July 13th 2023 A Partnership for Uncertain Times: Art, Science and Technology

The last twelve months have been extraordinarily productive. Over 2022/23 I have also been involved in another fine project, A Partnership for Uncertain Times.

Media Release

A Partnership for Uncertain Times features four exceptional South Australian artists working at the intersections of art, science & technology:

BRAD DARKSON, DEIRDRE FEENEY, NIKI SPEROU & CATHERINE TRUMAN

The project features a workshop, an exhibition, artist talks as well as text and video essays.

Artists working with science and technology constantly grapple with uncertainty during and through their processes of creating. A Partnership for Uncertain Times offers a rare opportunity for the commissioned artists to take a deep dive into exploratory process over a 12-month period. The post-pandemic timeframe when uncertainty was a constant.

The project focuses on process and creative inquiry, placing emphasis on courageous experimental development over ‘perfecting’ finished artworks.

This Arts South Australia funded collaboration between the University of South Australia (UniSA) and ANAT (Australian Network for Art and Technology), lifts the curtain of cross-disciplinary practice revealing insight into cross-disciplinary artistic process.

Co-developed by Dr Deirdre Feeney (UniSA) and ANAT, the project launched with an in-person student-focused workshop on 22 October, 2022 at UniSA.

The Taken Path: a durational project

August 2022 – July 2023

Catherine Truman in collaboration with Ian Gibbins

I worked in collaboration with Ian Gibbins on a durational project titled The Taken Path, also based at Carrick Hill.

The Taken Path is an open-ended experiment in observation and embodied experience. The project revolves around the repetitive action of walking and filming a defined path that traverses both the cultivated and uncultivated landscape of the Carrick Hill estate.

Each month, over the past year, Ian and I randomly chose a day and time to film using two main devices; a video camera and an iPhone.

We walked the centre of path in both directions, holding the devices the same way each time, filming whatever conditions were present on that day. This repetitive action created the control films and the raw material for experimental footage and stills.

I chose Carrick Hill because of my familiarity with this estate. It is a vast conundrum of shifting, delicate connections between humans and the greater environment. It is a vast estate where pure fantasy and the hard reality of both ancient and present life can be encountered at once. It is like a microcosm of the wider world.

There seems to be an innate drive in us to intervene in, alter and reorder the natural environments around us, even if we have no place in them.

If we keep to the path already taken what will happen to our powers of observation?

If we walk it many times does our awareness shift or is it be-calmed?

Can we learn anew from this repetition?

This has been such a generative process. Our films shown side by side on the same screen map the intricate shifts that occur across a range of landscapes, cultivated and less structured over the course of a year. Working in this open-ended way has meant we have a bounty of raw material for future work.

Glass Gloves- the separation

Amongst the flood of themes we are investigating is a phenomenon we both felt whilst filming over the year. Our devices seemed to separate us from the very environment we were trying to document. Both of us felt that our experience was mediated through the screens we held. I have begun experimenting with glass glove forms that are heavy and dislocating to wear, I am in the one in the glass vitrine, not able to extend my touch to decipher the very environment I seek to understand. They are like miniature wearable bio-spheres and as I move, and expend precious energy, they collect my fluid.

The slow and unexpected unfolding has been deeply satisfying and staying open to the process, constantly reviewing it, discussing It with others, has made me realise that here is where the real work lies- stepping back more, getting out of the way, not filling the gaps with solutions, allowing direct experience and actions to lead my creative responses.

The relationships established across creative arts and scientific fields, as a result of projects such as this are important and rare. They are the catalyst for dialogue that tests the boundaries of language and our understanding and representation of held and new frontiers of knowledge about the natural world we share.

More about The Taken Path

https://www.iangibbins.com.au/2023/06/22/the-taken-path-a-durational-project-with-catherine-truman/

ANAT links to films and catalogue A Partnership for Uncertain Times

https://www.anat.org.au/program/a-partnership-for-uncertain-times/

https://issuu.com/marchellematthew/docs/a-partnership-for-uncertain-times

Artlink article link

https://www.artlink.com.au/articles/5096/a-partnership-for-uncertain-times-art-science-and-/

3oth June 2023 The Arrangements: assembling nature concludes!

