Cultivating Slow Making | Opening

Cultivating Slow-Making | Curated by Annette Nykiel

Dates: Sat 7 Oct – Sun 26 Nov 2023 | Opening: Sat 7 Oct 2023 at 1-3pm

Artists: Nien Schwarz, Caitlin Stewart, Martien van Zuilen, Annette Nykiel, Kerrie Argent, Tania Spencer, Tineke van der Eecken, Deidre Robb, Dianne Strahan and Lea Taylor

Slow-making is taking time to notice and to care for people, place and the materials of making. To cultivate is to care for, nurture and encourage the complex relationships between people, plants, animals and the soils that sustain all of us on Earth. Hence Cultivating slow-making is a process of nurturing new works through the exchange of ideas and knowledge, materials, technical skills, and scientific inquiry and nurturing long term relationships. An ongoing engagement with people, materials and skills grounded in connection, care, and sharing.

Opening remarks from Lee Kinsella

Lee Kinsella is a curator and writer based in Western Australia. Raised in the Wheatbelt town of Gillingarra, on the traditional lands of the Yued peoples of the Noongar nation, she is currently curator of the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art at The University of Western Australia (UWA). The Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art (CCWA) is the only public collection focused specifically on women’s art in Australia. The CCWA includes works from the 1890s to the present day, in a variety of media, and aims to contribute to, and challenge, dialogues about Australian women’s art through exhibitions, teaching, research and publications.

Kinsella has curated and managed exhibitions at Australian state and national public institutions, including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, The Australian War Memorial and The National Film and Sound Archive (formerly ScreenSound Australia). She continues to contribute writing on Australia art, most recently a catalogue to accompany the major exhibition, Sustaining the art of practice in 2022.

Image credit
Caitlin Stewart, Flourish (Detail), 2023, paper, foam, found objects and material, thread, machine and hand stitched, 12cm x 13cm x 4cm each. Photograph courtesy of Bewley Shaylor.