The Alice Prize 2024

Anna Reynolds, 2024, mess made and other barriers, 135 x 250 cm, digital print on cotton rag

I am delighted to inform you that my artwork mess made and other barriers is included in the 2024 The Alice Prize hung at the Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.

The Alice Prize is an acquisitive national contemporary art prize, welcoming entries from around Australia, in any medium or theme.

Significant among regional art prizes, The Alice Prize contributes to one of the largest regional collections of Australian art, with works by leading artists from across its 50 year history.

This year 63 artworks gleaned from a strong 372 preselection entries were assessed by the expert selection panel consisting of Lucy Stewart, a Lecturer in Visual Arts and Arts Administration at the Charles Darwin University campus in Alice Springs, Dallas Gold, artist and former NT gallery owner and Petit Abazis the Director of the Northern Centre for Contemporary (NCCA) in  Darwin, NT, Thanks for choosing my work you guys!

The exhibition for The Alice Prize 2024 opened last night, and the judge, Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham announced artist Fiona Foley, the winner for her video work Janjari.

Congratulation and good on you to all artists who applied, I personally had to really consider entering the prize this year due to personal financial priorities and the $50 entry was a gamble with money I didn’t really have. I made the work inside of photoshop and the image existed only in a file state and the physical work didn’t physically exist at the point of pre-selection.

Of course, being chosen during pre-selection then posed another question about how to pay for the printing and freight of the work to Alice Springs? Like I said it’s a gamble and 372 artists took the challenge and paid the price, so good on you. Being rejected is the less glamour side of building a creative practice.

My work is a digital composite of collected images of signs, street barriers, construction and the general shit show that clutters the pavement in the name of progress and development. Disheartened by the confusing environmental messages and actions of our times. I continue to build my own interpretations of urban landscapes trying to make sense of it all..

My 150 word artist statement accompanying my image in the online application process was…

Anna Reynolds art practice is full-on and full-time

Graduating with a Masters by Research at Charles Darwin University in 2019 positioned Reynolds as an innovator exploring digital print on textile. More recently, an extended Churchill Fellowship has taken Reynolds across India, Scotland, Berlin, Austria and Mallorca, researching art and textile.  Relationship to the natural environment and concern for its demise are often an undercurrent and force in her creative practice. Textile has specific ecological dialogue woven to its core, but the transformative lens found at demolition sites still inspires Reynolds to re-imagine gritty anti-human flora deprived landscapes. Man-made mess and other barriers, is a digital composite collectively forming a sprawling redevelopment, protected by a heavy-handed layering of traffic barriers, textures and public notices. Visual signs protecting crumbling monuments of renewal and investment. Demolition sites, once symbols of transformation, are haunting reminders of the environmental toll exacted by human endeavours.

Adrian Elliot

Notes from artist in residence @

Lorne Community Connect Art Precinct

Work in progress-working with the idea of habitat restoration and coastal ti tree  to activate  community with art

Adrian Elliot is a wild wood craftsman and boat builder by trade.

He has worked and lived for more than 25 years at the famed historical Babington’s Mill up on the Benwarren/Mount Sabine Track, just out of Lorne. 

Adrian holding a copy of a portrait of him and his dogs, ozzie and oi that I did in the late 90’s

Seeking out Aido seemed like a logical connection to re-make when a loose idea to experiment cutting woodblocks from the fallen timbers from the Lorne Habitat Restoration led by Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority GORCPA came into Simone Fulton’s possession.

Aido using the drop saw to cut the coast ti tree

Adrian cut the Ti-tree into thin disks with a drop saw, he cut some square to the grain and some on a slight angle, stretching the grain and profile. The profile has mesmerising butterfly rings of gnarly twist and curvy turn.

quick experimental hand carving a thin disk of coast ti tree in preparation for woodblock printing

I used some little carving chisels and made some quick marks, mainly to see how hard the surface was. The cross sections shapes of the tea tree trunk impress. They are un-assumably haphazard and elegant, expanding everyone who comes in contact with them.

