexis Beckett's installation, Forage, in front of another section of Portfolio prints. Below L: At the back is another glimpse of more Portfolio prints, and to their right are Deb Mostert's beautiful resin godwits. In the foreground are Alexis Beckett's embroideries on wool felt, Fleeting. Bottom R: Gallery shot from the opening.
Top L: Helen Kocis Edwards' installation, Skittles, in front of part of the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio (this is a shot during installation; the gaps you can see between prints were filled with artists' statements). Top R: Alexis Beckett's installation, Forage, in front of another section of Portfolio prints. Below L: At the back is another glimpse of more Portfolio prints, and to their right are Deb Mostert's beautiful resin godwits. In the foreground are Alexis Beckett's embroideries on wool felt, Fleeting. Bottom R: Gallery shot from the opening.
Across the Waves
The F Project Inc., 26 September - 21 October 2018
224 Timor Street, Warrnambool
In November 2017, Marine Biologist and Ornithologist Richard Chamberlain came to talk to the Warrnambool Printmakers to help spark work on an Overwintering Project exhibition. Warrnambool, on the se coast of Victoria, is home to numerous migratory shorebirds. The small nearby town of Port Fairy is also home to Latham's Snipe, and the Latham's Snipe Project which was initiated to better understand the ecology and habitat use of Latham’s snipe (Gallinago hardwickii), a shorebird species that breeds in Japan and overwinters in Australia. Ten artists joined together for this beautiful exhibition highlighting the local environment.
Below: Andrea Radley, 2018, The Visitor.
Below: Andrea Radley, 2018, The Visitor.
The Overwintering Project: Bound for Botany Bay
Hazelhurst Art Centre, Broadhurst Gallery 8 - 18 September 2018
782 Kingsway, Gymea, NSW
Article and images, unless stated, by Suzanne Newton, Project Coordinator for The Overwintering Project: Bound for Botany Bay
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Presented by Printmakers of Southern Sydney and featuring work by Yvonne Daly, Nicole Low, Georgia Lambropoulos, Stephanie McCready, Suzanne Newton, Julianne Smart, Kim Whitbread and Naomi Woodlands.The Overwintering Project has caught the imagination of printmakers across Australia as they realise the potential to create art for social change. On World Shorebird Day, September 6, eight printmakers from Southern Sydney installed Sydney's second offering for the Overwintering Project at Hazelhurst Arts Centre in Gymea. The significance of the date is not lost on these artists, as they live in an area surrounded by environmentally sensitive shorebird habitats: Botany Bay, the Port Hacking River, and the Georges River.
The artists connected with each other through the Hazelhurst Printmaking Program under the tutelage of renowned printmaker, Laura Stark. They are all avid users of the Southern Sydney waterways listing activities like paddle boarding, outrigging canoeing, boating, swimming, walking and bird watching as some of their leisure pursuits. As residents of the local area, the change in the landscape from development and population growth has not been lost on them. From the outset, the group wanted to ensure there was a strong community link to their art exhibition. They therefore developed educational projects in collaboration with Sutherland Council, ANSTO and a local school to complement the printmaking exhibition. |
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Highlighting a Local Shorebird Protection Project
In April 2018, Sutherland Council opened the Woolooware Bay Shared Pathway Stage 6 along Botany Bay. This high profile project featured in the Overwintering Exhibition as an example of how local Council is working to protect shorebird habitats whilst addressing the community’s need for recreational space. One of the striking features of the pathway is the bird hide, a cleverly designed steel screen which screens users from the east while allowing views of the bay from the west. It features a contemporary artwork of the significant birds inhabiting the site surrounded by mangrove seeds washed up on the beach to reinforce the purpose of the bird hide and other sensitive ecologies within the site. Sight holes, provided by the perforations in the screens allows people to view shorebirds without disturbance. Sutherland Council was very supportive of our desire to raise awareness of the plight of migratory shorebirds. They provided signage graphics for our educational display, sandbag skins so we could create an “island” for our flock installation and the graphic to recreate the shorebird image from the bird hide onto the gallery wall. Brendon Graham, Senior Natural Areas Manager kindly offered to host a tour of the Woolooware Bay Shared Pathway during our exhibition. Hazelhurst Arts Centre set up a webpage for the Overwintering Exhibition and a link to book into the walking tour. You can read more about the Woolooware Bay Shared Pathway here. R: The Woolaware Bay shared pathway, and a detail of the bird hide featuring the head of a Bar-tailed Godwit surrounded by the shapes of mangrove pods. Below: Students from St George Christian School painting The Flock; SGCS Year 3 class reading The Circle by Jeannie Baker.
