CONCERNING PEACE
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| Detail of Deluge from Concerning Peace group exhibition at Maitland Regional Art Gallery |
This installation called Deluge consists of an hourglass, face mounted photograph on acrylic (40 x 40 cm), plinth covered in digitally printed SAV (110 x 40 x 40 cm) and polyester fabric print (264 x 224 cm). It will be exhibited in the Concerning Peace group exhibition at Maitland Regional Art Gallery from 25 August – 25 November 2018. My assemblage of photographic and found objects serves as a metaphor for climate crisis and threats to global peace inviting the viewer to contemplate the need for water sustainability. Australia’s recent scandals in the Murray Darling Basin involving water security and conflicts between states around distribution remind us that we live in the driest continent on Earth and this can no longer be ignored. Drought in the Middle East for example has led to war and destabilisation while low lying Pacific islands are becoming uninhabitable due to rising sea levels. The World Bank forecasts that: "Changes in water availability and variability can induce forced migration and ignite civil conflict ... episodes of droughts and floods have generated waves of migration and statistical spikes in violence within countries."
Three person exhibition at Perth Centre of Photography in June 2018 in which I examine the phenomenon of water and glass refractions recording the scattering and polarization of sunlight passing through translucent spaces.These digital traces of light rays are then transposed on different objects such as fabric, aluminium circles and large floor cushion to form provisional assemblages within the gallery. This exhibition stretches the boundaries of photography through explorations of light and objects in real space. The circular aluminium photographs were sponsored by Print 2 Metal studio in Melbourne.
ElectroFringe17
Below: my installation at ElectroFringe17 showing digitally recorded scattered rays of sunlight projected through vintage glass of various refractive indices.  | |
| The water and glass refractions are animated and re-projected through translucent materials using a data projector. In this zone of uncertainty light bounces around liminal spaces transforming itself in a process of disintegration and re-emergence. |
Beams Festival 2016
Using my Waterline video loop highlighting coal pollution in Sydney catchments and imagery of water overlaid on walls and pavement over 30,000 visitors pass through semi-immersive projections that create a perception of morphing reality to visualise climate change at Beams Arts Festival 2016.
Sydney College of the Arts Showcase at Verge Gallery
Above: Interactions (on the left) photo assemblage featured in Sydney College of the Arts Showcase at Verge Gallery, University of Sydney.
Save Sydney College of the Arts poster, car magnet and link to protest clothing
Experimental photographs shown at Four Walls photography exhibition
Newtown Art Seat in Sydney commissioned by Marrickville Council
Beams Festival 2016
Using my Waterline video loop highlighting coal pollution in Sydney catchments and imagery of water overlaid on walls and pavement over 30,000 visitors pass through semi-immersive projections that create a perception of morphing reality to visualise climate change at Beams Arts Festival 2016.
Sydney College of the Arts Showcase at Verge Gallery
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Above: Interactions (on the left) photo assemblage featured in Sydney College of the Arts Showcase at Verge Gallery, University of Sydney.
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Experimental photographs shown at Four Walls photography exhibition
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Newtown Art Seat in Sydney commissioned by Marrickville Council
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Recent Projects
Sculpture at Bayside Arts Festival
Harbour Sculpture Prize
Art Crawl at University of Sydney
Sawmillers Sculpture Prize
Art Crawl at University of Sydney
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
2015 enrolled Master of Fine Arts by Research at Sydney College of the Arts.
2007 Multimedia Certificate IV Hunter Street TAFE, Newcastle
1988 Master of Fine Art, by coursework San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, USA.
1984 Graduate Diploma of Professional Art Studies, College of Fine Arts,
University of N.S.W; Australia. Major: Photography and film/video
1980 Bachelor of Education in Art, University of Newcastle, Australia.
PUBLICATIONS
"A Speculative Field Guide to Blackwattle Bay" published for Sustaining the Seas Conference 2017
"Visceral Art and Political Voids" in Rochford Street Review January 2016
Interview in ARTS ZINE march 2016
"Radical Newcastle" published by New South press chapters 'The Star Hotel Riot and its Legacy' and 'A Hidden History of Stockton Bight'
"Australian Art Responses to the GFC" Arena Magazine No. 132 Oct/Nov 2014
"Behind Government Spin - Dissing the Disabled" Green Left Weekly, December 3, 2011
“From Where I Stand” Australian Fabian News Vol 50, 2010
"Letter to Liao Yiwu" The Guardian 8 June 2011
"Work and Worklessness"paper COFFEE conference 2009 University of Newcastle
Featured on The Art Club TV program, CNN, Singapore, 1998.
“Human Intervention on Australian Beaches”, Surfrider Foundation, 1997.
Playbox Theatre 21st Anniversary Catalogue, Melbourne 1997.
“Of Thoughts and Dreams”, Peter Eastway, Australian Camera, Sept.1991.
“Real Artists Paint Seascapes...”, Bernadette Smith, Art City, Nov. 1991.
AWARDS
2009 Selected Florence Biennale.
2003 Highly Commended for painting, Gosford Art Prize.
1985 Louis B Mayer Award for Post Graduate Film, SFAI, California
COLLECTIONS
Marriott Hotels, Australia
ARCO Experimental Cinema Library, Madrid, Spain.
Kodak Photography Collection, Sydney,
Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, U.S.A.
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France.
Fotogalerie Kommunale Friedrichshain, Berlin.
State Library of New South Wales, Mitchell Archive, Australia.
Australian National Film Archive.
view full curriculum vitae here
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Art on the Greenway installation detail by Bernadette Smith part of Leichardt Open Studio Trail 2015
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