Artists and their works
- Sue Pedley (Teshima)
- Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro (Teshima)
- Cameron Robbins (Teshima)
- James Darling & Lesley Forwood (Ogijima)
- Dadang Christanto (Shodoshima)
- Ulanda Blair (Teshima)
Sue Pedley (Teshima)
Born in Tasmania but based in Sydney, Sue Pedley adopts a processed-based approach to art making. Her work explores alternative ways to work with different materials and their relationship to place.
Major art projects include 5th International Sculpture Symposium, Vietnam (2008); Walking and Art Residency, The Other Gallery, Banff Centre, Canada (2007); Blue Jay Way, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne and Penrith Regional Gallery, New South Wales (2007); Spare Room, Elizabeth Bay House, Historic Houses Trust, Sydney (2006); Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial, Niigata Prefecture, Japan (2006); and Light Sensitive: Contemporary Australian Photography, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2006). Sue has also undertaken fully supported residencies in London, France, Germany and Sri Lanka.
www.eyelight.com.au/sue_pedley
Harmonica
Sue Pedley has worked with the Kou community of Teshima to make a large fishing net. The net encases an abandoned house and storeroom, 'capturing' the lives of the absent family. The knotting and wrapping motif is continued in the house's interior, where domestic objects have been wrapped furoshiki-style. Harmonica evokes stories of migration and family history at the same time it preserves age-old traditions.
From the artist
Every day the Koebi (volunteers) arrive on the ferry to help make two large orange nets with the Kou community of Teshima. The net-making is like a conduit where we exchange stories from one island to the next, as far and wide as Tasmania, Australia (my birth place) to the islands of Japan and the Seto Inland Sea.
It's like a party! Yesterday we talked about World War II, growing strawberries and net-making three generations ago. The fishermen used to make the netting twine from a special grass grown on the island. The nets are based on the dimensions of the Nori net. Nori seaweed is cultivated and harvested locally.
The nets will cover and unify a house and storehouse that have been abandoned for over thirty years. The family left behind many possessions, including handmade clothes (kimonos, suits, frocks, knitted jumpers), futons, lacquerware, china, books, pickles, fishing and farming tools. Each day is spent sifting and sorting, creating spatial harmony between the house, the village and the beautiful surroundings: the sea, hills, bamboo groves and persimmon orchards.
Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro (Teshima)
Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro are installation artists from Sydney, currently working between Berlin and Sydney. The collaboration began in 2001 with the artwork Location to Die For, a mock sale of property in Paddington, Sydney. Since then the pair have continued to focus upon issues of architecture, nomadism and space invasion.
The duo's work has manifested itself in a diverse variety of sites, including Marks Park, Bondi, Sydney; an abandoned artist warehouse in the south of Germany; and a disused toll station in Switzerland. They have also presented their work at the Art Autonomous Network, Yokohama, Japan, and at Sparrwasser, Berlin, Germany. In 2009 they exhibited in LaBF15, Lyon, as part of the Biennale Lyon. They also co-represented Australia at the 53rd Venice Biennale.
Luck Exists in the Leftovers
The work is located within a beautiful abandoned house in Kou.
Inside the grounds is an archaeological dig. Exploring further still, an excavated dinosaur can be found in the house, propped up and bound upon old furniture. The distinction between the museum and the domestic realm has collapsed and a giant fossil, rather than dinner, is found in the dining room.
From the artists
It is amazing to have this opportunity to resurrect such beautiful furniture that has been crafted by the local artisans. The carpentry and carvings of these wooden pieces reveal to us such incredible skill and mastery over a material. The house we are working in also reveals wealth. It is very large and palatial. The objects within the house are beautiful too; the glasswear and earthenwear are perhaps made by local craftsmen just as the furniture is.
Working together with the volunteers we have been able to learn about the different aspects of the house. In the kitchen we unearthed a pit in the floor that was once used for miso and shoyu making. In the attic we found numerous mochi boxes for making mochi. Somebody must have loved their mochi, gathering by the amount of boxes we found, or perhaps huge amounts of mochi were made to last the whole winter through?
The kitchen also seems more like a museum. It is as if there is a display of rice cookers spanning through the ages. Starting with metallic cookers, right through the present day automatic versions.
As we slowly erect this Monolophosorous upon the supporting structure of furniture sourced from the island we get more clues about the past residents of this amazing abode. We are using forgotten treasures to prop up an ancient relic.
To find our work, turn right at the Kou community centre and go straight ahead – you will pass a rusty sign with a prawn and fish on it. Turn left at the old chicken coop. You will pass a well on your left, covered by a bathtub cover with a concrete block on top of it. Keep going straight. When you get to the crossroads with the stone Buddhas, take a right. Then take a left at the garden with the citrus tree in it. You will see bamboo sticks with aluminium baking trays painted with black dots hanging from them (Japanese scarecrows!). Take a right. There is an entrance with slate on its right hand side. The slate is etched with kanji graffiti. There is a door within a door. Slide open the smaller door and you will enter a courtyard. Now you have found where our artwork is.
