Pop Up Hub

Pop Up Hub

Arts Northern Rivers has partnered with Plunge 2016 for the Pop Up Hub in Yamba that will house an exhibition, workshop and residency space for the duration of the festival.

Local artist Rochelle Summerfield was commissioned by Arts Northern Rivers to curate part of the Pop Up and is taking the opportunity to showcase female artists from the Clarence Valley.

This is She exhibition celebrates women artists of the region with Summerfiled chosing works that reflected the artists’ connection to the landscape, its history and lifestyle.

Artists include Frances Belle Parker who’s beautifully stitched fine linen work tells of her Indigenous family history that is bound to the Yaegl landscape and the river that runs through it.

Artist Tracy Pateman’s sculptural work tells a classical Greek tale of the underworld set in the rolling hills of the Clarence Valley engraved in copper and silver.

Delicate charcoal drawings by Sue Harris and Pat Jenkins works are a quiet reflection on being a woman artist at 83 years old.

Summerfield said, ‘It’s a contemporary story of our rich cultural legacy expressed through a diversity of media by women as only the arts can tell’.

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Arts Northern Rivers Pop Up Hub

Neptune Avenue, Yamba Industrial Estate

CURATORS STATEMENT

 

This is She exhibition celebrates women artists of the Clarence Valley at the Pop Up Hub, Yamba, Plunge. I chose works that reflected women’s experience of this landscape, its history and lifestyle. I found multifaceted approaches by creative women speaking of their experiences. This Clarence Valley story begins with Frances Belle Parker through beautifully stitched fine linen- tells of her indigenous family history that is bound to the Yaegl landscape and the river that runs through it- a story of love, identity and dispossession.  Artist Tracy Pateman, tells a classical Greek tale of the underworld set in the rolling hills of the Clarence Valley engraved in metals of copper and silver. The story of fire, memory and loss is told in delicate charcoal drawings by Sue Harris. This story also celebrates the dedication of being a woman artist at 83 years old- in quiet reflection and study of still life- by Pat Jenkins. Its a contemporary story of our rich cultural legacy expressed through a diversity of media by women as only the arts can tell.

Artists

CARMEL DEBREUIL | I am a Canadian Australian artist living with my rockstar husband and two sons. I paint at least five days a week unless I’m child wrangling or sneaking drinks from the band’s rider backstage. My work has a cast of children whose stance and attitude is full of the bravado, nonchalance and swagger of youth. It is very nostalgic. I see kids as these amazing creatures that are perfectly imperfect. Everyone seems to be in a rush to guide kids into adulthood and responsibility, but I’m happy if they want to hang out with a giant squirrel while wearing a Viking helmet and cowboy boots. I think childhood’s an amazing time and quite funny! I have shown in Australia, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan and worked as a portrait artist in Paris, Amsterdam and Mexico. I work in a variety of mediums including acrylic, water colour, pastel andpencil and create original pieces for gallery shows, private sales and commissions.

CASS SAMMS | After completing a degree at RMIT in Melbourne over twenty years ago, I moved to the north coast of NSW because of the diverse natural surroundings. My studio is predominantly used for sculpture as well as drawing and printmaking. My work has always involved elements of nature and how humans relate to it. One of the sculptures in this show uses forms derived from the constructions made by insects during their egg laying and nest building. The other work combines both the farm lands, tracts of native vegetation along the Clarence River, and the waterways and channels themselves. The surface of the copper sphere has a beautiful patina that is reminiscent of an aerial view of the landscape. Of course the spherical shape that the copper takes is suggestive of this globe that we all live on called earth.

