Southern Lands at Quilters-Insel Atelier

Finally I have some time to share some photos of the Southern Lands exhibition which is presently being exhibited at Quilters-Insel Atelier. You still have time to go and see it but please contact Quilters-Insel first. The atelier is not far from Cologne ( Koln).

 Southern Lands is an exhibition I have curated representing the work of 7 Australian and New Zealand textile artists.The artists are Robina Summers ( who has built the website- thank you), Felicity Hopkins, Sarah Louise Ricketts, Olga Walters, Fiona Wright, Clare Smith and myself . if you go to the website there is biographical information, images and links to each artists' web presence.

This is my Curators Statement for Southern lands:

Southern  Lands

For hundreds of years sailors dreamed of faraway lands in the great ocean on the other side of the world, myths grew up about this strange  place . Cartologists drew strange  maps of the undiscovered southern land which was thought to balance the world. Dirk Hartog set out in his small ship and found some of its shores, other ships foundered on its reefs and rocky shores, Abel Tasman found a southern island and then some more islands even further to the east and south and called these last discoveries after his native homeland Zeeland. However it  was Captain James Cook, adventurer and navigator who put Terra Australis and New Zealand on the map. These masters of the sea found what they considered primitive life in both lands but despite that they  announced terra Australis to be Terra Nullius- uninhabited- ignorant of a rich cultural heritage spanning 10,000’s of years and ignoring the fact that the people defended their land. In New Zealand, the land of the long white cloud, they also encountered tenacious resistance which ended in Waitangi Treaty and the proud cry of the Maori that they were never defeated.

The English deposited their convicts and soldiers on Australian shores- setting up harsh forbidding prisons, then  sent its squatter settlers to race across the land in search of grazing, and Europe sent its displaced people from two world wars to discover new futures. Yet the land maintains its hold on the people. The desert is harsh and forbidding and startlingly beautiful, precarious rivers feed the towns and cities, fires create havoc and destroy communities ,flora and fauna, yet each time the land regenerates .The land cries to be treated gently and with care- the land cries for the insights of the aboriginal people who sang their way for thousands of miles to water and places without maps. The land cries for us to stand back and look, and to slowly absorb the earth, the trees, the hills , the mountains, the rivers  and to treat it with respect, for when we don’t the  elements are fierce and unforgiving.

I have looked for work from Australian and New Zealand artist  to  bring the spirit of our Southern  Lands to you- to speak of its mysteries , its settlement, its nature and the transgressions we as inhabitants make, and the steps we might take to  protect the future of our land our people and our children.

From 15 May 2010 until July 2010 the quilts can be seen at Centre Europeen du Patchwork at Salleles d'Aude in the South of France

And on another note- as my daughter is not enjoying school in France and it is too difficult to get a good exam result to get into a good lycee- we are looking at England as a place to live for awhile- any recommendations of good places would be much appreciated as I am investigating what would make a good place to settle for awhile.