Canberra Contemporary Art Space, ACT, Australia
Bad Girls ( 20 witness 1000) was curated by Anni Doyle Wawrzynczak. Included in the exhibition was my work Memorial/Australia, Picton-Vinnies, Tahmoor-Lifeline, Jul - Dec 1999 Coll Davies.
This exhibition celebrated the more than one thousand women artists who had exhibited at Canberra Contemporary Artspace since its opening as the Bitumen River Gallery in Manuka in the ruins of the former St Christopher school bus shelter. Now the CCAS is recognised as a leading contemporary art space in Australia.
The Curator in her catalogue essay wrote that ‘Bad Girls are everywhere …. Bad Girls are our heroines. In this exhibition we celebrate their journey in art and, through their journey, the changing face of feminist concerns over three decades.’
My work of three ironing board, shapes of domestic amour made of zinc gauze as used in meat safes, and buttoned with a harsh surface of discarded shirt buttons was selected for this exhibition of witnessing. The title of the work itself is a witness to those who undertook the work of collecting the buttons from the detritus of unwanted clothing in two opportunity shops Picton Vinnies and Tahmoor Lifeline in the time from July to December in 1999. The buttons were salvaged by my mother, June Bonnie Davies. The title is Memorial/Australia, Picton-Vinnies, Tahmoor-Lifeline, Jul - Dec 1999 Coll Davies J.B.
The other nineteen artists who witnessed the one thousand were Alison Alder, Jane Barney, Vivienne Binns, Rachel Bowak, Jacqueline Bradley, Julie Bradley, Mariana del Castillo, Julia Church, Anna Eggert, Chery lynn Holmes, Catriona Holyoake, Stephanie Jones, Deborah Kelly, Mandy Martin, eX de Medici, Brenda Runnegar, Bronwen Sandland, Erica Secombe and Ruth Waller.