The exhibition was extended until June 30 at Carrick Hill. I have only just de-installed.

This has been one of the most satisfying projects! The immersion, the residency, the research, the making and the show will continue to feed my practice for evermore.

Devoting an entire year to the evolution of the work was critical and the complexities that arose throughout the research were revelatory.

My relationship to the meaning of plants, gardens and the ‘native bush’ has been challenged and reshaped, accelerated by the knowledge held by others and broadened by an uncovering of the gaps in my own knowledge. More than ever, I feel that there is much to learn from the colonial past if the future is to hold any hope.

These questions held my focus-

How do we engage with the natural world when we are distanced from it?

Can living with art inform the art of living in these times of great uncertainty?

I hoped to encourage dialogue on the relationship we have with the natural world and create an opportunity for art to disrupt our held assumptions and expectations.

The collection of works made in response to my research, conversations, experiments and intuition are personal, mediated through my own lens and language of making. However, I feel I became a conduit for many points of view, and in a sense, whilst I wasn’t aiming to document, I felt like a responder, a translator, and as a result the works became catalysts for deep conversation.

Displayed within the house museum the seven new works were integrated within the domestic settings as if they were part of the Haywards’ collection and daily lives.

For the duration of the exhibition, I renamed the Wall Gallery, on the top floor, The Assembly Room and turned it into a temporary studio space.  I filled it with work tables, notebooks, sketches, texts, experiments, images and films revealing the workings of the project and providing some insight into how the pieces for the exhibition came to be. For several sessions selected days I invited the public in for conversations on art and science, history, our relationships to plants and gardens, and the wider issues of climate and biodiversity. It felt like a logical extension of my time here and I was so encouraged by the dialogue with audiences, the depth of inquiry and concern for our planet.

As an artist my role is not to come up with solutions, however, the works became catalysts for meaningful exchange.

Carrick Hill (through the support of The Friends) have acquired The Weeping Orchid” for their permanent collection. Such an honour.

There was some great coverage of this project. Here are some links!

InDaily 17th March, 2023

https://indaily.com.au/arts-culture/adelaide-festival/2023/03/17/a-contemporary-creative-response-to-historic-carrick-hill/

“House museums such as Carrick Hill are often seen as capturing a moment in time, but Truman believes it is not static; there are symbols of the past and present, and also an indication of the future if you go looking. Through an evaluation of nature and our connection to it, her presentation connects the pre-colonial history to the site’s colonial foundations as well as to issues of the present day.

Truman’s research and subsequent exhibition is just the starting point for thinking about the land we are on and its future.

“I can start conversations,” she states. “As an artist, I can’t come up with solutions but I can identify the gaps in our knowledge and we can talk about them. I think that’s what art should do: start conversations that are relevant to life now and relevant to life in the future.”

Art Guide 17th March 2023

https://artguide.com.au/catherine-truman-on-gardens-nature-and-culture/

“The Arrangements: Assembling Nature probes the space between nature and humans.”

ABC Radio National Broadcast Wed 15 Mar 2023

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-art-show/andy-warhol-catherine-truman/102044892

A limited number of catalogues from this exhibition are available. Please email me with your request.

IT'S OPEN!

On the evening of February 28th we had such a gathering in the Teardrop Garden at Carrick Hill that the warmth of that celebration will stay with me forever. Thanks to all who came.

Ashum Yarlupina Owen performed a welcome and smoking ceremony, followed by an line up of wonderful women; Rhana Devenport, director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Ruth McKenzie, director of the Adelaide Festival and Susan McCormack, director of Carrick Hill. We gathered, we paid respects, we talked, we hunted for the treasures of this exhibition in this extraordinary house museum.

