'Linger' - my work in progress for 'Mapping Memory' group exhibition, at the Incinerator Art Space

Kath Fries, Linger installation proposal, 2013, digital image collage

I've been invited by Venita Poblocki to create a new site-responsive sculptural installation for Mapping Memory, a curated group exhibition at the Incinerator Art Space. My work is titled Linger and will incorporate internal architectural elements of the renovated Walter Burley Griffin Incinerator building and aerial roots from Ficus hillii - Hill's Weeping Fig, growing directly outside the complex. Interestingly this fig tree is native to the rainforests of coastal Queensland, far from the local area. My installation, Linger, will expand on these physical forms to suggest metaphors of memory and connection to place.

Kath Fries, Ficus hillii, growing next to the Willoughby Incinerator, 2013, research photograph

Kath Fries, Ficus hillii, growing next to the Willoughby Incinerator, 2013, research photograph

Kath Fries, Ficus hillii, growing next to the Willoughby Incinerator, 2013, research photograph

Kath Fries, Ficus hillii, growing next to the Willoughby Incinerator, 2013, research photograph

Kath Fries, Ficus hillii, growing next to the Willoughby Incinerator, 2013, research photograph

Over the next two weeks I'll be working in the Incinerator studio space (above the gallery) creating components of my installation. A special rigging system has recently been built for the gallery - you can see it behind the studio window - I'm planning to use it to suspend my installation.

Kath Fries, Incinerator studio space with collected of Ficus hillii areial roots, 2013,work in progress photograph

Kath Fries, Incinerator studio space with collected of Ficus hillii areial roots, 2013,work in progress photograph

Mapping Memory
12 June - 7 July 2013
Incinerator Art Space, 2 Small St, Willoughby

Places and objects can hold personal and collective memories. These sites form important elements of societies past and present; they establish a history and create a present and inform our future. Through shared meaning, they connect us to one another and form the fabric of our society. In Mapping Memory, nine artists consider where memories are located. They regard the significance of geographical, architectural, spiritual, cultural, material and imaginary sites where these personal and collective memories may reside. The exhibition will include sculpture, painting, etching, prints, site-specific installation, video & sound works by artists Cyrus Tang, Kath Fries, Tessa Zettel & Karl Khoe (Makeshift), Thea Weiss, Tim Bruniges & Sarah Mosca, Megan Cope and Nick Fintan. Curated by Venita Poblocki.
Mapping Memory exhibition invitation, Willoughby Incinerator Art Space

The Feather Tree - a community installation

The Feather Tree is down the road from my home studio in St Peters NSW. It's an anonymous community installation of Ibis and Cockatoo feathers inserted into the bark of a paperbark tree. The installation was well underway when I first encountered it two years ago, and despite its seemingly temporal ephemeral nature the feathers have held their positions or been replaced over time, so the installation continues to grow and change. 

Kath Fries, The Feather Tree, 2013, photograph 

Sometimes White Ibis nest in the fig trees nearby and their large feathers float down, making them easy to collect from the footpath. Sulphur-crested Cockatoos also pay occasional screeching visits to the street, leaving an odd feather or two behind, which are added to The Feather Tree. 


Kath Fries, The Feather Tree, 2013, photograph

Like most locals, I usually add a feather to the installation when I walk by. You can't really see The Feather Tree from the road when driving past, so its a purely a pedestrian experience - and all the more special as a result. It's great to witness the double take and puzzled expression of an observant person walking past the installation.  They often pause, examine it and then sometimes spontaneously add another feather into the paperbark.

Kath Fries, The Feather Tree, 2013, photograph

Blue carpet homage - One night at the museum

Kath Fries, Blue carpet homage, 2013, reclaimed carpet tiles, glitter and wire 

I was invited to create a site-responsive installation for 'One night at the Museum' April 27th, at Fairfield City Museum and Gallery. The museum's collection is based on local recollections, memories and donated household items, so it seemed appropriate to create my installation in response to a personal memory of the evolving museum site.

Kath Fries, Blue carpet homage, 2013, reclaimed carpet tiles, glitter and wire 

As I only begun visiting the Museum fairly recently I have no personal experiences of how the site has changed, so I asked two local artists - Tom Polo and David Capra, what they remembered about visiting the Fairfield City Museum and Gallery when growing up. They agreed the bright blue carpet tiles on the floor of the main gallery space stood out in their memories. This garish carpet dominated the space so completely that Tom and David say they can't really remember any of the artworks exhibited in the gallery, just walking across the strange blue carpet tiles on the floor.

Kath Fries, Blue carpet homage, 2013, reclaimed carpet tiles, glitter and wire 

This comment intrigued me and fitted well with my practice of creating site-responsive installations about cycles of change, using fibres and everyday materials. I decided to appropriate Tom and David's memory of the site by playfully reworking the gallery's infamous blue carpet tiles.

Kath Fries, Blue carpet homage, 2013, reclaimed carpet tiles, glitter and wire

Blue carpet homage was initially encountered by visitors as glittering pathways of carpet-tile-stepping-stones that guided visitors around the museum site in the moonlight. One trajectory of carpet-tile-stepping-stones lead into the old council chambers, a 1913 heritage building which is now part of the Museum. Within this building is the Maisie Morris Gallery exhibiting historic photographs. Here, visitors were suddenly not just standing on the carpet tiles, but the carpet tiles went up the walls and seemingly flew overhead, like the tales of magic flying carpets in '1001 Arabian Nights'.

Kath Fries, Blue carpet homage, 2013, reclaimed carpet tiles, glitter and wire 

The unexpected placement of carpet tiles climbing up the museum walls, over the  old window frame and suspended from the ceiling - rather than just sitting on the floor, was startling for most visitors. It caused them to reevaluate their experience and expectations of being in a usually predictable museum space. Assumptions of mundane utilitarian carpet tiles were literally turned upside down, as these glittery squares soared towards the ceiling as if about to burst out of the building and escape into another realm.

Kath Fries, Blue carpet homage, 2013, reclaimed carpet tiles, glitter and wire 

I would like to thank Carmel Aiello and Richard Petkovic for organising 'One night at the Museum' and inviting me to take part, as well as Tom Polo and David Capra for sharing their memories of Fairfield City Museum and Gallery, and the other exhibiting artists Linda Brescia, Delia Puiatti and Regina Walter. More information about Fairfield City Museum and Gallery can be found at livingmuseum.com.au

Kath Fries, Blue carpet homage, 2013, reclaimed carpet tiles, glitter and acrylic paint 
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