Silage Bales image by Anna Reinert 2020

Verdant Past Event

Dates

Thu 23 May 10:00am - 4:00pm
Fri 24 May 10:00am - 4:00pm
Sat 25 May 10:00am - 4:00pm
Sun 26 May 10:00am - 4:00pm

Tickets

Free, No Booking Required

Venue

Mural Hall (Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country)
1 St Heliers St, Abbotsford VIC, Australia

Access

Accessible bathroom, All gender bathroom, Low sensory / relaxed, Wheelchair accessible

Verdant is an exhibition of collaborative works presented by Minaal Lawn and Sarah Parkes. Minaal Lawn, working predominantly with ceramics, delves into themes of cultural identity and belonging through her practice located on Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Central Victoria. Sarah Parkes, living on Gunaikurnai Country in South Gippsland, knots and weaves narratives of place and home into her sculptural rope works. Together, they draw on the complex relationship they have to the rural landscape they inhabit, expressing this exchange of ideas through a series of works specifically created for Verdant. The undeniable influence of the rural landscape, and its beauty, is explored both through material and narrative. Repurposed silage wrap, the sporadic lilac hues of grass seed and familiar elements, such as the fence, the tree, form reference points in this exchange navigating new terrain.

This project was made possible by the Australian Government Regional Arts Fund, which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia.

Participants

Minaal Lawn
Contemporary artist Minaal Lawn (b.1977 Australia) located in Glenlyon on Dja Dja Wurrung Country explores cultural identity and belonging through her practice. As an Australian born woman of Indian descent, she navigates the intersections between her inherited culture and the cultural landscape in which she lives.

She articulates her sense of place through an undeniable, innate sensibility of textiles, colour and form, refined from her fashion design background. Weaving references to Hindu temple architecture, idol worship, object symbolism and cultural phenomena – she captures the nuance of her unique positioning.

Her process is characterized by transparency and honesty. She deliberately exposes the layers of her predominantly ceramic practice, utilizing techniques such as stacking, balancing, offset against a visual language of ceramic surfaces and textiles to symbolize the delicate equilibrium of her Indian heritage and Australian upbringing.

Through her art, Minaal invites us to contemplate the beauty that emerges from embracing the discomfort of cultural ambiguity.

Sarah Parkes
Artist and designer Sarah Parkes, located in South Gippsland on Gunaikurnai Country, knots and weaves narratives of place and home into her sculptural rope works. Working under Smalltown, Sarah has created large scale textural installations for commercial interiors and private clients across Australia and internationally.