Coast Ti Tree

Coast Ti Tree- Leptospermum laevigatum , Lorne Foreshore, Victoria, AUSTRALIA

Notes from artist in residence @

Lorne Community Connect Art Precinct

The felled timber of an invasive coast ti tree, Leptospermum laevigatum was collected by Lorne local Simone Fulton, from along the Lorne Foreshore and Erskine river mouth. The Lorne Habitat Restoration plan actioned by Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority, (GORCPA) has implemented weed preventative and control measures removing selected coast ti tree along the riverbank and foreshore, planting endemic river reeds and shrubs in its place.

Simone Fulton is interested in using the felled timbers in a community led art project at the Lorne Community Connect Art Precinct accessing the Artist in Residence to activate community conversations around this very beautiful and admired tree, now deemed to be invasive in selected areas.

We have been visiting the areas along the Lorne Foreshore and Erskine river banks where the timber has been removed.  We have also been visiting the sites where the felled timber is now stored.

loose map of south west victorian coast across 2 bioregions in relationshoip to where coast ti tree is seen as endemic and a weed

 Fun fact drop via GORCPA website

GORCPA are currently managing coastal Crown land that extends across two bioregions – Otway Plain and Otway Ranges. This is a significant definition in understanding the reason for removal of the coast tea tree in Lorne.

Bioregions are a landscape-scale approach to classifying the environment using different attributes such as climate, geology, soils and vegetation.

GORCPA acknowledge and respect the separate and distinct Eastern Maar and Wadawurrung Peoples as the Traditional Owners of the Great Ocean Road’s land, waters, seas and skies and acknowledge their cultural knowledge that has led to sustainable practices and has cared for Country over tens of thousands of years.

References

www.greatoceanroadauthority.vic.gov.au

Monty and the mystical Mukulito

Monty Oswald is working on a textile design in the artist in residence studio at the Lorne Community Connect Arts Precint, Victoria Australia

Yesterday, my old mate Monty Oswald visited me at the Community Connect Arts Precinct in Lorne. He had made a date and drove down from Daylesford to hang in the studio and make some prints on T-shirts. Monty is a prolific creative practitioner and works from his home studio, painting and printmaking when he’s not guest-performing with edgy Avant guard guitar alongside experimental electronica. He arrived after lunch, and after a quick buzz-around-tour of Lorne’s new arts precinct, admiring the awesome hall/gallery, kitchen facilities and sunny community room that is home to Mrs Crab’s incredible shell collection, we hit the studio for some textile and print fun.

I inherited gel printing plates from Natasha, the previous artist-in-residence and have been having fun messing around with them. Monty and I used them to print some simple black logos onto white t-shirts. We also got into a pen and ink drawing session while we had a catch up. Monty was my high school art teacher, and since our lives have continually crossed through creative communities. Monty invited me to work in his print studio in Daylesford, where he is currently exploring the printing technique Mukulito.

I had recently been introduced to the printing process Mukulito by Melbourne artist Jan Crowe, who I met in one of my drawing workshops in Queenscliff. Mukulito is a printing process similar to lithography. using a wooden plate instead of stone or metal. The irregular qualities of the timber plate used in Mukulito are one of the key elements integral to the character and quality of the print. Jan recently held an exhibition What Water Leaves: The Art and Accident of Mukulito at Red Gallery in Fitzroy Victoria Australia. The title alludes to a watery process, another element used in Mululito that is distinct and significant when working with this printing process.

I am booked in and enthusiastically excited to learn more about the random mark making print process Mukulito and visit Monty’s studio in Daylesford.

It was about then that I remembered. I also had a project cooking with a group of Lorne locals who would like to make an artwork that highlights and educates audiences and beach goers about the recently eradicated Melaleuca on the beach foreshore. The timbers of these trees have been collected and stored for further consideration.

Watch this space: I think I am about to manifest a Melaleuca Mukulito Masterpiece with Monty!

Hooded Plovers nest in Lorne

Early January; artist in residence community connect art precinct LORNE -community driven fun, making and performing in costumes to mark, celebrate and educate beach goers about Hooded Plovers and their fragile nesting habits.