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Connecting with Schools: A Shorebird Unit of Study for Year 3
The Australian Curriculum places emphasis on sustainability as a priority for study that connects and relates relevant aspects of content across learning areas and subjects. One of the Overwintering artists, Suzanne Newton, worked with teachers at a local school to incorporate a shorebird art activity into a unit of study. During Term 2, Year 3 students at St George Christian School completed an educational unit in English and Visual Arts with a focus on conservation and the protection of migratory shorebirds. The students undertook speaking, listening, reading and writing tasks in response to the acclaimed picture book, Circle by Jeannie Baker. The book tells the story of the migratory journey of the Bar-Tailed Godwit. The Year 3 students also created their own Flock of timber shorebirds. These cutouts were supplied by the Overwintering artists and are based on Flock Oz templates from the Pukorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre in New Zealand. The teachers took the project a step further with each student adorning their shorebird with paint and an element of rubbish such as twine, fishing line, plastic straws and lids. These items represented the impact of humans on the shorebird habitats and gave the students pause to consider ways in which their own habits can affect the environment. It is hoped that the Flock Oz project will form a regular part of the year 3 unit of study in years to come. The Year 3 students flock will nest at the Hazelhurst Gallery during The Overwintering Project: Bound for Botany Bay exhibition. A story regarding the project was featured in the local newspaper, The Leader. |
Environmental Awareness Art Competition
One of the Overwintering artists, Stephanie McCready, who works for the government science organisation ANSTO, organised with ANSTO's support an environmental awareness art competition for primary school students. The competition aimed to encourage students to learn more about shorebirds and their local habitats. ANSTO generously offered more that $3000 worth of educational resources as prizes.
Stephanie writes:
We extended the closing date to October 26 (originally it was September 28) to give more time for schools to respond. We only expected a small response, but had 26 schools participating, far more than expected! ...At some schools only one class participated and at other schools all classes participated in the competition! One school even took all their students through our exhibition at Hazelhurst Gallery for inspiration! We received 200 entries in total.
I was really blown away by some of the entries. The standard was so high and it was clear that the kids enjoyed the activity and put their heart into it. It was such a privilege to receive the packages each week (like Christmas had come early!) and it really warmed my heart! I received lots of positive comments from teachers as well. I decided that I couldn't be responsible for judging the competition myself, so advertised for assistants. Julianne Smart, and two representatives from the Sutherland Shire council came to ANSTO to assist. I also put a call-out across the site, and got 26 judges in total!
The competition originally advertised prizes for 1st and 2nd place for Stage 2 (Years 3-4) and Stage 3 (Years 5-6). As the standard was high, we created a 'highly Commended' category as well.
Winning entries can be seen on the ANSTO webpage and Facebook page.
Below L: Stage 2 Highly Commended; Caleb Summers Class 3/4M Yarrawah Public School; Centre: Stage 3 Highly Commended; Lachlan Ginger Class 6L Oxford Falls Grammar School; R: Stage 3 Highly Commended, Sierra Truong Class 5/6M Peakhurst South Public School.
Connecting to Community Programs
The timing of our Overwintering Exhibition was fortuitous as it coincided with several national and international environmental awareness “days”. One of our Overwintering artists, Julianne Smart, worked on promoting the Overwintering Exhibition by linking online to various environmental awareness programs like World Shorebird Day, Saving our Species Day and Threatened Species Day. We were also very fortunate to have Phil Straw, Vice Chairman of the Australasian Wader Studies Group of Birdlife Australia give the Opening Address for The Overwintering Project: Bound for Botany Bay. He also delivered a multi-media presentation at the Hazelhurst Arts Centre throughout the afternoon of the Opening.
Conclusion
The Overwintering Project has been an exciting experience for the artists involved. It has offered an opportunity to marry our art practice with environmental concerns and work towards social change. We have been overwhelmed by the number of people that have offered support for the exhibition, demonstrating the depth of feeling for our endangered shorebirds and their habitats.
