Magnetic spell - M16 Artspace online exhibition

This week my sound work Magnetic spell is available to listen via the M16 Artspace online exhibition. Have a listen with headphones to the story of Sidney Jeffryes, a member of the Australian Antarctic Expedition led by Sir Douglas Mawson, in his own words.

October events for Contour556

I’m thrilled to be involved with contour556 this year, with drawings on show at Thor’s Hammer Finishing Gallery and performance in the Sloughing Studio, Shop 8, Petrie Plaza, Civic on 30 October 2020 at 8pm.

The performance is free to attend and not ticketed. The space has limits on audience capacity to ensure COVID social distancing - so make sure to get there on time to be let in. I’m very fortunate to be working in a space that holds the collaborative works of Hanna Hoyne (Hoon), Byrd and Amanda Stuart and working with wonderful performers Caroline Huf and Pablo Latona .

These works are part of an ongoing project called The river diary which is focussed on the Molonglo River and surrounding areas. For this first instalment I’ve been working in an area where Sullivan’s Creek joins what is now Lake Burley Griffin, under the Mark Oliphant Bridge. This area has a rich pre-colonial Indigenous history, and a colonial history of being significantly changed by damming and bridge-building.

I’m fascinated by the nexus of the concrete architecture with the existing environment, and by the qualities of light and sound here.

Art Licks

I’m delighted to be part of a project being run by London independent art initiative Art Licks. Fragments of my day feature in Artlicks Tele episode 16 alongside video from Helga Aradóttir, (Kópavogur & Helgafell, Iceland) and Julie Brasil, (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), viewable here https://vimeo.com/artlicks

My COVID world has been a very privileged one, a relatively short period of shutdown and employment throughout enabling me to live without much change to my daily circumstances. And yet - the constant anxiety of a global pandemic, coming after an extreme summer of bushfires and unbreathable air, the aftereffects of a massive hailstorm, the transition to most human contact being via boxes on a screen has taken a toll.

Having the opportunity to record some parts of my day and see them juxtaposed with others around the world has been a breath of fresh air in my week.

I’ve really enjoyed looking through the other videos in this series - I recommend you dip in and out and enjoy the sense of all these people across the world, giving a window into aspects of their lives.

New online exhibition - Self as subject

My video Lake Polish, Parilanjärvi, January 2016, can be viewed online in the exhibition Self as subject over at M16 Artspace online gallery curated by Jas Hugonnet. I’m thrilled to have this work viewable online while all the galleries have their physical doors closed. This work was created while I was on a residency at Arteles Centre for Creativity in Finland, with funding from Arts ACT.

Have a look - tell me what you think!

Lake Polish, Parilanjärvi, January 2016, still from performance, Photo: Annika Harding

https://www.m16artspace.com.au/onlinegallery

Fold

On Friday I'll be performing Fold with Caroline Huf at the National Gallery of Australia for Artidote. It's an evening event that includes a tai chi demonstration, a curator's talk in the galleries, drawing in the gallery and music and refreshments. 

For info and link to purchase tickets go

here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2051958955059210/

I'm thrilled to be working with Caroline to present the performance and incorporating music from the excellent Voices of Where by Richie and Anthony DeMaria. I met Richie while working as an artist in residence at Arteles Creative Centre in Finland a couple of years ago. It's wonderful to have those opportunities to connect with artists across the world, never knowing what future collaborations may develop as a result. More of Richie's music can be found:

https://soundcloud.com/voicesofwhere

and also check out

http://www.richiedemaria.com/

My life on instagram

I tend to post here occasionally if I have a show, or am in the midst of an exciting project. Recently I've had my head down working so I've been quiet here, but I'm pretty active on instagram, so if you come across this page and are keen to see what I'm up to, check out my two insta profiles:

@ellisonthephone is full of images I come across in daily life - with a recurring theme of light as a subject - but including everything from cats and sunsets to abstracty-arty things. 

@ellishutch_art is my art page - for finished work and works in progress - sans pets and random novelties - enjoy!