The seven new works have taken on yet another new life, settled amongst the amazing art collection, inside the many rooms of the home of the Haywards. The context of this unique house brings so much to the work. The threads back to the past and way into the future are rich and in some instances, surprising in their interplay. It’s very exciting. Im so grateful to have had an entire year to research and draw upon the many who have a vested interest and value this incredible bequest of two generous people, Ursula and Bill Hayward. We have much to learn and much to ponder about the life choices they made throughout their lifespans in comparison to the conundrums and uncertainties of contemporary life.

There is a public program of events surrounding this exhibition, artist talks and tours, a panel discussion including exciting South Australian artists Kasia Tóns and Brad Darkson, convened by Debbie Pryor . Also I’ll be settling down in the Wall Gallery, a space on the 2nd floor of the house museum that I have temporarily taken over as a studio and renamed The Assembly Room, to make some plants and chat to visitors.

The Assembly room is open during Museum hours and I’’l be there

Please click here for all the details and booking links for the talks.

Carrick Hill is in the foothill suburbs of Adelaide, not far from the city, it has beautiful gardens and a cafe.

The grounds are open every day and the house museum is open 10- 4.30pm Wednesday - Sunday.

More details here.

Here is my opening speech for those who were unable to join us for the night.

The Arrangements: assembling nature opening speech 28th February 2023

Thank you to Ashum for your moving Welcome and smoking ceremony and Susan for your introduction.

On March 1st a whole year ago, I went for a morning walk up to the apex of Brown Hill, just behind Carrick Hill Estate…

I set off under overcast skies and made my way along the paths through the well-tended garden, through the hedges, past the cutting beds and up the hill and through the gates in the deer proof fence.

I was immersed in the signs of a well-worn land, passing ancient gums, wary that if I stood in one place too long the large bull ants would let me know I was out of place. Crusty brown bark strewn like reckless litter, red clay earth and the swathes of golden grass gave the wind direction away as I climbed upwards, ever upwards.

Until finally, I glimpsed a faraway view, the canopies were carpeting the lower third of my gaze and their density was a complete surprise… an amazing vista that takes in the Gulf of St Vincent, the entire metropolis, the jut of city buildings through to the waterways of Port Adelaide.

And the house of Carrick Hill was a thumbnail sketch, a small brushstroke on a wide flat plain, distinct on its site, cocooned, arranged and assembled.

……………..

Over the past year I have come to know Carrick Hill through the land it sits on, the extreme contrasts of garden and bush, the extraordinary house- only 84 years young; sited upon land that is millions of years old.  I have come to know Carrick Hill through the eclectic treasure trove of the art collection, and most importantly, I have come to know this place through the people who care for all of it - each person from the expert volunteers to the knowledgeable gardeners, the flower arrangers, the guides, the intrepid bush care group, the truly dedicated staff, the managers and administrators, each one is a custodian of this inheritance, the generous legacy of Ursula and Bill Hayward. 

Their care for this place, the time they give and most essentially, the care they show for each other has influenced my research and creative response.

Carrick Hill is often labelled a time capsule, and indeed it is, there are a conundrum of pressing issues still to unfold, gaps in the held knowledge, but it is not static. If you are attuned, you will find many different pulses here, the blood of all nations, responsive shifts moment to moment, receptive thinking, symbols of the past and present and portents for the future…if you go looking.

I found myself questioning the colonial version of history, the complex relationships between human industry and the natural world, the pressing issues of contemporary life, of our everyday life choices versus the big global uncertainties we now face; climate change, loss of biodiversity, and how to reconcile them for a more hopeful, future. I have learned a little more about being a custodian of the land I live on and working towards a positive future, way beyond my own lifetime; through the everyday experience of being an artist in residence here amongst the past of the Hayward’s, and the present of all who care for and visit Carrick Hill.

I invite you to join me in the fruits of this extraordinary year, go treasure-hunting in the house, there are seven new works distributed throughout the rooms. And visit the Wall gallery on the second floor, that I have renamed the Assembly Room, where you’ll find some of the inner workings of my new work.  

There are so many people who have supported this project.

