31 August 2013 to 13 October 2013
Image: Traces - Blue, Setouchi Triennale 2013, mixed media installation by Craig Walsh & Hiromi Tango in collaboration with the people of Teshima Island. Photo by Craig Walsh.
The exhibition was the culmination of a community project facilitated by Hiromi Tango, whose work explores the healing power of art, using the ocean ecosystem as a metaphor for the brain. Hiromi Tango invited two local artists, Pat Pillai and Rita Pearce – health professionals with the same shared interest in the therapeutic potential of art engagement, memory and brain development – to artistically explore this interest through the creation of ‘satellite brains structures’ in collaboration with community members within the gallery space.
Leading up to the exhibition local community groups participated in Art Magic workshops to create Moon Jellies art works. Moon Jellies, a type of jelly fish, have a meditative and therapeutic quality for many, which connects to the concept of Art Magic, the act of wrapping through sound, aroma and physical movement. This was an extension of Hiromi Tango’s interest in working with textiles, particularly around the potential for creative processes and arts engagement to support emotional and social development.
Workshop participants were encouraged to bring personal objects (fabrics and clothes) to wrap items, get dressed up and dance. Through weaving wrapped personal objects that were meaningful to the specific community members, local artists and Hiromi Tango, interactive and site-specific sculptures were created. These dramatic soft sculptures continued to grow during the exhibition period. The outcome was unknown, but it reflected the local Hazelhurst community, and became a collective art magic generated by the local community members.
