Identity Landscape - from Churchie emerging arts prize to acquisition by Museum of Brisbane
Here’s a little tale about how my work was acquired by the Museum of Brisbane.
The journey began 2 years ago when I saw the call out to apply for the Churchie emerging arts prize. At the time I didn’t have the $50 to submit an application but I also didn’t think I was accomplished enough to enter. I didn’t think I was ‘good enough’ or at the same level of the artists who get in to these kinds of exhibitions. I did think to myself “I’ll keep pushing myself and might apply next year.”
The Churchie emerging arts prize is one of Australia’s biggest art prizes/ competitions for emerging artists - it has been running since 1987, the total prize pool is $25,000 and shown at the Institute of Modern Art in Meeanjin/ Brisbane.
Well over the year I began to shed those self limiting beliefs and when the applications opened this year I decided to just go for it. I had a spare $50 and I applied. I was a bit bold and didn’t apply with a finished work. I applied with the promise of making work that was site/ exhibition specific.
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be accepted (more self doubt) but thought that any chance when your name passes through an institution or across an art workers desk is a good thing. But I got the email to let me know I had been selected as a finalist!
I was so excited and then also a little bit daunted by the fact I now had to create the work! And felt the PRESSURE of having my work judged for the first time and being in competition for a prize!
Coming out of the First Nations Art Camp last year I knew I wanted to start creating work that had a bit more depth so I began to think what it meant to me to be an ‘emerging’ artist and looked inward to create this work. Identity Landscape is a felt triptych that details my personal landscape of being queer, Indigenous, an artist and also my life using natural dyes and geography.
Image by Marcus Ravik, Churchie emerging arts prize - Institute of Modern Art
So I began first by visiting my Nan and the property I grew up on. We walked our usual way around 25 acres collecting Australian natives and yarned about life. These leaves were then cooked up and I dyed wool roving to create pre-felt. This prefelt was then cut in to circles which became geographical markers on my map. I mapped and placed these markers to signify locations I have lived between Northern New South Wales and South East Queensland. I also collected leaves from a few of these locations to further dye wool to imbue place and use as surface design on the felt. During the felting process I also used an array of silks and flax for extra textures.
Originally I had plans to create topographical lines across the map using eucalyptus dyed handspun yarn but I wasn’t loving the composition and decided to botanically print the works instead. This was also around the time I wasn’t happy with how white the background layer of felt was. This work was beginning to evolve on its own - along with a looming deadline and the feeling of pressure to create amazing art.
I decided to create a dye pot from the leaves in my own backyard and lay the finished felt on the ground next to the river that our property backs on to. I first got a bucket of river water and poured it over the felt to wet it down to better accept dye. Then poured the dye pot over the work and let the dye pool and collect in the natural contours that the felt had created against the soil. This was another way for me to imbue Country and place in to this work.
It was then time to create the largest and most important bundle of my career! I used quandong from the park down the road and eucalyptus from the tree next to my Artist in Residence - a tree that I have developed an ongoing relationship with. I knew I wanted to utilize a folded print technique to make the main body of work look like a folded map and spent some time arranging the leaves to best fit the contours of the felt but also still have it look organic like the leaves had fallen from a tree.
The 2 side panels that hang either side of the main body of work were created to symbolize ancestors that guide and protect. I feel as if my journey in to art has been guided, fibre art and natural dyeing feels very natural to me like it comes from a distant place that also resides in my core. When I lay fibre or leaves I let my hands do the work without any planning and a focus on non attachment.
I was incredibly lucky to work with emerging curator Elena Dias-Jayasinha who helped me figure out how to hang the works. She suggested that the main work be hung by an armature and the 2 side panels hang a little closer to the wall and suspended from the ceiling. This made the centre piece take focus and the side panels also had some movement when people walked close, this almost made it look as if the leaves were swaying in the breeze and activated the work nicely.
Curator Sebastian Goldspink was this years Churchie guest judge and I am very honored that he chose my work for the Commendation Award! At the end of the exhibition I was also awarded this years Peoples Choice Award! I am so happy that all my hard work and deeper thinking has been valued and people connected with Identity Landscape.
Thank you to everyone who had a part of the 2022 Churchie emerging arts prize and congratulations to all the other artists who exhibited.
More information on the Churchie 2022: http://churchieemergingart.com/news/56408/churchie-2022-finalists-announced
Me accepting the Commendation Award presented by Sebastian Goldspink
More of the story below…
In October I had my first solo exhibition at Aboriginal Art Co in the Vault Gallery. With many thanks to Troy and Amanda for having me in their wonderful space. We had a beautiful exhibition opening catered by Three Little Birds and many of the works sold… including Identity Landscapes! Elena who also works for the Museum of Brisbane visited before the opening and acquired the works for their collection!
This is my first piece of art to be acquired by a collection and I am so happy that it has gone to the Museum of Brisbane. I look forward to seeing it on display in the future.
(For further reading about the exhibition and workshop at Aboriginal Art Co visit this wonderful blog written by Logan Bobongie -https://aboriginalart.co/gatherer-norton-fredricks-solo-exhibition/ )
I have used the money from the art prizes and acquisition for professional development. I purchased myself some online felt workshops to learn how to make sculptural felt as well as a kiln to expand my practice to work with precious metal clays. I look forward to the next chapter of my creative journey!
I hope this tale has inspired you to shed some of your own self limiting beliefs because really anything is possible when you decide to apply for what crosses your path, you never know… you might end up in a museum!
Thanks for reading and happy creating,
Norton