Yesterday, on the beach I met Jonty 9, Annabel 8, and Lily 5 holidaying in Lorne. They were happy to pop on the hooded hoodies and dance and scurry across the sand imagining themselves to be the chicks. Super cute moment!

CONGRATULATIONS Auspicious 2 Hooded Plover Chicks Hatched

Having fun in Lorne with a small group of nature enthusiasts making Hooded Plover Chick hoodies from #recycled material. We hit the Lorne Op Shop Monday in full power mode foraging the racks for the neutral sandy seaweed palette and feathery textures found in an array of bad fake furs, picnic blankets and dressing gowns!

Sim Fulton, an Otway Forest Nature Muse, is driving the fabulous concept to create chick hoodie costumes for the kids to wear down at the beach raising awareness while celebrating this significant and auspicious Hooded Plover event.

Yesterday, on the beach I met some kids holidaying in Lorne. They were happy to pop on the hooded hoodies and dance and scurry across the sand imagining themselves to be the chicks. Super cute moment!

This hatching event is currently described to be the first Hooded Plover nest sighted in communities living memory. They are nesting between the rock groin and the mouth of the Erskine River on Lorne Main Beach and are highly likely to migrate up and down the beach as the chick grow older.  I have been told by Margaret Donald, Moggs creek resident, hooded plover beach volunteer and enthusiast, that this hooded plover pair historically nest on the beach at Moggs and after a few unsuccessful breeding seasons at Moggs they have settled in at Lorne to have a crack!.

If you know of any Hooded Plovers previously nesting at this sight please reach out and share your stories with Kim from the GORCPA or the volunteer crew managing the sight.

Kim from GORCPA first sighted the nest early December and soon reported that 2 chicks hatch Monday 8th January, a week earlier than expected.

A lovely gang of Hooded Plover enthusiasts are now watching and managing the exclusion zone set up to detour pedestrian traffic exercising and walking dogs in the exposed and vulnerable nesting/feeding area.

To help volunteer and keep these endangered beach loving birdies safe for the next 35 days please contact

Janice Carpenter

Regional Co-ordinate Bird Life Australia

Mobile; 0418375561

Email; janicejohnoz@yahoo.com.au

January 2024 Hooded Plover Hoodies project instigated by Simone Fulton-Lorne resident and long time nature activist and advocate - construction by Anna Reynolds, Dimi Mammos and Simone Fulton

We whole heartedly thank you Simone Fulton for hatching the timely costume idea with chicky egg-thusiasm and knowledge of local resources!

Big kisses to the Lorne Op shop for cutting an egg-cellent deal on the repurposed garments we cut up to make the hoodies!

Big, speckled eggs to Marian, Simon and Anna from In the Skys for the donation of art materials

Not to forget a gleeful glue gun and glue stick donation from Dimi @ Wolf Whistle

And especially grateful for the CCAP artist in residency magnificent space where all the creative action is taking place.  

A ‘good on you’ to ALL the volunteers who have been spreading the word and  getting out there on the front line and to all the ‘kids’ who got in to the costumes and had some fun!

Celebrating Hooded Plover chicks hatching Jan 2024

Kids in Hooded Plover Hoodie costumes on the beach in Lorne, near the exclusion zone to protect chicks that hatched on the beach

 MUMMA HOODIE aka KIM at Lorne beach in a hooded plover hoodie costume marking and celebrating the hatching of two hooded plover chicks hatching on the 8th of January 2024

costumes made from recycled materials sourced from the Lorne Op Shop

and community collaboration as part of 2024 artist in residence at community connect art precinct.

Gadubanud Country

LORNE, VICTORIA AUSTRALIA

Community Connect in Lorne

Friday 12 Jan 2024

Today in the artist in residence studio, I had a special visit from my old friend Graeme Wilkie OAM. I have a lot to thank him for, especially his advice on my new Dali-esk mustaka I’m sporting in this happy selfie!  Nah! just joking!

He has been a constant touch stone throughout my endeavour to make art and was instrumental in my search for a studio to work from while I am in Victoria over summer.

So thank you Graeme!

