2020
Museums and Galleries
International Limestone Coast Video Art Festival, Mt Gambier Australia.
The expert selection panel Simon Biggs, CJ Taylor, Merilyn de Nys, Melentie Pandilovski, Serena Wong and Melissa Horton chose my work Once upon a time long ago and far away: shutting down in isolation, 2020, video, 4’15” for the International Limestone Coast Video Art Festival at the Riddoch Art Centre, Mount Gambier, South Australia.
As Eve Sullivan from Artlink wrote in her online review dated 8th Dec 2020;
More focused on communicating the facts through bold storytelling, a work by Fiona Davies from her series Blood on Silk, Shutting Down in Isolation, extends the reference to the progress of the pandemic, drawing on Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. Davies’ narrative voiceover in this work accompanies the view of a large gloved hand placing, turning and replacing wrapped toy figures on trestle blocks as hospital beds drawing on the artist’s recent research into death and dying in an ICU. Less a fairytale than a blow-by-blow account of what to expect based on what is currently being played out in hospitals around the world as the infection rates once again surge, this dramatically simple but impactful work lends its weight to the “techno-scientific upsurge” overlapping the sociopolitical crises that Pandilovski argues is the media message for now.’
Plas Bodfa, Wales, United Kingdom
Unus Multorum, (One of Many) Plas Bodfa Objects, Wales, UK contained this suite of ten small sculptures titled Blood on Silk: Try to hide/try to stand out, No’s 1 to 10, 2020, variable size each approximately 12 x 10 x 10(h)cm, Balsa wood, paint, found objects.
The other artists in the Plas Bodfa objects project were Jane Ross, Nisa Lynn Ojalvo, David Garner, Rachel Rosen, Annie Horsley, Wanda Garner, Peg McNulty and Jan Hale, Nicola Carter, Gill Collier, Sian Hughes, Shedart Studios, Gwen Williams, Michelle Heidi Sutton, Phillip J. Cassidy, Julie Jones, Anne ‘Wondercabinet’ Weshinskey, Lindsay Colbourne and Lisa Hudson, Jane Ross, Amy Sterly, Bill Chambers, Judith Samuel, Chapparral Andrew Hodges, Phillipa Brown, Rosie Green, Sezgi Abali, Cyrus Kellick, Sarah Jane Richards, Hopewell Ink, Ruth Cousins, Huw Gareth Jones, Michelle Prince, Julie Upmeyer, Nicki Cotton, Ceyda Oskay, Adele Kettlewell, Susan Cantrill-Williams, Remy Dean. Maud Haya-Baviera and Simon le Ruez, Tom Witherick, Elly Strigner, Jo Alexander and Lillemor Latham. https://www.plasbodfa.com/objects
Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba, Australia
The work Once upon a time long ago and far away: shutting down in isolation, video 4’15” was commissioned by the curator Sabrina Roesner for the group online exhibition, Shift + Control + Exit at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Katoomba Australia,
‘In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is unfolding on a global scale, this digital exhibition explores the shifts that are occurring in our society; from the rise of social distancing, the collapse of our economies and the growing fear of the invisible enemy – the Corona virus.’ quote from exhibition website https://www.shiftcontrolexit.com/
The other artists were Brett Zejko, Damian Castaldi, Jodi McConaghy, Locust Jones, Marty Walker, Ona Janzen and Rachel Peachey & Paul Mosig
Screenings
9th Kolkata Shorts International Film festival 20, Kolkata India.
The selected work - Once Upon a time, long ago and far away x 3 video 10’20” was selected for this festival and then o awarded a special mention.
The jury for this festival consisted of Ms. Tuca Siqueira, Acclaimed Film Director, Brazil, Ms. Rita Jhawar, Film Producer, Kolkata, India, Mr. Juanra Fernandez , Award Winning Film Director & Author, Spain, Dr. Sudeep Ranjan Sarkar, Renowned Film Director, India, Dr. D.C Singh, Scholar Film Psychology & Research, India.
Writing
Violence of Medicine
A ten part series of short essays each on an aspect of The Violence of Medicine were first published on the blog www.bloodonsilk.com from 20th January 2020.
A downloadable pdf of this collection of essays will be available on this site in the near future.