Cameron Robbins (Teshima)
Melbourne-based artist Cameron Robbins' work is based on interactions with natural forces. His art makes tangible the underlying structures and rhythms of nature through the harnessing, recording and translation of its energy. Much of his work is site-specific, and over the past 20 years he has worked in art galleries, disused buildings and outdoor sites around Australia and internationally.
Major art projects include Meridians: Art and Sound in Public Space, Victorian Cultural Program at Expo Shanghai, China (2010); Very Slow Drawing Machine, Fracture Gallery, Federation Square, Melbourne (2010); MONA FOMA, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania (2009); Solar System, a site-specific installation on St Kilda Foreshore, Melbourne (2008); Depot, a site specific installation at a disused bus depot, Dandenong, Melbourne (2008); Within/Without, Place Gallery, Melbourne (2008); and Double Vortex, CH2, Melbourne (2006).
Sea-Songs of the Subconscious
Assembled on a rocky pier on Kou beach, a set of tuned organ pipes attached to an upturned fishing boat plays a bass F minor chord. Air is pushed into the pipes through a series of‘wave pumps’made to express air from the motions of the sea's surface. As haunting music drifts across the island landscape, the history of Teshima's sea culture is evoked. You are invited to sit on the curved hull and meditate to the environment, sounds and rhythms of the sea.
From the artist
Interacting with elemental forces does remind us of our dependence on nature, not only for sustenance but also ways that cultural ideas can sprout. Sea Songs of the Subconscious makes music from a direct connection with the sea.
Sea Songs also acknowledges the sad state of some of the world's oceans. Each place I have worked with the sea - the coasts of Australia and now Japan – the marine environment has been depleted and the fishing industries in decline. During my lifetime, I have seen all the fishing boats disappear in parts of Australia. Maybe it's the same here in Teshima – there are just not so many fish around anymore.
The work is also about enjoying the beautiful and complex mysteries of the world.
The music made by Sea Songs is all to do with wavelengths. The rhythm of the music is a product of the various wavelengths of the sea and all its influences. ‘Wavelength' here refers to the time between each wave and applies to the whole spectrum, from the sub-audible through to sound, light, ultraviolet and x-rays. Pipe-organs produce sound by splitting and vibrating air. The wavelengths produced here are concert F, A Flat, and C. This creates an F Minor Chord, a sombre sound that links our thoughts to other realms.
Thoughts about the project
Kou, on the island of Teshima, is a great community to work in. There seems to be an incredibly short time between a request and action. Yesterday we needed 10 people, including some strong ones, to shift the fishing boat into the right position on the pier. We asked the Kou community leader, Uematsu-san, at 10am, and the job happened at 2pm. ‘Red-tape', or bureaucratic procedures, seem to extend mostly to asking Uematsu-san about things first, before doing it yourself. It always seems to work out well when he organises necessary tasks, and he is very open to suggestion.
Setouchi Sea Songs is a pipe-organ that is motivated by air pumped from sea-waves. It is a project I have modified for a few different sites around Australia, and have now developed for the Setouchi International Art Festival. The site was selected by me in consultation with the Kou community and Art Front Gallery, and has proven to be the right choice. The stone pier, which is strictly-speaking a groyne or breakwater, is far enough away from the village of Kou for the sea-pipe-organ to be able to produce plenty of sound, without creating a disturbance. Furthermore, being down the eastern end of the beach, it has a great view back to Kou with the background of hills and the sunset. I've mounted the work on the eastern side of the pier so it can catch more wave-action from the prevailing weather direction.
Initially I was puzzled as to how to fix anything to a granite block pier. But as I spent time on the site I began to insert short wooden posts into the gaps between blocks, securing them by afterwards by jamming more stones around them. This was done all the way down to the low-tide line, about 12 posts in total. To these I could then tie the 150mm PVC pipes, which allow waves to enter at the bottom, thereby pumping air up into the pipe-organ on top of the pier.
Using locally sourced rope and line, I was instructed by an 82-year-old fisherman, Yamasaka-san, on how to lash two round things together properly. After a long moment of despair looking at my own knot-work and ugly ropes, Yamasaka-san appeared on the pier. Shaking his head kindly, he clambered down the slippery slope and undid my ropes, and gave me an hour-long lesson on lashing... in his socks. For tricky knots he used an iron spike tool, which in English is known as a ‘fid'. He also taught me to soften the ropes first by applying "mi-zu" – water, and then "ma te" – pull! Yamasaka-san has also been teaching line and knot-work to volunteers and artists on Sue Pedley's net project for the Setouchi International Art Festival – he has been a great teacher and contributor for the Australian projects.
