Kath Fries Studio

Siren's Song - Lake George installation

Siren's song - Lake George, is a 185m temporary installation tracing a discrete animal track along the lake-bed with a single length of black rope and numerous small white feathers. Vulnerably dwarfed by the landscape, the work draws a line across across the ground bringing attention to the animal track, causing viewers to participate in the trace of footfalls impacting on the earth's surface. Without either end in sight following a string of wind-blown feathers caught on the rope, there is a sense of investigation and tension as though this fluttering fringe portends imminent danger.

The work's title - Siren's song - Lake George, refers to an ancient Greek myth about dangerous bird-women, Sirens, whose singing lured passing sailors to their deaths. The feathers in this installation indicate the Siren's wings and our inability to respond to warnings of catastrophe, like changing animal and bird activities due to human destruction of environmental ecosystems.

Siren's song - Lake George is on the Sculpture Walk as part of theWeereewa Winds of Change Festival. Open to the public during daylight hours, from dawn Sunday 21 March to sunset Sunday 28 March. Enter at Silver Wattle Gate, Lake Road, Bungendore. www.weereewafestival.org

Drawing with thread photographs at Gaffa Gallery

Fidelity group exhibition 11 - 23 Feb 2010, Gaffa Gallery www.gaffa.com.au. Gallery Two, Level 1: featured a selection of my photographic work, Drawing with thread, from my 2009 Laughing Waters Artist Residency.

60m fabric and fencing installation - 14 February 2010, Heartbeat on the Bay Run

Heartbeat, 14 February 2010, 60m fabric and fencing installation

The Bay Run - Henley Marine Drive, Drummoyne, Sydney.

Fidelity - group exhibition

Opening Thursday 11th February, 6-8pm

Fidelity is a group exhibition launching Gaffa Gallery's new space at 281 Clarence St, near Sydney Town Hall. The exhibition runs until 23rd February 2010. www.gaffa.com.au

Gallery Two, Level 1: features a selection of my photographic work, Drawing with thread, from my 2009 Laughing Waters Artist Residency.

Kath Fries, Drawing with thread, 2010, series of digital colour photographs from installations at Laughing Waters Artist Residency October 2009.

Over the past four years I have been working with embroidery thread as a sculptural material in site-sensitive locations. Recently this process has culminated in a series of Drawing with thread temporal installations at Laughing Waters Artist Residency, echoing the site’s ephemeral spider-webs, surrounding bush debris and tactility of the artist-residency's mud-brick buildings.

The threads' trajectories explore spontaneity and intuition by tracing movement, extension and dexterity of a human body within the space. Witnessing a passage of time the threads are marked by changing elasticity, tension, gravity and weathering. These documentary photographs, sensitive to changing natural daylight, capture the threads' robust and fragile materiality. Tracing the fibrous lines as they stretch from their precarious anchorage in wooden windowsill splinters to follow their interconnections, unraveling and separations. Drawing with thread quietly considers interdependency, suggestive of the complexities in human relationships affected by stress, pressure, aging and support.

Skid

Skid series, 2009, Kath Fries, Digital colour photographs

Parched

Parched, 2009, Kath Fries, digital colour photographs.

Passing through

Passing through, 2009, charcoal, cuts and embroidery thread on canvas, three panels

Ariadne’s Thread - memory, interconnection and the poetic in contemporary art

Kath Fries ~ Master of Visual Arts Thesis ~

University of Sydney, Sydney College of the Arts 2008.

Ariadne’s Thread - memory, interconnection and the poetic in contemporary art

Abstract: This Dissertation explores the metaphor of Ariadne’s thread in terms of interconnection, when an element from the everyday is used as a locus linking broader concepts of time and space. Such experiences and associations are reflected in the work of Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Doris Salcedo, Lucio Fontana, Richard Tuttle, Mona Hatoum, Simone Mangos, Anya Gallaccio and Yoshihiro Suda. In relation to my own work, the metaphor of interconnecting thread allows a sense of freedom and journey of discovery. My studio and related research are closely aligned in developing my understanding of interconnection, through my studio process of making and continuing experiences of looking at and interpreting others artists’ work.

Read online at http://hdl.handle.net/2123/5709 or click on these links:

Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Conclusion.

The John Fries Memorial Art Prize

On Tuesday 10th November 2009, Blackfriars off Broadway, Viscopy’s new Sydney exhibition space for artists was launched by Virginia Judge MP. One of the highlights of the evening was the Minister’s announcement of a new annual prize for artists. The John Fries Memorial Prize will award the winning artist a $10,000 cash prize plus a solo exhibition at Blackfriars off Broadway. Virginia Judge said that she was “delighted” to announce the new opportunity for artists to receive such a career boost: “This annual prize will be open to all artists in Australia who have not yet secured recognition through a commercial gallery. Artists of all ages and disciplines, whether members of Viscopy or not, will be eligible to enter” said the Minister.

(John Fries, 1943 - 2009)

The prize remembers John Fries, who died suddenly following an accident earlier this year. John served on the Viscopy board of directors for 5 years and made a remarkable contribution to the life and success of the organisation. The cash prize has been committed by the Fries family. Speaking on behalf of the family John’s daughter Kath Fries, herself an artist, said :

“My father was always supportive of my work and through his work with Viscopy he really understood the financial challenges that face artists. I think he would be very proud of this award and the opportunity it presents for the winners to significantly advance their careers.”

(Michael Keighery Viscopy Chairman, Kath Fries, Vivienne Fries & Vanessa Fries)

Entries will open in April next year and the winner will be announced at an exhibition of finalists’ work in October 2010. The John Fries Memorial Prize will be open to all artists in Australia and New Zealand who have been practicing professionally for at least two years but have not yet secured recognition through a commercial gallery. Artists of all ages and disciplines, whether members of Viscopy or not, will be entitled to enter.

Viscopy is a not for profit membership rights management organisation representing over 7,000 artists and their beneficiaries, approximately 43% of the total population of artists in Australia and New Zealand. Indigenous artists account for almost half of these. Viscopy also represents some 40,000 international artists in the Australasian territory.

http://www.viscopy.org.au/john-fries-prize

Recoiling

Recoiling is a new site-sensitive installation, featuring hand-braided rope bound around a tree trunk. The spiraling textiles lead the viewers' gaze up and away into branches and leaves, reaching towards the sky. These weighty tactile materials suggest medieval fairy-tale connotations within its menacing snake-like choking coils.