Artist Index

26.11.13

ARTLINK will launch 'MINING: gouging the country' on last day of LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND: Sunday 1 December


ARTLINK launch December 1, at 2-4pm at Articulate project space
LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND open Fri - Sun 11am - 5pm

Guest speakers at the launch are:
•  Dr Ann Finegan, writer-researcher and co-director of Cementa Contemporary Arts Festival located at Kandos, in a valley local to Bylong, the centre of the ongoing Eddie Obeid coal scandal, and 
• Jo Holder, curator and founding Director of Cross Art Projects in Sydney, known for experimental, cross cultural and activist dialogues.

 Artlink's issue 33#4 December 2013, Mining: gouging the country is edited by 
 Stephanie Britton and Professor Pat Hoffie and will be available at Articulate 
 project space.

The world is hungry for minerals and fuel. Is Australia's preparedness to gouge its (sacred) earth any different to that of any other country? The land's value in spiritual as well as economic terms has led to some of the most debated legislation of contemporary times – from Australian Aboriginal ownership and land rights to mining, coal seam gas extraction, the value of the land; who owns it; who has the rights to use it; to sell it; to exploit it; to act as custodian of it. Initially defined as "Terra Nullius" this country is now recognised as an ancient, mineral-rich continent of hotly contested territories.

This issue digs deep into the seen and unseen impact of big mining and its greed for the rapid and ruthless exploitation of fossil fuels. It comes at a turning point for the community in relation to climate change. With the carbon level in the air now reaching 400 ppm, coal mining can never be ‘clean’ or sustainable; 350.org, an urgent global public campaign to keep coal in the ground is growing.
Artists, artists' alliances and arts writers join with environmentalists to raise consciousness about the dangers of mining operations on farmlands, rivers, in remote areas, deserts, and coastal areas, as well as in the depth of the oceans.
• Ken Mulvaney writes on the ancient rock art being damaged by proximity to mining operations on the Burrup Peninsula.
The tension around funding for arts, science and community enterprise from mining companies which commonly exploit the prestige of arts projects to varnish their image. Arts patronage is used as a wedge to buy off the potential community opposition and the custodial burden is getting heavier for Indigenous land holders in many regions.
• During the mining boom has support to the arts from mining companies been minimal relative to their profits?
Artists include Fiona Hall, Cai Quo-Qiang, Craig Walsh, Jan Senbergs, John Gollings, Ah Xian, and Raymond Arnold. 
Writers include Daniel Thomas, Sam Cook, David Hansen, Michael Taussig, Judith Blackall, and Jane Deeth.

PRESS RELEASE

Launch -  Jo Holder

20.11.13

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND - Beaker drawing -Toni Warburton Saturday 23 November 11am-5pm




This Saturday 23rd November, from 11am - 5pm, Toni Warburton will be in the project space making and drawing on wheel thrown clay beakers as part of her work: coal clay water wood - some processes and relationships.




Visitors are invited to post words, images, patterns, marks, ideas into the  wooden box labelled Tenders for the artist to select from to do beaker drawings.


It will be possible for interested visitors to be shown the scraffito  technique  and to participate in doing a beaker drawing. 

On Sunday 1st December during the exhibition closing and launch of Artlink Mining Issue, the completed beakers will be available for sale for $30 each.

photos by Chris Ward and Loretta Picone

17.11.13

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND opening and works


 Jamie Parker, our Greens MP, with chocolate frog reward for opening LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND 
and launching The Stuttering Frog #2, with Juliet Fowler Smith, founder of WRVAP.
Sharyn Munro speaking at opening of LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND
above photos: Noelene Lucas
David Watson 

Ralph Snowball New Lambton pit head, Adamstown  1897 
inkjet print (2013) from an original Ralph Snowball glass negative,
     courtesy Norm Barney Photographic Collection,University of Newcastle

David Watson Fuse  1:100,000 maps showing proposed 2014 walk
 following power grid from Rozelle to Hunter valley source

Information corner
Neil Berecry-Brown Social Licence  2013 inkjet print
Ian Milliss Viburnum with Coal  2013 inkjet print  

above  Toni Warburton coal clay water wood - some processes and relationships 2013. 
People are invited to submit words, images, patterns, marks from which the artist 
can select to draw onto clay beakers. Beakers will be glazed, fired and available 
for sale for $30.00 each on Sunday 1st December. Photo Chris Ward
Noelene Lucas Living with Coal  2013 single-channel HD video
photo Chris Ward
Christine McMillan Sludge  2013 
coal sludge in snow-domes on shelf

Noelene Lucas, Rivers of Coal  2013 3-channel HD video 

Sue Callanan Going, Going, Gone  2013 
hessian bags, stencil paint,coal, wood, lights

Margaret Roberts Titled  2013
ply, hinges, live space/visitor-interaction 
David Watson  Mining Rash [The Drip]  2013 
inkjet print on aluminium
David Watson Checkout  + Ransom Note (with Denise Corrigan)  
2013  powerpoint 
Juliet Fowler Smith The Area of Affectation  2013
 installation, table, dowel, seats & found objects 
Wendy Bowman at 'Rosedale' (centre)  in Camberwell, 
with David Watson (left, with The Stuttering Frog #2) and Sue Callanan (right) 
David Watson and Sue Callanan 
distributing The Stuttering Frog #2 in the Hunter region

Video Doc by Noelene Lucas

14.11.13

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND to be opened by our local Greens MP, Jamie Parker, at 7pm tomorrow night

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND will now be opened tomorrow night, Friday 15 November at 7pm by Jamie Parker MP for the local seat of Balmain. 

The previous arrangement for John Kaye MLC (who has also opened other WRVAP projects) to open LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND had to change when he became no longer available. 

WRVAP is pleased and honoured to have our own local member and the only Greens lower house member of the NSW parliament to open its current project, LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND. 

11.11.13

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND opens Friday 15 November at 6-8pm

To be opened at 7pm by NSW Greens MP John Kaye, MLC.

Open Nov 16 to Dec 1, 11am - 5pm

Galvanised by the crisis in global warming caused by the fossil-fuel industries, theWilliams River Valley Artists' Project (WRVAP) presents LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND with artists Neil Berecry Brown, Sue Callanan, Juliet Fowler Smith, Noelene Lucas, Christine McMillan, Ian Milliss, Margaret Roberts, Toni Warburton and David Watson.


David Watson / Denise Corrigan Ransom Note 2013
Invitation
The Stuttering Frog #2 (pdf)
The Stuttering Frog #2 (issuu book)

The 2nd edition of WRVAP's The Stuttering Frog will be launched at the opening. As well as texts and images by the artists, there are also texts by activists Glenn Albrecht, Julia Mullins and Colin Imrie, Julia Sheppard, Sharyn Munro and Chris Ward, as well as some Nuggests and David's Very Crossword. 

WVRAP is indebted to graphic designer/layout artist Tony Fuery who generously donates his wondrous pre-press skills to produce both editions of The Stuttering Frog: tony@parslowart.net 

Also, there will be an information corner, including one hundred new Bimblebox books by Maureen Cooper will be available at the opening to take in exchange for donations in support of the court case against the Alpha mine. 

See previous WRVAP activities (including the highly successful participation in the campaign to stop the Tillegra Dam) on the WRVAP blogThese are included in the first (2010) edition of The Stuttering Frog #1 which can also be downloaded.




Noelene Lucas
image: Noelene Lucas; text: Ed Ruscha


image: Noelene Lucas; text: Ed Ruscha

Neil Berecry-Brown Revoked 2013
Sue Callanan Bulga Coal 2013