To anchor the piece to the site, I was looking for a local ready-made structure. I mentioned this at the community meeting that was held on the first day of my arrival on Teshima. Soon after I was generously given the use of a ‘dead' boat by a reticent local man who also owns a very interesting large shed full of timber, machinery, and materials. It is a white and red fibreglass open boat, 6m x 1.6m. I've used it upside down, where it is all curvy and is actually a comfortable seat. The pipes are attached to the 3 keel forms, leaving room to sit and take in the work and the surroundings.
The main challenge remaining for me is working out how to strongly fix the artwork to the granite blocks, against possible typhoons predicted in August 2010. Typhoons are in the immediate family of cyclones and hurricanes. The boat's hose is pointed windward and seaward in preparation. The sea-pipes and boat are pinned into the granite using 20 long bolts and Swiss-made ski-pylon rock-glue. I hope I will be able to make an audio recording and video in the event of a typhoon – Sea Songs will be going off!
James Darling & Lesley Forwood (Ogijima)
James
Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1946
Lesley
Born in Tailem Bend, South Australia, Australia in 1950
Artists, farmers and conservationists living on their farm, Duck Island, in South Australia.
Wall Work 5: From Kamojima to Kamo Jinja
Artists, farmers and conservationists, James Darling and Lesley Forwood, with the encouragement of Setouchi Art Director, Mr.Fram Kitagawa, toured the islands of the Seto Inland Sea in August 2009 before putting in their proposals into the "open competition" for inclusion in the 2010 Festival.
There were 760 applicants for less than 15 places and the decision deadline was extended. It was February 2010 when they received notification of acceptance.
The artists visited Ogijima in May 2010 and were able, with the permission of the Festival and the islanders, to change their site to steep curved steps between stone arches that led to the Shinto shine, Kamo Jinja, Shrine of Abundance.
Their concept was to make a contemporary environmental statement, referencing the sea and the stone walls of Ogijima, while bridging the ancient animistic traditions of Australia and Japan.
The title of the installation Wall Work 5: from Kamojima to Kamo Jinja continues the artists' exploration of walls. "Kamojima", 'Duck Island", is the name of the artists' farm in South Australia and the source of the mallee roots.
It is simple. It is elemental. It expresses nature. It speaks about management, how to look after environment, how to respect the spiritual and the implacable. And how that respect generates through nature. Through the years, the seasons.
The best thing is that it is quiet, fitting. That it speaks in diverse ways. That it is a poetic moment, kinetic and still. That it is entirely different on the way up from on the way down. That it is ages old and distinctly new. That it is an evocation beyond our understanding. From times before white Australia. From mallee gums growing in those days. From the animist world. Where spirit is venerated.
JAD, Journal, 21:7:10.
Dadang Christanto (Shodoshima)
Born in Tegal-Java, Indonesia in 1957
Moved to Australia in 1999
Live and works in Brisbane
Many of Dadang Christanto works commment on humanity issues or social-political issues through various media (performance, painting and installation).
Voices from Disappeared People
The work is inspired by Sunari, a piece of bamboo trunk with a small hole down the centre. An old toy of agrarian culture, farmers in Bali use Sunari when they are working alone on the rice fields. They place Sunari in the middle of the rice field or on high ground to catch the blowing wind. For the artist, the voice of Sunari is gloomy and sad, like a voice from the soul that is missing something – that is, "Voices from Disappeared People".
Ulanda Blair (Teshima)
Coordinator for the Australian works in Kou
Ulanda Blair is a curator, arts project manager and arts writer. As Artistic Program Manager at Next Wave in Melbourne, Ulanda manages the Next Wave Festival's keynote projects, as well as the organisation's professional development program for artists, Kickstart. For the most recent Next Wave Festival presented in May 2010, she oversaw the development and presentation of eight large-scale curated projects involving over 100 artists from around Australia and Asia.
Prior to Next Wave Ulanda was Gallery Coordinator at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, where she worked from 2004 to 2007. During this time she was Curator of Gertrude's 2006 Melbourne Art Fair project space; Assistant Editor of Gertrude's 20-year anniversary publication A Short Ride in a Fast Machine: Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces 1985-2005; Curator of the 2005 exhibition Otherworld (with Jeff Khan); and Conference Coordinator of the 2004 international Res Artis Conference. In 2005 she worked as an Exhibition Attendant in the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in Italy, and in 2006 she was invited to help write and produce The Artreader: an APT5 Companion, a critical response to the Fifth Asia Pacific Triennial.
Ulanda has had over 30 catalogue essays, articles and reviews published for local and international exhibitions, and her writing has appeared in Art & Australia, Art World, Artlink, Eyeline, Flash, Green Pages and un Magazine. In 2008 she undertook a curatorial research trip to Japan, China and Singapore, which was supported through the Australia Council's RUN_WAY program and the Harold Mitchell Foundation. Ulanda is also a current member of the National Gallery of Victoria's Youth Access Advisory Committee.