The timing of our Overwintering Exhibition was fortuitous as it coincided with several national and international environmental awareness “days”. One of our Overwintering artists, Julianne Smart, worked on promoting the Overwintering Exhibition by linking online to various environmental awareness programs like World Shorebird Day, Saving our Species Day and Threatened Species Day. We were also very fortunate to have Phil Straw, Vice Chairman of the Australasian Wader Studies Group of Birdlife Australia give the Opening Address for The Overwintering Project: Bound for Botany Bay. He also delivered a multi-media presentation at the Hazelhurst Arts Centre throughout the afternoon of the Opening.
Conclusion
The Overwintering Project has been an exciting experience for the artists involved. It has offered an opportunity to marry our art practice with environmental concerns and work towards social change. We have been overwhelmed by the number of people that have offered support for the exhibition, demonstrating the depth of feeling for our endangered shorebirds and their habitats.
Images below. Top L: Suzanne Newton, 2018, Traveller, solar plate, ink drawing. Top R: Stephanie McCready, 2018, Resting, drypoint. (Image by Stephanie McCready) Middle L: Nicole Low, 2018, Pipe 1, hand-coloured solar plate etching. Centre: Nicole Low, 2018, Noodle Bowl, hand-coloured solar plate etching. Middle R: Nicole Low, 2018, Shorebird, hand-coloured solar plate etching. Bottom: Stephanie McCready, 2018, Arrival, drypoint etching a la poupée (Image by Stephanie McCready).
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Overwintering - Mapping Sanctuary Portland, Vic
It was an intimate group of artist members and art loving friends who gathered on the wintery evening of August 3rd for the opening of The Overwintering Project - Portland. After the exhibiton was opened by Elizabeth Knight, the artists shared stories about their bird inspirations. The artists with works were on display were Tina Biggs, Therese Coffey, Sandra Duncan, Britt Gow, Elizabeth Knight, Bronwyn Mibus, Heather Richardson, Bob Stone, and Lesley Walker. There were a variety of printmaking techniques on display; linocut, etching/aquatint, screenprinting, stamping and digital prints. Gordon Risk said "It was a great variation of artwork to a very good standard.”
Elizabeth Knight |
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Top: Exhibition opening, Portland Bay Press, Julia Street, Portland, Victoria. Images by Gordon Risk. Centre: Therese Coffey, 2018, Boarding Pass, digital print. Image by Gordon Risk. Bottom L: Britt Gow, 2018, Latham’s Snipe at Powling Street Wetlands, Port Fairy, collograph a la poupée. Bottom centre: Elizabeth Knight, 2018, Red-necked Stint, Etching. Bottom R: Therese Coffey, 2018, Bar-tailed Godwit, screenprint.
The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sanctuary (Newcastle)
Newcastle Printmakers Workshop, 23 - 24 June 2018
27 Popran Road, Adamstown, NSW
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Gina McDonald, President of Newcastle Printmakers' Workshop, wrote: 'On Saturday 23 June Kate Gorringe-Smith arrived to open the Newcastle Printmakers Overwintering Project Exhibition. We were thrilled to have her as she truly has led us on an amazing journey, opening our minds and hearts to the plight of migratory shorebirds that visit Australia each year, to overwinter away from the cold further north to far off places like Siberia. At the opening we were also joined by Tom Clarke and Julianna Ford who accompanied us on our first trip to the Stockton Sandspit where a number of birds like the Bar-Tailed Godwit and the endangered Eastern Curlew gather from September onwards through to May. Some of the birds have decided to stay and Kate was lucky enough to see them early on Sunday morning before she began her flight back home.
Thank you to all of the people who helped to pull the exhibition together especially Helene Leane, Vale Vincent, Michelle Strazarri, Robyn Culley, Amanda Donohue and Megan Lewis as well as to all the artists who participated in this inspirational project. We had close to 200 visitors to view artworks on our revamped gallery wall so another thank you to Jim Williams for creating it. Wonderful!' The exhibition was also enlivened on the day of the opening as the workshop hosted a Roaming Art Tour run by Ahn Wells of Gallery 139 whereby participants carved and printed a lino block. Thanks so much to all the members of the workshop who brought the project to life in such an amazing way, and particular thanks to Gina McDonald for all her work in co-ordinating the exhibition! Right:: Exhibition opening, Newcastle Printmakers' Workshop, Sat. June 23. |
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A selection of the works on show include (clockwise from top left): Gina McDonald, 2018, Flying to Japan - the ooji shigi bird, collagraph; Valé Zakarauskas, 2018, Wandering Tattler Foraging, multiplate aluminium etching with intaglio/relief; Anne-Maree Hunter, 2018, In the Shadow of Nobbys, dry point, linocut, hand-stamped text and image, printed in thermographic ink; Robin Hundt, 2018, Lunch at Last, screenprint and pencil.
