2020 AIR Announcement
2020 Artist-in-Residence Recipients Announced
Craft ACT: Craft + Design Centre is delighted to announce that Craft ACT Accredited Professional Members, Jenni Kemarre Martiniello and Sharon Peoples have been selected as the 2020 Craft ACT Artists-in-Residence. This is a highly competitive program where all applications undergo a rigorous review process by a panel made up of representatives from the Program Partners (National Museum of Australia and ACT Parks and Conversation), Craft ACT management and Craft ACT Accredited Professional Members.
Jenni Kemarre Martiniello, Loop Weave Dillibags. Photo: Courtesy of the artist.
This year saw a high standard of applications from Australian and International artists from diverse practices and career levels. The selection panel were impressed by the quality of applications and decided to present three Craft ACT artists, Leonie Andrews, Annika Romeyn and Elizabeth Paterson with the opportunity to participate in the 2019 Craft ACT Spring Residency, which will occur later in the year.
2019 Spring Residency recipient's Leonie Andrews, Elizabeth Paterson and Annika Romeyn. Photos: Courtesy of the artist's.
Craft ACT and ACT Parks & Conservation Service have presented this acclaimed program since 2006. Artists have found, time and again, that their practice is profoundly altered by the experience of this residency which allows precious stillness and space for investigation, reflection and generation of new work.
In 2020, Craft ACT is honoured to collaborate with the National Museum of Australia (NMA) as the research partner. Both Jenni and Sharon have been given the opportunity to undertake research at the National Historical Collection and are eager to focus on the cultural and emotional aspects of the collection.
An award-winning visual artist and writer of Aboriginal (Arrernte), Chinese and Anglo-Celtic descent, Jenni will be using the research period for “researching, photographing and drawing traditional fish nets held in the collection at the NMA, and accessing their research library.”
She also plans on collaborating with Aboriginal curator Jilda Andrews who has recently returned from researching historical Aboriginal fibre collections at the British Museum and Kew Gardens.
An internationally acclaimed textiles artist and writer, Sharon plans to research the wet specimens of the Mackenzie Collection. She explains:
“Using the theme of the Anthropocene, this collection provides an excellent vehicle for bridging what was originally considered as a scientific collection, to providing a new context and a powerful resource in Australia’s social and cultural history.”
Sharon Peoples, Portrait with Wattle and Cockatoos. Photo: Courtesy of the artist.
The research period will be followed by a three-week residency period at Namadgi National Park, where Jenni and Sharon will share a living and working space at Gudgenby Ready-Cut Cottage. During her time at Ready-Cut Cottage, Sharon is eager to make the most of “early morning and late afternoon opportunities for bird observations and image making.” Jenni will be spending time in the landscape inspecting leaves, fibres and roots to experiment with traditional dyeing techniques, hopefully finding traditional colours that might have been used by the traditional Ngunnawal weavers to create baskets and fish nets.
In 2021 Jenni and Sharon will present the outcomes of their research and residency with new bodies of work displayed in the annual Artists-in-Residence Exhibition at Craft ACT gallery.
Craft ACT would like to congratulate all the recipients and thank all artists who applied.
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