A significant body of work, Medicinae Vehementi is in development. The intention is to create a conceptually challenging video installation questioning the culture of violence within the healing/caring practice of medicine.
Curatorial
MAPBM: FABRIK at Penrith Regional Gallery - Home of the Lewers Bequest
The five artists, I selected for this exhibition are Vivienne Dadour, Beata Geyer, Anne Graham, Ian Milliss and Ebony Secombe, are all also members of Modern Art Projects Blue Mountains (MAPBM)
The exhibition: The title of this exhibition, Fabrik, overlays the word fabric, the basis of all textile and clothing, with the word fabrik to emphasise the place of making, of manufacture rather than just the material being made.
The idea that the object is not independent of how it is made, how it is used and how it is disposed of is the basis of this exhibition. By looking at one element of our lives - how we buy and wear clothes and buy and use textiles in our homes - we can consider so many other aspects linked to us through these everyday activities. We can think about conditions of employment, how we use, reuse and dispose of the materials in our world, how our history informs our present and how change can be sought.
The five artists, Vivienne Dadour, Beata Geyer, Anne Graham, Ian Milliss and Ebony Secombe are members of Modern Art Projects Blue Mountains (MAPBM) which is based in the Blue Mountains and Western Sydney. MAPBM is a membership-based group which seeks to develop the practice and public presentation of contemporary art in this region and this context. Three sections of text written by me are scattered between the artists’ works on the next page. These acted as provocations down the central corridor of the exhibition space. Click on the image to see all of the works in the exhibition.
The image is of a detail of Anne Graham’s work The Gardens of Stone. Photo credit Alex Gooding
SewnUp and SewnUp2 at Lyttleton Stores, Lawson, Australia for MAPBM. The artists I selected for this exhibition were Linda Adair, Tom Isaacs, Eloise Maree, Tess Rapa and the collaborative duo Rachel Peachey and Paul Mosig. All are members of Modern Art Projects MAPBM
An exhibition by a Blue Mountains contemporary arts group which questions fundamental aspects of how we manufacture, use and dispose of clothing, footwear and textiles opened on the 4th April 2020 at Lyttleton Stores, 1 Badgery Crescent, Lawson. It then reopened in October 2020 after Covid-19 lockdown conditions had been eased
In the comfortable and familiar surroundings of the popular cooperative store and gallery the artists examined the materiality of sewn consumer goods and some of the questionable aspects of their manufacture and disposal, including the economic security and conditions of workers in these industries. SEWNUP also explored the feasibility of reusing or repurposing textiles, clothing and footwear – as well as the major ecological impacts of their disposal to landfill. The public was invited to examine the delight of these consumer goods, but also to become more aware of their downside.
SEWNUP occupied the space between the beauty and appeal of textiles. clothing and footwear and the impacts of their production and disposal on the social and ecological fabric of society.
This project was supported by the Blue Mountains City of the Arts Trust
Tom Isaacs’ work. Details as per linked page. Photo credit Alex Gooding
Community
Hello World, A Transcultural Online Project of Exchange
Hello World, An Art Affair Around the Globe. It was a virtual travelogue of art works created by nearly 250 artists working in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia and organised by Transcultural Exchange on the basis of the extensive worldwide contacts built up through their conference program.
‘Hailed as “one of the best things in the art world today,” by the renowned artist and founder of the London Biennale David Medella, TransCultural Exchange’s Conferences are the only of their kind, and have become the organization’s chief activity. These Conferences bring together hundreds of international artists, residency directors, teachers, administrators, biennale organizers, cultural attachés, high level critics, curators and grant makers to network, share best practices and learn of new trends and developments. They include artist showcases, panels, round table discussions, receptions, workshops and portfolio reviews. For many young artists, the Conferences are the missing link between academia and a real world art practice. For more established artists, they are an essential forum for networking with their peers around the globe.’ From the Transcultural Exchange mission statement on their website
IMMEMORY an Online Archival Project.
Initiated in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, IMMEMORY is a long-term archival project that aims to facilitate sharing of creative and thoughtful responses to the changing pandemic crisis from across the world.
The video Work Blood on Silk: Shutting Down in Isolation was selected for this archive of responses by artists and writers.