CASSANDRA PALMER | For the last 5 years my art practice has revolved around my connection to place and the investigation of my Aboriginal family heritage, and my place within this context. My practice encompasses questioning, attempts at understanding and how I interact with and interpret my surroundings. My own connection to country. There are deep ceded notions of belonging to place, and how this is relevant to me at the beginning of my ancestral journey. My art practice is largely process driven. While I a at a particular site I collect: leaves, berries, flowers, stalks in order to create stain and dying of paper that will continued to be altered as a personal response to place. Many different factors that are site specific add towards the outcomes of stains, each opening of the dye pot is a discovery. Once papers are dried, results are stitched, torn, scraped, rubbed and added to create an end product- a personal response to place.

CHRIS HAZEL | I work full time from my home studio in Kungala – a hundred acres of picturesque bushland and sandstone cliffs 25 minutes south of Grafton. I have won several art awards including the 2015 Jacaranda Portrait Prize’ and the ‘People’s Choice Award’ in Lismore Regional Gallery’s ‘Portrait Prize. In 2016 I was selected to be in the ‘Flying-Birds of the Clarence’ exhibition at Grafton Regional Gallery. My art practice explores figurative art, with interests in Photorealism, Pop Art and Surrealism. Recent works combine my life long love and study of portraiture, with my admiration of Middle Eastern and Oriental patterns and designs, gleaned from my years as a professional Belly dancer and from my travels through India. This combination creates a unique juxtaposition of flatness and three-dimensionality within the composition

FRANCES BELLE PARKER | The Clarence River is the foundation and inspiration of my artwork. The stories contained in the river, many of which were shared by my late grandmother and elders all play a pivotal role in the art I create. The Yaegl landscape has this huge river that runs through it, the river is like a life giving vein that keeps the land and its people alive. In this river there is an island called Ulgundahi, my mum grew up on this island with the rest of our mob. Even though no one has lived there since 1961, this island is still the heart of the Yaegl people. I need to tell the story of my land, whether it is from the raping of the land or the dispossession of it’s people, it’s an important story I need to share.

JULIANNE GOSPER | The natural world is a constant source of inspiration for my artwork. I prefer to work with charcoal and soft pastels but also love experimenting with mixed mediums. Observational drawing is important to me with a focus on the birdlife of the Clarence Valley. My own backyard is an amazing source of imagery. I completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts at City Art Institute in 1989 and a Diploma in Arts Education in 2004 at Deakin University and have been an arts educator since the 1990’s. Recent awards include the Hermitage Art Prize and the Peoples choice, Firsts in Printmaking, Pastel and drawing in the Jacaranda Art Exhibition.

JULIE HUTCHINGS | I am predominantly an oil painter who sometimes dabbles in mixed media. The human figure is one of my main sources of inspiration probably as I get seduced by the line and form of the body. A strong drawing forms the bones of a good painting so I spend a lot of time mark making on the surface of the canvas or paper until something starts to formulate…all this time trying to establish a relationship with the materials that then take me on an emotional journey of adventure and imagination. I work by building up layers of paint and descriptive marks in charcoal all the time reworking and changing as to not only convey a story but to keep the work full of energy and expression regardless of the subject matter.

JULIE McKENZIE | My current “Paper Bark” painting series is influenced by the local environment and my personal philosophy that ‘gardening will save the world’. Environmental issues like the clearing of swamps and prime agricultural land to make way for housing development, mono cropping and climate change are some of the themes in my work. I have been painting for about 40 years, ever evolving. My first solo exhibition was in 1982 in Leura, NSW. My paintings live in Australia and far away places like the US, England, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, NZ, India, Africa & Japan. I have won a few prizes for work from abstract to sculpture and last year the Grafton Regional gallery purchased one of my paintings for their collection, which was nice. I have mainly exhibited in my own galleries with partner Malcolm King, and local group shows.

KATHLENE DAVIES | I have worked with NSW National Parks and Wildlife, Department of Environment and Climate Change, Parks Australia in Kakadu and Uluru in the Northern Territory, and as a journalist. I am fascinated by Australia’s natural, cultural and historical environment, mysteries, which regularly highlight in my work. I work in a variety of mediums including pen, pencil, watercolour, oil, acrylic, charcoal, inks, ochres, photography, the written word, and some sculptural inclusions such as copper wire, feathers and bark. I conduct regular workshops on scientific flora and fauna illustration and field work techniques throughout NSW and Queensland.