My heartfelt gratitude to Tony Kanellos who invited me to a place he knew would inspire me, to Susan McCormack and all at Carrick Hill, for sharing and caring and enriching this project.  Your names are all etched in my history now (and the back of my catalogue!) Thanks to Rachel Harris for the beautiful catalogue.

My thanks also to my workshop partners, especially Sue for her enduring support and superb editing skills. To Arts South Australia, and the Australia Council for the Arts for their financial support, and to the Adelaide Festival, it’s a thrill to have been acknowledged this way in my home town. And to Rhana for joining us to launch the show and to all of you for coming to celebrate with me tonight. It means a great deal to me. Thank you, please get in there and explore!

Enjoy the night!

THE GATHERING DECEMBER 19, 2022

As I gather the works made over these past several months to see what kind of shape they make together, what kind of voice they carry, I realise what an amazing year this has been.

I feel I am still in the middle of this residency, yet the new year looms marking a time when endings join up to new beginnings.

The research continues to fertilize new growth. I keep on dipping into the words and conversations, films and images accumulated over the duration of this very giving residency. There have been moments when I’ve felt overwhelmed and rudderless, my process descending into seeming chaos and disorder, but somehow the years have given me backbone; faith that every moment counts no matter how tangled the threads become.

The new works will be intermingled with the eclectic art collection that fills the domestic spaces of the house at Carrick Hill. Visitors will be invited to browse and find the works themselves, in their own time, in the flesh.

 I am so curious to know how this will unfold; what this might unveil of the potential of living with art in every room. As I wander this house, I often imagine how this felt on a daily basis in this strange, yet very intimate, homely environment.

Over time, the works grew into shapes that I now find completely evocative of this year of quite personal research. When I’m in the midst a residency in a chronicled environment I can sometimes feel blinded by other peoples’ versions of history, yet here I find that many stories translate so directly into the dilemmas we are all facing in contemporary life. Namely that there is such a delicate balance between anthropomorphism and the natural world, a relationship that has always has been fragile and now the imbalance is profound.

As we come into January and February, 2023, more and more plans are coming to fruition.

The exhibition will be open to the public from March 1st, 2023. There will be artist talks where I’ll take you on a tour of the works around the house and we’ll get a talk in the flesh. There is an evening when you’ll hear from some vibrant South Australian artists who have devoted their practices to these issues of plant/human relationships.

Also, I am transforming the Wall Gallery, in the attic of the house, into an Assembly Room, a studio of sorts! Here you’ll find me, on occasion, with my hands on the work- making plants for some arrangements yet to be born.  

I feel honoured that The Arrangements: assembling nature has been selected as an official Adelaide Festival 2023 visual arts event.

You can find more details on page 66 of the Adelaide Festival program guide and on the AF23 website

https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/events/the-arrangements-assembling-nature/

and the Carrick Hill website:

https://www.carrickhill.sa.gov.au/events/exhibitions/the-arrangements-assembling-nature

and my Instagram page

https://www.instagram.com/catherinetruman/?hl=en

Catherine Truman Flood detail. 2022 Fallen eucalypt branches, thermoplastic, photoluminescence powder.

May - June 2022 The Arrangements:assembling nature

Over the past few months its been head down back in the studio with a mountain of research under my belt and an extraordinary task ahead ; to translate the riches into a creative response.

My hands are catching up on lost time. Absolutely immersed in experimentation with materials and techniques that carry meaning. Limbering up the fine muscles to find that nuance, the sweet spot of making, the flow. I have been carrying around and enormous bone collection, seemingly for all my making life, waiting for the right body of work to meet the incredible sense of reverence I have developed for them. Collected from beaches and roadsides and arid landscapes, gifted by well-intentioned friends and acquaintances many many years ago.. This residency hits the mark. Carrick Hill Estate includes the most beautiful remnant native Grey Box Grassy woodland, about 29 hectares ring the property. Unceded lands of the Kaurna people, also once dairy farm land.

