12 February to 7 March 2021
Wednesday to Sunday, 10am-5pm
Carriageworks: 245 Wilson Street Eveleigh NSW
Isobel Parker Philip expands mushroom mycelium metaphors in relation to Covid experiences of connection and disconnection, in her essay "Foraging along forking paths". https://togetherinart.org/foraging-along-forking-paths/
Fungi are 'inherently collaborative creatures' and 'world builders' ... They transform the environments in which they live.
It’s a rather generous form of habitation ... The thread-like filaments of a fungus’ root system, the hyphae, spread through the soil. It’s an infrastructure that carries both nutrients and information, sometimes helping an ecosystem respond to threats and filter out pollutants. This infrastructure behaves like an underground city.
Or the internet.
There’s something here.
Something in the relationship between the fungal networks that propagate and transform the natural world and the virtual networks we’re tethered to.
... We often think of mushrooms as independent organisms. They are found intact, as distinct ‘fruits’, when foraged. But beneath the surface, they’re enmeshed; their mycelium (their roots) spread far and wide. They spawn other specimens and create a dense web. Sitting all alone in front of our screens, aren’t we also individual organisms bound by invisible filaments? Aren’t we entangled in our own web? Metaphorical mushrooms, mainlining memes.
... This feels fungal. It’s a form of world-building. I spread myself across otherwise insurmountable physical distances by interacting with others. This is a collaborative ecology. The networked encounters we experience on the internet can be a form of sustenance. They are transformative; they sustain and shape us. We’re back to foraging, figuratively. Remember, it is the interaction between fungi and its ecosystem that determines what grows there (and how). The fungi changes the landscape and determines what survives there. So does the internet.
To think of social media as sustenance is not to say it’s good for you. Remember, not all mushrooms are okay to eat. We have to carefully identify the species – calculate the risk – before we consume it. Perhaps we should pay heed and follow the same due diligence when foraging for facts on the web?
Extracts from Isobel Parker Philip, "Foraging along forking paths", https://togetherinart.org/foraging-along-forking-paths/
The artists in this exhibition would usually value alone-time and seek it out on residencies or in studios, insulated away from the world. For them the COVID-19 crisis period of isolation wasn’t necessarily positive or productive in that way, but it did open up some space for reflection and introspection.
Prior to the COVID-19 crisis these artists were all connected by their participation in the ‘Silence Awareness Existence’ residencies at Arteles Finland, 2012-2019. Drawn to the isolated, quiet and introverted elements of Finnish culture, winter countryside and the secluded nature of the residency; they were inspired to focus on and develop their individual introspective creative processes.
From these common threads of contemplation and quiet attentiveness, new conversations have grown whilst grappling with recent imposed isolation at home. These creative connections now come together opening up space for sharing with others recent experiences of folding inwards during the COVID-19 crisis.
Introversion is a collective response to the artists’ exploration of self, home, imagination and mindscape; letting go of the outside world, the city rat-race and extraverted social interactions. Through their shared exploration of alone-time, each reflects on their unique challenges of enforced social isolation and its impact on the inner-psyche. Introversion shares their experiences of creative indoor plant cultivation, working patiently with layered textures and natural materials, mesmerising metallic painting processes, videos conjuring the elemental and notions of memory, and the meditative process of kneading and baking bread.
Introversion, 3 – 19 July 2020
Artists: Kath Fries, Prudence Holloway, Fiona Kemp, Kenneth Lambert, Isobel Markus-Dunworth and Jacqui Mills
Breaking Bread opening event: Saturday 4 July 2 - 4pm
Artists Talks and closing drinks: Sunday 19 July 2 - 4pm
introversion-groupshow.squarespace.com
Articulate project space
497 Parramatta Road, Leichhardt NSW 2040
open Friday to Sunday 11am - 5pm
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work in progress for ‘Whisperings' |
For Introversion, I will be installing a new work titled Whisperings, which began with gathering fallen pieces of paperbark from a line of trees, (Melaleuca quinquenervia) across the road from my home. The trunks of these trees have always fascinated me with their thick undulating layers of soft bark, which seem to emanate comfort and mellow presence. Perhaps the local history of the Gadigal Wangal people, cradling their babies in paperbark coolamons, also feeds into my notion of these trees as nurturing guardians and conduits of dreams.
Tentatively striping back the paperbark stratums of colour and texture, pulling away delicate thin sheets, like peeling skin; this process of exploring the paperbark layers becomes meditative. Slipping into analysing my inner-scapes of compounded habits, expectations, experiences and anxieties; self-reflection expanding and contracting with the variations of the stratums. Handling these delicate layers of paperbark, the trees’ stories quietly whispered to me. Imprinted with material memories of traffic fumes, human constructions, rain, drought, summer heat, winter chills, burrowing insects, chirping birds; subtly hinting at ancient arboreal wisdoms of place, reaching root systems far underground despite tarmac roads compressed by heavy trucks and constant car traffic; and stretching branches into the sky towards sunlight.
Whisperings of a dreamlike threshold where exterior meets interior, conjuring a porous boundary of contemplation and the reality of interconnectedness.
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Kath Fries, Hive Drawing, 2019-2020, (detail view), beeswax crayons and turmeric on found paper |
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Kath Fries, Hive Drawing, 2019-2020, beeswax crayons and turmeric on found paper |
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Kath Fries, turmeric glass vials for Hive Drawing participants |
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Occupied exhibition gallery view. Left: Kath Fries Hive Drawing, Right: Clare Delaney Tree |
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Kath Fries, Breathing: forest sky snow, 2015, still from silent single channel video, 4:13 loop, vimeo.com/408295856 |
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Hive drawing session, 19 November 2019 at Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen Kath Fries, Penelope Cain, Barbara Doran and visitors Fiona Davies, Michele Morcos |
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Hive drawing session, 19 November 2019 at Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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Hive drawing session, 19 November 2019 at Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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Hive drawing session, 19 November 2019 at Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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Hive drawing session, 19 November 2019 at Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen Kath Fries, Penelope Cain, Barbara Doran and visitors Fiona Davies, Michele Morcos |
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Hive drawing, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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Hive drawing, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
Hive drawing, Kath Fries, November 2019, Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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