Art that moves

I'll be performing at this event this week! Very much looking forward to working with my excellent friend Cab Huf to present another large origami performance for the Workshop Arts Centre.

Blueberry St

Blueberry Street is a soundscape combining field recordings with a spoken-word piece created in response to the environment in and around Blueberry Street.

I made a soundscape about a year ago to exhibit in a great project called the Sublimation project curated by Daniel Savage for the You Are Here Festival. Daniel invited a number of artists to make work for the show - and then a second group to make responses to the original works, translating the ideas or approaches into another medium. 

For you are here I recorded sounds and stories from the Causeway in Kingston and the Jerrabomberra Wetlands at the end of Lake Burley Griffin.

I responded to a work made by Kate Smith that sourced stories from Canberra archives and reproduced them in the form of letters that could be found by the Festival attendees located around the festival hub, http://youareherecanberra.com.au/event/postscript/ Reading through Kate Smith’s letters about the history of Canberra I was drawn to the ones that mentioned the areas around where I live and have lived. Having grown up in the inner South, and moving back to this side of town after years spent living in the inner North and Queanbeyan I feel embedded in the familiar rhythms of Canberra life, but also aware of how the city has changed around me.

Blueberry St is the last street in the part of Kingston known as The Causeway. This is one of the older parts of Canberra and has a colourful history, having housed workers in the early days of the construction of the city. It is mostly inhabited by public housing tenants and has formed a strong sense of community. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to stay in the house I’m living in, and wonder what will happen to the Causeway in future as the city continues to develop. Right now I pay attention to the stories people tell me about the area and observe the comings and goings of the birds and animals over the seasons, appreciating the nearby wetlands and the sense that while I’m living in the middle of a city, my home feels like it is still an isolated farmhouse.

Getting elemental!

I'm teaching a new class next term at the Belconnen Arts Centre. I'm really looking forward to exploring and experimenting with the elements!

https://www.belconnenartscentre.com.au/adultsclasses/term-4-art-soiree-ellis-hutch/

Art Soiree w/ Ellis Hutch(6 Weeks)

Term 4 >  19 October – 30 November (NO CLASS on 23 November)

Time > Thursdays 6:00-8:30pm

Cost > $245 or $220 with BAC Membership            

Book > HERE                                                                                                         

It’s elemental! -earth wind fire and water.

Cost: $245

Contact Belconnen Arts Centre

Phone
02 6173 3300

Email
info@belconnenartscentre.com.au

Term 4: It’s elemental! – earth, wind, fire and water

Continuing on with our approach to interpreting the landscape theme from term 3 with Julie Bradley, this term Ellis Hutch will  look into the forces of nature and find ways to describe them using drawing mediums including ink, graphite and charcoal on various papers and supports. The emphasis will be on interpretation, abstraction and symbolism and we will be investigating different ways of portraying these elements. Each week we will working from images that you have brought along that reflect your thoughts on these elements. There will be an opportunity each week to continue to work on your artworks and also to receive feedback.

Week 1 This week we will look at ways we could describe each element and will make our first rough drawings of our ideas to be used in our final artworks.  Examples of artists who have approached this theme in their own personal style will be shown. Our first medium will be charcoal.

Week 2 Taking the element of earth this week, we will investigate what this element means to each of us. Graphite will be our medium.

Week 3 This week’s element is wind and our medium will be ink. Experimentation on various papers and grounds with ink will be explored.

Week 4 Fire is our subject this week. We will use all 3 of our mediums and experiment with various combinations.

Week 5 The element of water is our final element and once again all three mediums will be combined to make our final artwork for this lesson. 

Week 6 We will make a symbolic representation of each of the 4 elements this week and review the techniques and approaches of 6 weeks. There will be an informal display of all the completed artworks.  

Megalo Residency or how to learn to print and produce enough work for an exhibition in 6 weeks

Since returning from the field trip to Arkaroola , Jessica Brooke Anderson and I have been Artists in Residence at Megalo Print Studio and Gallery in Canberra. We've both done some printing in the past, but we're not printers by training and our skills were limited. 