The Overwintering Project: Sydney
Warringah Printmakers Studio Gallery, 21 - 24 June 2018
Cnr Condamine & Lovett Streets, Manly Vale, Sydney, NSW
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Members of the Warringah Printmakers Studio in Manly Vale, Sydney, exhibited their Overwintering prints in a lovely exhibition held in June in their Studio Gallery. The opening was well attended, and the prints are diverse and beautiful. The prints resulted from members' research into their local shorebirds and shorebird habitat, notably a group visit to Long Reef with BirdLife Australia member Robert Griffin.
Warringah Printmakers Studio President Sandra Williams reported that: |
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'Long Reef Aquatic Reserve is situated between Collaroy and Dee Why on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Robert gave an introductory talk about the different species of migratory waders & their habits and habitats which he had spotted at Long Reef. With Robert’s skilful guidance, and the use of his binoculars and telescope, the rock platform suddenly sprang into life and became a rich habitat filled with different bird species. We saw the Ruddy Turnstone, the Pacific Golden Plover, the Sooty Oystercatcher, the Grey-tailed Tattler and the Red-necked Stint. We also saw birds not on topic, such as the Great Cormorant, Pied Cormorant, Little Pied Cormorant and as a wonderful finale three Ospreys circled in and landed on the beach just as we were finishing.'
Sandra also reported on a visit by 12 artists to the AGNSW's Study Room where Study Room Coordinator Deborah Jones had chosen a selection of works in response to a general brief of both contemporary and traditional works onpaper related to birds and their habitats. Her selection included 'a Lake Eyre sketchbook by Frank Hodgkinson (Journey with Vincent Serventy,
John Olsen and Tim Storrier), John Olsen etchings, colour woodcuts by Imao Keinen, etchings by Elizabeth Cummings, works by Lionel Lindsay, Sydney Long, David Rose, John Wolseley, Elaine Haxton, Murray Griffin, Brett Whiteley and Max Pam.'
Thanks go to all the artists who participated in this lovely exhibition, but especially to Sandra Williams who co-ordinated Warringah's amazing and wholehearted response to the Overwintering Project.
Sandra also reported on a visit by 12 artists to the AGNSW's Study Room where Study Room Coordinator Deborah Jones had chosen a selection of works in response to a general brief of both contemporary and traditional works onpaper related to birds and their habitats. Her selection included 'a Lake Eyre sketchbook by Frank Hodgkinson (Journey with Vincent Serventy,
John Olsen and Tim Storrier), John Olsen etchings, colour woodcuts by Imao Keinen, etchings by Elizabeth Cummings, works by Lionel Lindsay, Sydney Long, David Rose, John Wolseley, Elaine Haxton, Murray Griffin, Brett Whiteley and Max Pam.'
Thanks go to all the artists who participated in this lovely exhibition, but especially to Sandra Williams who co-ordinated Warringah's amazing and wholehearted response to the Overwintering Project.
Top left and right: installation view in the Warringah Printmakers Studio Gallery. Bottom left: Avrille Ciccone, 2018, Flight of the Godwits, photopolymer etching, a la poupée. Bottom right: Negin Maddock, 2018, In Transit, linocut, stamping and monoprint.
Overwintering: Firestation Print Studio and Migaloo Press
Firestation Print Studio Gallery, 20 June - 15 July 2018
2 Willis Street, Armadale, Victoria
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Above: Exhibition images featuring artists' works on the walls and the amazing collaborative artists' book, Overwintering, bound by Migaloo Press members Sue Poggioli and Jennifer Stuerzl.
