Grounded begins its Australia tour

John Mullins Memorial Gallery, Miles, Queensland

Gallery foyer

Rain!!

The workshop group

We had a lovely first night of the Australia tour of Grounded – thank you Flying Arts Alliance and John Mullins Memorial Art Gallery. The exhibition is open in Miles, Queensland from 24 July to 8 September.  The accompanying 1-day Masterclass was lots of fun. A great group of enthusiastic photographers from the surrounding properties and nearby towns were a real pleasure to work with. The exhibition opens next at Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Brisbane, opening 30 September (to 17 October). The accompanying masterclass in Brisbane is on Sunday 11 October (bookable through Flying Arts Alliance ).

Jim Crombie, an Elder of Wangkangurru country. He was born here, beside a sacred fish hole. Kunmurri, the Serpent, lives in the fish hole and protects the fish. When the Two Boys from the Thutirla Pula story arrived at Ngalpura-ngura (the Fish Hole), they had a corroboree where they confirmed the places and names and set laws and songs for the country. The serpent was invited to stay.

Canon Angus MacQueen with his cat, Mizzy. Alongside her brother Fionn, (named after one of the great guardians of the Celtic people), the cats watch over Canon MacQueen in his retirement. Canon MacQueen is strongly connected with his Gaelic heritage. He says of the Gaelic language, whoever invented it must have been sitting on a hillside watching the ocean and the birds.

For those new to the blog, the Grounded exhibition, a commission by Glasgow Life for Festival 2014 XX Commonwealth Games, has also shown since at An Lanntair Art Gallery in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, as a partner event at Hebtember Festival.

Feedback on the Glasgow Festival 2014, XX Commonwealth Games exhibition can be linked to here.

Three audiovisuals that were part of Grounded, (Wadlu-gnana; Freumhaichte; Who Cares for Country) can be watched here

The book that accompanied the exhibition can be found at Exhibition explanatory book

You can also link to information about the exhibition at these links: Introductory panel in English and Introductory panel in Gaelic.

Educational workshops run at An Lanntair Gallery in conjunction with Grounded can be viewed here and here.

The Colour of Language frieze is growing and now almost big enough to cover a wall at An Lanntair Gallery in Stornoway, with the latest additions by some children from Hazelwood North school in Gippsland, Australia. The Colour of Language arts educational project came out of Grounded’s showing at An Lanntair in Stornoway, Scotland. If you are interested in joining in you can contact me through this blog here.

Joe’s educational video of me talking about the exhibition can be viewed here.

Photos of the Glasgow opening event are here. Glasgow workshops, talks and exhibition details are here. And the Digital Resources pages of the blog for further information are here and here.

An interview about my work with journalist Jim Gilchrist is on the Struileag website which can be read at Jim Gilchrist’s review or linked to here. And a response to the Alice Springs jail post by Professor Smith can be found here. A review by Dr Kate Robinson can be found here. And you can listen to a cut down recording of “In Conversation: Connecting through Culture” at this Vimeo link. (16 mins.) (One of our afternoon events at Glasgow Festival 2014 showing). Or listen to some music from one of our Glasgow afternoon events here.

A radio interview with BBC Radio Scotland Voices of the Commonwealth, which explores some of the concepts behind Grounded, is now available for listening to here.

My artist biography can be linked to here and here and my personal website is here

The introductory page for the blog can be found here.

The Grounded residency diary entries begin here in Scotland and then in Australia here. This is a record of my thoughts whilst gathering the material. These thoughts and images inform the production but are not part of the final exhibition.

Some other sites that link to Grounded can be found here

Funder acknowledgements can be viewed here