NICOLE CHAFFEY
Arts Centre Manager
Baluk Arts
The South Eastern region of Australia is an area rich in traditional expression and the women artists of Baluk Arts are ensuring the perseverance of a distinct, contemporary cultural aesthetic. These women are the custodians of old crafts and ancient knowledge. They share this knowledge and craft with the next generation, visitors, and the world, often at great personal cost. These are women who have taken control of their destinies, and yet they wander a contested space. The Mornington Peninsula has an ancient geographical and cultural relationship with Tasmania. They were at one time connected by a land bridge that cut across the Bass Strait. The Bunurong people and the palawa (a Tasmanian term for ‘first people’) shared the human cost inflicted by like invaders. Women and children were taken, enslaved and dispossessed. Female history has forever been punctuated by periods of extreme trauma, but it follows then that healing occurs by gradual, inter-generational reclamations of culture, knowledge and ultimately, power.
The persistent resourcefulness which transforms raw materials into things of such beauty and utility is a sort of ancient magic which flows from their fingertips. Bull kelp used to dominate the exposed rocky coasts of the Southern Ocean and Bass Strait. As the globe warms it retreats further from the coastline, but is however still readily collectible after big swells. In addition to being a rich source of nutrition, medicine and raw material, the great kelp forests are prized as an essential ecosystem for the “pearls” of Tasmania, the maireener shell.
Bull kelp water vessel, 2017, Nanette Shaw, Baluk Arts. Photograph by Taryn Hays.
Once gathered from the beach or harvested from the water, the thick, fleshy leaves of the kelp would be moulded and stitched to form a bladder in which fresh water could be stored and carried. Tasmanian elder Auntie Nannette Shaw helps to keep the tradition of the kelp water carrier alive. Once disposable utilitarian objects; these carriers have been elevated now to precious, sculptural pieces, highlighting an undeniable evolution of traditional knowledge to contemporary art practice. And this knowledge has been generously shared by Auntie Nettie (as Shaw is known) to the women of Baluk Arts, who took part in a weeklong series of kelp-crafting workshops with her in 2017. New and innovative techniques of working with kelp have crept into the practices of several Baluk artists in the years since.
Tradition is at the core of Lisa Waup’s creativity. Her practice elegantly incorporates body adornment, objects of comfort and aesthetic beauty, and of spiritual health and healing. Hers are artefacts of personal ceremony, deeply symbolic connections to her ancestors and a seemingly magical process of transforming and combining elements into something new.
Meeting of the waters, fibre Sculpture by Lisa Waup made from galah feathers, cockatoo feathers, emu feathers, parrot feathers, hair, bones, rope Size: 16 x 15cm Baluk Arts. Photograph by Taryn Hays.
Gillian Garvie harnesses a turbulent personal history, weaving stories and symbolism of Country into a diverse weaving practice. Materiality carries her narrative of country New South Wales through the use of flax, sheep’s wool, feathers, wire and uniquely, alpaca fleece. Ancestors rest upon their shoulders as our women walk Country. Collect their materials, they interact with them;
softly, slowly transforming these natural things into mystic items of lore and culture. The process is empowering, and can become a life’s passion. Master weaver Cassie Leatham is a keeper of the weave. She remains true to traditional materials and for her, it is the form that transmutes into contemporary narrative. Pipeclay, harvested in the wild by hand, retains the fingerprints of now, while supporting a simulacrum of midden substances and other organic materials intrinsic to her journey as an educator, community worker and sculpture maker.
Oceans Deep. Fibre sculpture by Gillian Garvie from alpaca, cotton, wool, flax. Size: 80 x 80 x 90cm. Photograph by Taryn Hays.
The unity between these women is found within the finding. Bower-birding; the devoted collection of distinctive elements, is at the core of each practice. Within woven grasses you will discover fine threads of silk and linen, kelp, yarn, sinew, bark. Beautiful plumage from fallen ones adorn the vessels. These are connections to totemic beings or reference to ceremony. These creatures are often given as gifts to the artists, who honour them in their death. The work of these women is a memorandum. They affirm their place and their voice in the world. “we are here; we are exploring…” Their culture is dynamic, contemporary and everevolving… and they invite you to connect with their lived experience: personal stories told through these ancient arts.
The Alchemists exhibits at The Goods Shed until mid February 2020.