in situ : in stall

the last time i curated an exhibition was 1986

a lifetime ago

when

my name was

Schwerdtfeger

and people took me seriously

because i had a title

"Visual Arts Development & Exhibitions officer, Arts Council of South Australia"

these days the Arts Council [as it was then] no longer exists, having been absorbed by the Regional Cultural Trusts

and my surname changed by marriage.

these days i am India Flint

of nowhere in particular.

two years ago i conceived the notion of an exhibition

"in situ"

about the sense of place, whether in the pristine wild or amid the clutter of the city, whether derived from the locality of our birth or a dwelling place of choice, whether acknowledged or suppressed pervades how we live and work. place is integral to human integrity and to our sense of being.

i invited eleven people i knew to participate.

and

over time 

it has gradually come together.

 ‘in situ’ comprises work by  Sandra Brownlee, Dorothy Caldwell, Helen Carnac, Imbi Davidson, Desiree Fitzgibbon, Roz Hawker, Nikki Jackson, Judy Keylock, Isobel McGarry, John Parkes and me; examining the experience of locality, exploring the intimacy of personally familiar places and the particular relationship each artist has with their environment. 

i will confess i struggled with including my own work. as curator, this is somewhat frowned upon. Directors of galleries certainly shouldn't do it, but in this case it is a sort of anchor point. at least, that's my excuse.

 

 so today i drove to work with my assistant

 

through a blue sky day, to grapple with the delight of empty space

and with arranging work to claim it.

much later i pootled home along the backroads

past stubble fields that looked like stitches

through Rathjens Gap, where one hundred years ago witches were reputed to fly

and where i suspect petroglyphs might still be found

if the sun were at the right angle

finding new puddles on the way

home to the studio

where it was time to burn a few boats

under the careful supervision of Tabitha

while Kubbi slept the sleep of the just

after which

i made a new drawing tool

one that does justice to the inkwell i found last year at McArdle Bay, Lopez Island

tomorrow it's back to the Murray Bridge Regional Gallery
to complete the install

ready for the opening on Friday May 22 @ 7pm

do swing by if you're in the region.







'If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are'      Wendell Berry

wrap up (some more) for winter

 

we had a glorious day at Poet's Ode last Sunday

wrapping and dyeing beautifully soft pure wool shawls

in a cauldron heated over a lovely twig-fired heater

made especially for me by my blacksmith son

the sky was blue, the lunch delicious

we drank tea, told stories

played and worked in the back garden

(an oasis of quiet hidden from the hubbub of Hahndorf)

laying our shawls out on the grass

and happily strewing leaves 

we composed a little spontaneous poetry

while waiting for the bundles to cool

it was such a lovely time that we're offering a repeat

(i'm not in South Australia much after all)

the weather might not be so kind on June 6

but we can cosy up in our lovely workroom

make a fire in that lovely hearth

and wrap up in our wool shawls

because wool is warm even when wet

Sam and Yoda won't be getting off the home sofa though

they're much too comfortable