Kerrie Howland | After completing a Bachelor in Visual Arts and a Diploma of Education in 2006, I continue to enjoy an artistic practice which is multifaceted. Creating Art works and original handmade products gives me great joy. I’m always experimenting with collage and a variety of mixed media. The narratives of my work relate to life experiences, challenges and emotions which I interpret symbolically and with abstract forms. I constantly aim to capture what I feel rather than what I see. My employment as an art facilitator for over 10 years in my community, at cultural events and for local council is enjoyable and rewarding.

PAM FYSCH | I have been involved in the arts community in Grafton for many years as a member of the Friends of the Gallery, the Gallery Advisory Committee, The Gallery Foundation and the Grafton Art Club. Since 1988 I have exhibited in solo and group exhibitions and won many prizes in Regional competitions. My work is held in the Grafton Regional Gallery, the Port Macquarie and Lower Clarence collections. I enjoy drawing using mixed media, experimenting with colour, texture and line.

Penny Stewart | I live and work at Woombah, NSW, surrounded by the coastal heathland of Bundjalung National Park, the coast and the Clarence River. I completed a fine arts degree at East Sydney Technical College in the early 70’s, but it was a short course in leadlighting in 1979 in Maclean that began my interest in glass. Glass is a compelling medium with its strength and fragility, provides me with a vehicle to express my love of the Australian bush and coastline with its unique fauna, flora and colour. The coastal heathland is becoming more precious every day, as it is under constant attack from fire, development and the commonly held thought that it is ‘useless land’.

RHONDELLA HYDE | 

RINDI SALOMON | Painting landscapes and cityscapes in a geometric and stylised way is my main interest. My work is sometimes nearly abstract but always originates in ideas from the world around me. I am constantly collecting in my sketch book and photographing images that have a basic geometric structure that appeals to me and fits with all the other visual ideas I already have in my head. It’s a process of assembling all these different structures to form a new scene that has a satisfying harmony. Grafton is my biggest inspiration, with its many art deco era buildings, its lush subtropical vegetation, its beautiful big river and the quiet emptiness of its streets on a Sunday. All of this feeds into my art and is wonderful subject matter.

ROCHELLE SUMMERFIELD | My work explores ideas on female experience and identity in the Australian landscape. Through collages of found, photographed and hand-drawn imagery, I explore stories of transformation featuring a female protagonist. Much can be inferred from our relationship with nature, and I create images that explore how our identity is connected to the natural world as it is to relationships, responsibilities and the constraints of urban life. My collages are replete with references to the grotesque, fable and art history. Along with a dose of humour and irony, I use these references to examine the body in flux as it seeks to find a place for itself within the Australian bush.

SUE HARRIS | The bush has always been where I have. We have been together for so long that I feel as though I am a thread winding through its grasses, becoming part of its history. I gently brush a wallaby flank and stroke a lyrebird’s tail. On our heels snaps the firedog. In its aftermath, we are full of layered, timeless images of the fire-bitten trees, dry fleshless bones, scorched earth, and the eventual delicate regrowth. Small refugee survivors crawl, scuttle, hop and fly over a rounded earth. Our exterior and interior vision is challenged.

TRACY PATEMAN | Hermes guides Orpheus to the Underworld at Ilarwill but Eurydice is nowhere to be found and Orpheus canǯt quite remember what he is doing here anyway. This work takes a look at what it might be like if the ancient Greek myth concerning Orpheus and the Underworld took place here in the Clarence Valley. Hermes is immortal so he can afford the time but Orpheus, the mortal hero, is feeling quite uneasy and generally reluctant to go on. Tracy Pateman is a metalworker who lives on the river flat at Ashby and spends a lot of time looking across at the old Ilarwill quarry-face.