We applied for the Megalo residency because it's a great opportunity to access to a fully equiped print studio, with technical support and some funding as well. The staff at Megalo have been brilliant, welcoming us and making us feel at home while we've been working there. 

Our focus has been on screen-printing and the recent research trip to Arkaroola, (discussed in previous posts) has provided us with the source material to develop into prints at Megalo.

The work we've been making will be on show in the exhibition Dreams and terrors at Canberra Contemporary Art Space Manuka, 19 Furneaux St Manuka, next week. Exhibition opening: 6pm 18 August. Open hours: Thursday - Sunday 11am - 5pm

A second exhibition of our work will open at the ANU School of Art Gallery on 1 September - more details in the next post!

Jessica and Jemima coating one of our screens

Our test screen ready to be exposed

The first lot of test images

Studio selfie - safety first

Exploring Arkaroola

Arkaroola is a stunning place. My recent trip there in June with Jessica Brooke Anderson has been planned over the course of the last year. Our original intention was to spend time there observing the night starscapes - it is a famous location for clear skies and stunning views of the Milky Way. 

We were able to do some sky observing, including a couple of visits to Arkaroola's own telescope dome - but much of our viewing included staring at clouds and muttering about the weather. 

One of the wonderful and frustrating things about art projects that involve travel to remote locations is unpredictability. We can plan everything in detail - but weather, flooded roads, and all sorts of other unexpected happenings can turn everything upside down. 

This need to be flexible and responsive to the situation gave us the opportunity to experiment and make new work that may otherwise not have been developed. Not knowing if, or when we'd be able to act on our plans meant we needed to live in the moment, to observe our environment closely and pay attention to the changing conditions. This generated conversations - we discussed our experiences and observations - noted when we'd been thinking along the same thought lines and where we were experiencing resistance, doubt, fear, exhilaration and wonder.

We moved slowly, took our time, and looked closely - at the ground, the flora, the colours... We listened - to the wind, to the silence - feeling the stillness of the air when we stood on the ridge-tops and the thud of unseen wallabies avoiding us as we navigated along narrow walking tracks.

During the wet days we set up a makeshift studio in the common area of the accommodation, drawing and writing, sketching out ideas and making notes for future reference.

Arkaroola, early morning

The Gallery at Arkaroola, this functions as a common room and dining area for visitors. It also became and excellent studio space for us during our stay.

Jessica working on a long roll of rice paper - we used these scrolls like diaries to create drawings documenting our observations over the period we were working at Arkaroola.

Experiments with ink and watercolour on rice paper

So still and silent on the ridge top - not even a breath of wind - all I could hear was the ringing in my ears...

From Adelaide to Arkaroola

In 2013 I spent a month in Finland working at Arteles Creative Centre undertaking a residency with the theme of Silence, Awareness, Existence. The time was filled with exploring; walking through the forests, around the lake and across the fields of surrounding farms. One of the highlights, apart from having focused time to work, was meeting other artists with shared fascinations. The conversations, critical feedback and the opportunities to gain insights into other people’s working processes were invaluable.

One of those artists was Jessica Brooke Anderson. Since saying goodbye in the winter dark of Finland we’ve stayed in touch and shared ideas, and recently had the opportunity to say hello again in the far warmer winter sun of central Australia (though it did rain almost the entire time we were there). Our mission was to spend time at the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary in the northern Flinders Ranges exploring the area, making work and studying the night skies. Following the trip to Arkaroola the second stage of our project has been to undertake a printmaking residency at Megalo Print Studio in Canberra.

We commenced our journey in Adelaide and drove north through lush, green farmland and into the semi-arid landscape of central South Australia. We were entranced by the shifting pastel subtleties of the waterlogged skies and distant hills appearing and disappearing beneath the clouds.