'Firestation Print Studio decided to join forces with Migaloo Press to help promote the importance of the plight of the migratory birds within the larger Overwintering Project. This collaboration brings together two very different ecological habitats, both with significant migratory bird populations' (Overwintering - Firestation Print Studio & Migaloo Press catalogue).
This beautiful exhibition featured a wonderful array of prints by 32 artists from the Firestation Print Studio in Melbourne and Migaloo Press in Brisbane. The prints themselves were superb, but the exhibition was made particularly special by its unique central feature - a concertina artists' book, titled OVERWINTERING, featuring all 32 prints, hand-bound by Migaloo artists Jennifer Stuerzl and Sue Poggioli. The book, which features a title page featuring letterpress by Marian Crawford and a feather embossed by Karen Neal, was displayed on a custom-made plinth, made by John Hinds, and took central place in the gallery. The concertina nature of the binding allowed viewers to see the backs of the prints where the artists statements (including maps and poems) could be examined.
The print artists are (in order as their works appear):
Karen Neal, Margaret Marks, Jen Conde, Sue Top, Anna Bonshek, Jennifer Stuerzl, Evelyn Upton, Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura, Nyrel Saunders, Domenica Hoare, Kay Watanabe, Gwenn Tasker, Anastasia Kotzapavlidis, Vivian Broadway, Jan Liesfield, Wendy Leason, Sue Martin, Monica Oppen, Geraldine Connolly, Sue Poggioli,Linda Chandler, Edith May, Jennifer Rogers, Nicola Moss, Belinda Kopietz, Carol Kite, Peter Ward, Trudy Rice, Michelle Hallinan, Catherine Money, Alexandra Irini and Pat Zuber.
Thanks go to all the artists involved, but particularly to the organisers for envisaging this very special iteration of the project, Edith May from the Firestation Print Studio, and Jennifer Stuerzl and Sue Poggioli of Migaloo Press.
The Overwintering artists book is on loan to the Overwintering Project for the duration of the Project. The exhibition at the Firestation Print Studio, 20 June – 15 July 2018, of the book and accompanying prints which are now incorporated into the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, was the first ever Overwintering Project exhibition.
This beautiful exhibition featured a wonderful array of prints by 32 artists from the Firestation Print Studio in Melbourne and Migaloo Press in Brisbane. The prints themselves were superb, but the exhibition was made particularly special by its unique central feature - a concertina artists' book, titled OVERWINTERING, featuring all 32 prints, hand-bound by Migaloo artists Jennifer Stuerzl and Sue Poggioli. The book, which features a title page featuring letterpress by Marian Crawford and a feather embossed by Karen Neal, was displayed on a custom-made plinth, made by John Hinds, and took central place in the gallery. The concertina nature of the binding allowed viewers to see the backs of the prints where the artists statements (including maps and poems) could be examined.
The print artists are (in order as their works appear):
Karen Neal, Margaret Marks, Jen Conde, Sue Top, Anna Bonshek, Jennifer Stuerzl, Evelyn Upton, Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura, Nyrel Saunders, Domenica Hoare, Kay Watanabe, Gwenn Tasker, Anastasia Kotzapavlidis, Vivian Broadway, Jan Liesfield, Wendy Leason, Sue Martin, Monica Oppen, Geraldine Connolly, Sue Poggioli,Linda Chandler, Edith May, Jennifer Rogers, Nicola Moss, Belinda Kopietz, Carol Kite, Peter Ward, Trudy Rice, Michelle Hallinan, Catherine Money, Alexandra Irini and Pat Zuber.
Thanks go to all the artists involved, but particularly to the organisers for envisaging this very special iteration of the project, Edith May from the Firestation Print Studio, and Jennifer Stuerzl and Sue Poggioli of Migaloo Press.
The Overwintering artists book is on loan to the Overwintering Project for the duration of the Project. The exhibition at the Firestation Print Studio, 20 June – 15 July 2018, of the book and accompanying prints which are now incorporated into the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, was the first ever Overwintering Project exhibition.
Clockwise from top left: Jen Conde, 2017, Eastern Curlew, etching; Peter Ward, 2017, Storm over the Connewarre Wetlands, multiple linocut; Jan Liesfield, 2017, Dreaming of Warmer Climes, linocut; Gwenn Tasker, 2017, 5 inches, 30 grammes, 25,000 km, collograph and etching. Below: Overwintering. Image of whole book by Karen Neal.
