Satellite of Love: Perspectives from Bunjil Reserve
A Paradoxa Collective Production
Eltham Library 29 Jan - 14 Mar 2021
Penelope Aitken, Prayer mats for nature worship, 2021, eucalyptus, iron, mud, charcoal, gesso and bleach with wool, wire, acrylic and cotton on canvas. 6 mats, each approx. 120 x 120 cm. Showing as part of Satellite of Love by Paradoxa Collective in the Eltham Library Community Gallery, 29 Jan - 14 March 2021
Paradoxa Collective comprises four Australian contemporary artists: Penelope Aitken, Anna Farago, Siri Hayes and Susan Wirth. Based in the outer north east of Melbourne, Australia, we share an interest in peri-urban landscapes, connecting to the land through practical restoration and regeneration activities combined with site-informed art making.
Satellite of Love is an exhibition created in response to the Paradoxa and Friends: Walking, Talking, Listening, Learning site specific events held in the Panton Hill Bushland Reserves during 2019 and 2020. The events were a community cultural development project that combined environmental, historical and cultural fieldwork. The artists respond to these walking talks, given by speakers including Wurundjeri Elders, botanists, equine therapists, meditation teachers and Panton Hill locals in artworks that ponder multiple perspectives on nature and culture.
Addressing the character of the Eltham Library Community Gallery space, the exhibition begins at the centre with a seating circle. Reminiscent of three seating circles in Bunjil Reserve, the soft cushions have been made with the same dimensions and configuration as the wooden seats which were part of the events. The cushions have been made by the Collective sharing materials, ideas and, in the spirit of the ‘and friends’ sentiment of the series of the six walking talks, Paradoxa invited two attending artists, Nusra Qureshi and Hannah Gartside to contribute to this work.
There is a lot more about all this here >