This watery-ness was to stay with us for the whole trip - our initial plan to view the starry night skies, thwarted by unseasonal wet. 

Below are some images from the trip. In the next post I'll give some more detail about the work we commenced while there.

A learning experience for two dirt road novices. I quickly learned how to navigate floodways and Jessica was an excellent water-depth tester. We managed to make it to our destination with no damage other than a very, very muddy car. Once there the roads were completely closed for a week - so our timing was perfect.

Feral food at the Prairie Hotel, Parachilna 

Taking a break on our road trip we stopped off at Parachilna and sampled some of their famous 'feral food' it was delicious!

Introduced species - fascinating forms

Between rainstorms our project proceeded as a series of walks - exploring the surroundings, reading about the history of the area and talking to the locals. A group of diligent walking-track builders also turned out to be very enthusiastic cactus hunters - this introduced species above is apparently a local scourge. They carefully inspected our photographs to check if the plants were already poisoned or if they would need to go hunt them down.

These grasses look like soft cushiony resting places, but are in fact are needle-sharp - and quite painful to brush against.

Ellis investigates...

Jessica surveying the surroundings

Ellis pondering the likelihood of leaving Arkaroola ... like ... ever..

YLTÄ JA ALTA

Today I had the opportunity to visit YLTÄ JA ALTA also known as Up and Under - by Nancy Holt. 

I’m in Finland where I have the great good fortune to be an artist in residence at Arteles Creative Centre. I received funding from Arts ACT for this trip and so far I have had an inspiring and productive time. I’ll blog in more detail about the residency, today I wanted to share the images of this excursion. It was a stunningly beautiful Finland day. We had heavily falling snow, glorious changing light and the opportunity to climb and play in this wonderful piece of land art. 

Radio interview with Kelly Fuller

While in Tamworth installing the Poetic Lens, the Relative Constructions team had a wonderful chat with local ABC Radio host Kelly Fuller.

Have a listen to our conversation here: http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2015/09/18/4315597.htm

The Poetic Lens goes to Tamworth

I recently spent a busy and productive week at Tamworth Regional Art Gallery installing the group exhibition The Poetic Lens with fellow members of the collective Relative Constructions. We were thrilled with how the show looked in the main gallery space at Tamworth and encourage anyone in the area to pop in and visit.

The exhibition continues at Tamworth Regional Gallery 466 Peel St Tamworth until the end of November 2015

While we were installing we had a chat with Kelly Fuller from ABC New England Radio http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2015/09/18/4315597.htm

All that fall - artist interviews

The National Portrait Gallery have posted interviews with the three contemporary artists commissioned to create work for the exhibition All that fall. Working on this exhibition with the fantastic NPGA team has been such a pleasure. I was particularly thrilled to be one of the three commissioned artists and to show my work alongside Lee Grant and Lawrence English.

You can see us talking about our works here: http://www.portrait.gov.au/content/artist-interviews-all-that-fall

Innerspace opening

CCAS Social pages have posted a typically cheeky summary of the Innerspace opening on Friday night

https://canberracontemporaryartspace.wordpress.com/2015/07/13/innerspace/

Curator David Broker has put together an online catalogue with a very thoughtful essay that's worth a read here:

http://issuu.com/ccas_canberra/docs/2015_-_innerspace___ccas

Last light receives a mention

I was delighted to discover a lovely response to my work Last light,  in a blog post by Michelle Potter today. She was reviewing a dance performance Walking and falling, shown recently at the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, and mentioned my work in a post script: http://michellepotter.org/reviews/walking-and-falling-ql2-dance

It can sometimes be strange putting work into a show and then wondering how people experience it, what they perceive and if the work has the effect I am aiming for. It is wonderful to hear a response unexpectedly.

The show All that fall is currently on at the National Portrait Gallery of Australia until the end of July.

http://www.portrait.gov.au/exhibitions/all-that-fall-2015 

Last light, 2015, carved wax and video projection in the exhibition All that fall: sacrifice life and loss in the First World War.  Photo: Mark Mohell