Kath Fries Studio: September 2012

Ruminations - Rumsey Art Walk: invitation

Ruminations: Rumsey Art Walk

13 October to 11 November 2012

Rumsey Rose Garden, Parramatta Park, Parramatta NSW

Opening + Performance: Friday 12 Oct 5-7pm

Artist Talks + Performance: Sunday 14 Oct 2pm

Curated by Kath Fries

Artists

Kath Fries, Simon Alexander Cook, Vanessa White with Karl Krebs, New Neighbours Project: Chrissie Ianssen & Majid Rabet, WeAve Parramatta

Ruminations is part of Parramatta Park's Spring Festival:

~ ParraCan EcoFest Sustainable Urban Living, Sat 13 Oct

~ Heritage Garden and Rose Open Day, Sun 14 Oct

More information www.rumseyartwalk.blogspot.com.au

Click here for location map

Arboreal - my work in progress for Ruminations: Rumsey Rose Garden Art Walk, Parrmatta Park

Kath Fries, Arboreal concept, 2012, digital sketch

Arboreal explores an anthropomorphic* relationship with trees. Earlier this year, one of the two central pear trees the Rumsey Rose Garden was splitting in half, straight down the middle of its trunk. Now the breakage has stopped, because the tree has been bolted together - like pins in a human broken bone. This natural occurrence and the tree surgeon's solution has instigated Arboreal, an intervention installation were I will wrap the joints of the pear trees’ branches in strips of fabric, like broken human limbs. Between the layers of fabric there will be glimpses of gold leaf and charcoal residue, suggesting alchemic healing. And an oversized bamboo crutch will seemingly support a lower bound branch. Arboreal is a playful work, partly inspired by the serious traditional horticultural practices I observed in Japan on a research trip in 2011, thanks to The Japan Foundation’s New Artist Award.

(*Anthropomorphic means the attribution of human characteristics to nonhumans.)

Kath Fries, Bandaged tree in Kyoto, Japan 2011, image link

Ruminations: Rumsey Art Walk is a series of site-responsive installations and performances in Parramatta Park's Rumsey Rose Garden, part of Parramtta Park's Spring Festival. My plans and ideas for Ruminations: Rumsey Art Walk have been building over the past two years, while I've had a studio in the dynamic Parramatta Artists Studio complex. Ruminations is an outdoor exhibition of installations by Kath Fries, WeAve Parramatta and Parramatta artists: Simon Alexander Cook, Chrissie Ianssen and Majid Rabjet, as well as a performance by Vanessa White with Karl Krebs.
More information: www.rumseyartwalk.blogspot.com.au

Kath Fries, Kyoto tree crutch, Japan 2011, image link

Meander, 2012, ephemeral installation commission

Kath Fries, Meander, 2012, phragmites (native wetland grass),
Art in the Wetlands, Wonga Wetlands Albury NSW

Meander was one of six site-specfic installations commissioned by Albury City for Wonga Wetlands, for the two week outdoor exhibition 'Art in the Wetlands'. Meander invites visitors to follow a river-like labyrinthine path between contours of phragmites (a native wetland grass that grow abundantly in the Wonga Wetlands). Truckloads of phragmites have recently been harvested from this area and relocated along the banks of the Murray River in an attempt to stem the endemic erosion.

Kath Fries, Meander, 2012, phragmites (native wetland grass),
Art in the Wetlands, Wonga Wetlands Albury NSW

Over the two weeks of the exhibition the grass outside of the phragmites-river-bank-path demarkations will grow, and a track would be temporally worn into the ground within by the impact of people walking along the route. At the conclusion of the exhibition, Meander will simply be mown back into the grass, and for a few days the lines of the installation will still be visible where the underlying lawn will have changed colour due to lack of sunlight beneath the phragmites.

Kath Fries, Meander, 2012, phragmites (native wetland grass),
Art in the Wetlands, Wonga Wetlands Albury NSW

Meander continues my exploration of materiality, spatiality and archetypical narratives relating to transience of existence and fragility of life. My site-sensitive processes and use of found materials infers a poetic commentary about human struggles with nature and that which is naturally uncontrollable in our lives.

Kath Fries, Meander, 2012, phragmites (native wetland grass),
Art in the Wetlands, Wonga Wetlands Albury NSW

Thank you to Tom Arnold - Albury City Urban and Public Art Officer; John Hawkins and his team at Wonga Wetlands; and my fellow exhibiting artists Michael Shiell, Natalie Ward, Jane Gillings, Bronwyn Cossor, Vernon Bartlett; for their support of and interest in my Meander installation.

Meander - work in progress - Art in the Wetlands

The transience of existence and fragility of life are recurring themes throughout my practice. My site-sensitive process and use of found materials infer poetic commentary about human struggles with nature and that which is naturally uncontrollable in our lives. Meander invites visitors to follow a river-like labyrinthine path between contours of phragmites. Phragmites are a native wetland grass and grow in abundance here. Truckloads have recently been harvested from the Wong Wetlands and relocated along the banks of the Murray River in an attempt to stem the endemic erosion there.

Aerial view of the Murray River. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer, The Age, 2008

Kath Fries, early plan for Art in the Wetlands reed walk installation, 2012

Kath Fries, Meander, (work in progress), 2012, phragmites (native wetlands grass)

Kath Fries, Meander, (work in progress), 2012, phragmites (native wetlands grass)

Phragmites in the Wonga Wetlands

Phragmites are a native wetland grass that grows prolifically in the Wonga Wetlands. They play a key role in naturally filtering water in the lagoons, in the final phase waste water treatment.