Presence of Mind

Presence of Mind examines the intersections of mindfulness, Buddhism and the creative processes of visual artists in Australia and Singapore. For artists in this exhibition, mindfulness is foundational to their creative processes and can take many forms, from embodied processes to playful humour, as well as technological and traditional motifs. In bringing together diasporic artists from Australia and Singapore, Presence of Mind examines intersections of Buddhist lived experience and cultural differences, highlighting the rich perspectives that spirituality can bring to art.

Artists: Cindy Yuen-zhe Chen, Jeremy Chu, Lada Dedic, Kath Fries, Lindy Lee, Jason Lim, Aryadharma Aaron Matheson, Kristina Mah, Alecia Neo, Nell, Shirley Soh, Phaptawan Suwannakudt and Lachlan Warner. 

Curators: Dr Kath Fries and Rachael Kiang 

For me, co-developing this exhibition has been an important expansion on my 2017 doctoral thesis, Touching Impermanence, which focused on mindfulness creative practices, Buddhist philosophies and how the immediacy of present time can be felt in art experiences.

Since 2018 I have been working with Rachael Kiang, the manager and curator at Gallery Lane Cove and also a Buddhist practitioner, co-developing our Presence of Mind project. The exhibition includes work by artists who have I known for years, Lindy Lee, Cindy Chen, Aryadharma Aaron Matheson, Nell and Lachlan Phillip Warner, and the project has created wonderful opportunities to get to know other like-minded artists in Sydney and Singapore.

The timing of our exhibition, now at the end of 2021, following Covid lockdowns, isolation policies and associated mental health challenges, is significant. The need for mindfulness, interconnectedness, and compassion – all central to Buddhist thought and practice – has become even more pertinent.

There's four components to our Presence of Mind project: the digital residency, the exhibition (both in the gallery and matterport online), the catalogue publication and the public programs. For more information please go to gallerylanecove.com.au/presence-of-mind

Presence of Mind

Opening 6pm Friday 10 December RSVP

11 December 2021 - 26 February 2022

Gallery Lane Cove + Creative Studios 

164 Longueville Road Lane Cove NSW 2066 

Open: 10:00am - 4:30pm Monday to Saturday*

gallerylanecove.com.au

*Gallery Lane Cove + Creative Studios will be closed over the Christmas period from 25 December 2021 - 3 January 2022. 

** Friday 24 December and Saturday 26 February the gallery will close at 2.30pm 

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, the NSW Government through Create NSW and its annual organisation grant, and partnership support from 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. 

Embrace exhibition catalogue

I’m delighted to share the 36 page catalogue resulting from my recent solo exhibition, Embrace at Our Neon Foe in May 2021.

"… Over the past few years, the otherwise overlooked queendom of fungi has materialised in the collective popular imagination as both multifarious and bewildering. We are coming to understand that in this time of ecological crisis our futures are deeply and immutably entangled with the fate of fungal worlds as symbionts, decomposers and co-creators. In Fries’ work she draws us into noticing these complex entanglements, by asking us to slow down and pay attention to different kinds of existences and temporalities … Contemplating how multispecies entanglements can co-exist and navigate these difficult times collectively, is both urgent and transformative. Allow yourself to dissolve into this connectedness, to dissolve into the continuum. …"

- Alia Parker, extract from Embrace exhibition essay

Accompanying the generous exhibition essay by Alia Parker, and my artist statement, is a collection of photographs - by Ellen Dahl, Bee Elton and myself - documenting how the fungi sculptures grew and changed during the exhibition. This post-exhibition catalogue has been carefully designed by Sara Morawetz to give you a rich experiential sense of Embrace. Thanks also to Claire Carpenter for their help with installation, Leisa Sage for construction assistance and Kate Brown for her support at Our Neon Foe.

You can view or download the catalogue as a pdf here and from the ‘Catalogues’ page on my website www.kathfries.com