I’m beginning my response working from the outside in… my making journey has begun with the bush and will culminate in the house itself. Referencing the past land use over time. Out come the miraculous scapula and tibia from a dairy cow, beast of burden from Paris Creek (2000) and kangaroo tibia and ribs from Kangaroo Island (2010). Sacred bones, arranged to speak of past, present and a hopeful future, beyond this artis’s life span.

FEBRUARY - APRIL 2022

The Arrangements – assembling nature

February - April 2022

I’m ensconced as artist in residence in a remarkable place.

This is a creative project that offers an extraordinary opportunity to build on established concerns about our impact on the environment and to consider the relationship between the domestic and scientific interpretation of the natural world, from both historic and contemporary perspectives. 

Carrick Hill is a grand house filled with an eclectic and historically significant art collection, surrounded by extensive heritage gardens ringed by native bushland. The original contents of the house are almost completely intact and the grounds undiminished. 

Carrick Hill is a time capsule of privileged mid-twentieth century life in Adelaide, with domestic spaces that exude the power of living with art. My interest lies in unpicking the relationship of the garden to the house; to investigate the roles and rituals of cultivation, harvest, arrangement and display, that plants played in the life of the residents. To look at the relationship we now have with the natural world under changed circumstances and global pressures. To reflect on causes and shifting attitudes towards environmental consciousness. 

………………………………………………………………………….

Situated in the heart of the house is a special, purpose-built room - the flower room. Rather like a home laboratory, it is dedicated to arranging flowers, fresh-cut from the lavish gardens. Assembled and distributed around the house, these arrangements were significant to the artistic vigour of the domestic spaces and an important daily ritual. 

During this project I’ll consider the notion of the home laboratory as a place to study the critical and shifting relationships between plants and humans, as a place to explore the role of nature within the fabric of the everyday. The daily ritual of bringing the outside in queries the role and interpretation of nature.

There are two fundamental questions that underpin this project, the first - in today’s world how do we engage with the environment around us when we are distanced from it? The second - can living with art inform the art of living? 

I’m looking forward to being absolutely immersed here for a few months, then the plan is to shift to my studio to generate a creative response that will be presented at Carrick Hill over the period of the 2023 Adelaide Festival.

AUGUST 2021

It has been a miraculous time of immersion and sharing.

2020 seemed to evaporate.

Sometimes I find myself wondering how an entire year of life could seem like mist.

2020 the year COVID made its mark on a global scale. I spent my days locked in my studio making, responding, reflecting, making.

Making without the usual tempering of emails and phone-calls and administration, of interruptions.

Making , such a strong anchor: such a life-saver, so grounding and in the moment.

Shared Reckonings grew inexorably day by day fed by the research of 2019 and liberal doses of uncertainty and the unfurling of a global pandemic and climate crisis.

In February 2021 Shared Reckonings was installed in the Museum of Economic Botany , the only one of its kind in the world, and the Deadhouse (the mortuary) in the heart of the Botanic Gardens of South Australia. The exhibition was selected to be a part of the Adelaide Festival of the Arts

(another miraculous event!) and remained opened to an appreciative public for three months. How extraordinary… to have this level of engagement, continuously for weeks on end. How lucky we were.

How lucky.

Graft in progress. 2020 A eucalypt branch, charred in the Adelaide bushfires of 2019 is being measured up to encase it in thermoplastic

May 2020

2020 a year of wonders… what a time to be an artist.

2019 was an extraordinary period of research – paired residencies working across the disciplines of ophthalmology and plant science. 

A huge year of learning, coupled with the immediacy of climate change and the sheer scale of the Australian bushfires.

Now in 2020 we all find ourselves together and apart, negotiating a whole new world of COVID-19. Together and Apart.

I had planned 2020 as a studio year to review, reflect and respond. I got more than I bargained for.

But as we know, artists must always bargain…

And so, I will take a deep breath and begin a new project

Shared Reckonings will culminate in a major exhibition to be held at the Museum of Economic Botany and the Dead House nestled within the Botanic Gardens of South Australia during the Adelaide Festival in 2021, both are unique spaces in the world.

A year-long period of making ahead.