HUW DAVIES GALLERY 2–19 July
 

 

Lyndy Delian is a remarkable artist in diverse media. A textile and glass artist, painter, writer and illustrator, she has now added photography to her creative repertoire. Lyndy is the second emerging Indigenous photographer supported by PhotoAccess with funding under the ACT component of the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy.

Lyndy’s 2009 NAIDOC Week exhibition 1200° has its roots in a Canberra Glassworks residency shared with other Indigenous artists and supported under the ACT Indigenous Strategic Arts Initiative. The exhibition includes images made in the course of the residency, showing artists at work in the exciting and pressured creative environment of the Canberra Glassworks hotshop. Through her images we share the exhilaration these artists experience in the heat of the furnace and the intricate demands of shaping molten glass. We are privileged to also show examples of Lyndy Delian’s work in glass, textile and paper prints and acrylics in this 2009 NAIDOC Week exhibition.

The diversity of Delian’s practice and the dimensions of her creative achievements are amply demonstrated by the recent exhibitions, commissions and awards listed in her biography. But not listed are the 42 exhibitions she participated in from 1999 to 2006. Lyndy is one of the busiest artists practicing in Canberra today, a tribute to her creativity and inquisitiveness, and the inspiration she draws from her culture. She is represented in the collections of the National Museum of Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra Institute of Technology, and other public and private collections in Australia and overseas.

Like the Canberra Glassworks, PhotoAccess is participating in the ACT Indigenous Strategic Arts Initiative, in our case with two photo based projects in cooperation with Billabong Aboriginal Development Corporation. These projects will culminate in a HUW DAVIES GALLERY exhibition next year. We acknowledge the farsightedness of the ACT Government in supporting Indigenous artists and allowing us to play a part in sharing their culture and unique perspectives with visitors to the Manuka Arts Centre.

We thank Neville O’Neill, ACT Indigenous Arts Officer, artsACT and the ACT Cultural Council for their assistance with this four-year emerging Indigenous photographer program. Ed Whalan and Barbie Robinson provided technical and creative support for this year’s project.

PhotoAccess is proud to present Lyndy Delian’s 1200°—a 2009 NAIDOC Week exhibition—in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY at the Manuka Arts Centre.

David Chalker
Director

HUW DAVIES GALLERY 11 June–28 June
 

 
Garema is Ian Copland’s third solo exhibition in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY. Structures, shown in April 2007, was an outstanding first exhibition based on the architecture of three of Canberra’s national institutions.

Copland’s exceptional compositional skills and strong feeling for colour were also demonstrated in his second exhibition, People, shown in early 2008. Unlike Structures and Garema, People—which challenged us to consider the way we perceive people and difference—had no Canberra connection. In Garema, Copland has focused on a Canberra sacred site.

Garema Place has been more than a physical location for generations of Canberra people. Starting life as a very formal city square, it was dominated by Young’s department store and Canberra’s adventurous first cafes and restaurants. In the 1960s, before the trees were established, it was a sterile, exposed place, but also a venue for polite family outings on a Saturday morning. From the 1970s it was fertile ground for musicians and street performers, including three young smart ass guys with a guitar who appropriated the name of the then leader of the National Party and moved on to stellar careers in comedy and the media.

Copland’s Garema is Garema Place now, street photography reflecting the diversity and sheer untidiness of human activity in this lively and, at times, dangerous place. Compared to the early years the trees are fuller, the people are different and noisier, the cafes and restaurants are well established and well patronised, deals are more obvious, the birds are more aggressive, and skaters make no allowances for saunterers and immovable obstructions.

Garema is the least structured of Ian Copland’s three HUW DAVIES GALLERY exhibitions, which seems entirely appropriate considering the time and place of its making. To emphasise the diversity of activity and community, Copland has included with 40 larger prints Garema Collections 1 and 2, more than 150 randomly arranged post card sized prints giving us a comprehensive picture of this place many regard as the heart of Canberra.

Condemning the efforts of successive city managers to create Civic Square as a place for community focus and celebration, Garema Place continues as a magnet for lively activity, polite and very definitely impolite, at the centre of Canberra’s psyche. Ian Copland gives us a genuine feel for the place and its people, including significant moments and hints at some quite beautiful stories, in Garema.

PhotoAccess is delighted to show Ian Copland’s Garema in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY at the Manuka Arts Centre.

David Chalker

Catalogue

Let the kids go high-end digital with digital SLR camera and Adobe© Creative Suite imaging software this Summer. The three day course includes a short field trip to capture high resolution images, and computer based workshops to learn Photoshop fundamentals and develop images. Each participant will take home two large format prints on watercolour paper. 9–4 daily. $210

Let the kids go high-end digital with digital SLR camera and Adobe© Creative Suite imaging software this SUmmer. The three day course includes a short field trip to capture high resolution images, and computer based workshops to learn Photoshop fundamentals and develop images. Each participant will take home two large format prints on watercolour paper. 9–4 daily. $210