Graeme is the brains and brawn behind Qdos fine art gallery, an iconic gallery venue nestled just out the back of Lorne among tall trees and a natural amphitheatre. His vision and activation of Lorne as a sight for fine art and a sculpture biennale has made an incredible mark in local cultural engagement and landscape.  I was last in Lorne in 2022 when I had three sculptures, including the small sculpture prize, that coincidently were exhibited at Community Connect, where I’m artist in residence. At the time, I was ecstatic to receive Arts NT & NT Regional Arts Fund supporting the travel to the Biennale from my home in the NT and I guess I am reaping the benefits of that connection building visit now that I sit in this awesome studio.  

I am still pinching myself that I’m artist in residence at Community Connect Arts Precinct Lorne. With that title, I become the holder of a 24 hour access studio key that opens up a studio, kitchen, and gallery along with a labyrinth of community groups who use the space regularly. I am so far aware of two sewing groups, an exercise group, some canasta card players and the volunteer community committee, and it’s still January and the centre is on the annual go-slow for the Christmas New Year break. Lorne is at its most chaotic and mad over January, with holiday makers packed in and banked up all the way back to Melbourne.  Everyone heading to that wet emerald jewel, the ocean.  The 2021 census reports that Lorne had a population of 1200 odd people. When I googled what Lorne could expect in terms of tourist traffic over the summer, Times News Group came up with 35000 visitors per year. On some buzzing days, I could imagine there would be more than that, but who am I?  

STUDIO VISITS

I am open to commissions and have some great projects on the boil,.

Please contact me to make a date for a studio visit.

Image :B&W selfie with Graeme Wilkie OAM next to the QDOS fine art van outside my artist in residence studio at Community Connect Art Precinct Lorne, Victoria Australia. Jan 2024

Millions in Indigenous art sales prompt major fair to stay online

One of Australia’s most celebrated Indigenous art fairs is planning a permanent online marketplace in addition to its Darwin event after a year of record sales from buyers around the country.

Held every August, the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (DAAF) is a major event in the Top End tourism calendar. Artists and performers travel from Indigenous communities across the country to showcase their work and visitors are given an opportunity to meet them in person and to learn more about their cultures.It is also responsible for hosting the National Indigenous Fashion Awards and the Country to Couture runway show, which celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fashion designers and textiles producers.

In 2021 nearly 60,000 different people used the DAAF’s online marketplace, with 62 per cent of them saying they’d never been to the Darwin-based festival before.

“Our historical data would suggest we have a huge amount of returning visitors and we know that in 2020, as well as this year with the online iteration of the event, it did reach an incredible new audience,” said Claire Summers, the DAAF Foundation’s executive director.“If I had a dollar for everyone who said thank you so much for going online we can actually visit your amazing event now and connect with these artists, I’d be very rich indeed.”

More than 70 art centres, representing more than 1700 artist, used the DAAF online platform to sell their work this year.“It’s one of the big calendar events that they have throughout the year,” said Shilo McNamee, an Eastern Arrente woman who serves as an artistic director for the DAAF Foundation. …continue through link

Piinpi: Contemporary Indigenous Fashion

Bendigo Art Gallery brings together a selection of garments and textiles by First Nations designers and artists from around Australia. The first major survey of contemporary Indigenous Australian fashion to be undertaken in this country, Piinpi sheds lights on a growing industry which is blossoming and set to become Australia’s major fashion movement. Piinpi: Contemporary Indigenous Fashion celebrates Indigenous art, history and culture through the lens of contemporary fashion. (BAG)

Take a tour of the exhibition with curator Shonae Hobson - https://youtu.be/DqVOYAHzEEo

Gallery Images: Leon Shoots

source https://www.meganatkins.com/piinpi Exhibition design / Exhibition graphic design / Production in collaboration with Bendigo Art Gallery

New bar coming to the rapidly evolving Air Raid Arcade

By Roxanne Fitzgerald The Independent Darwin NT Oct 2 2020

“Artist and designer Anna Reynolds points to the arcade’s new owners as the reason for its upswing against the backdrop of a pandemic.

Survival would have been tough had it not been for their support and hard work, she said.

“The building was completely different when I first moved in about three years ago.

“The physicality has gotten more eclectic. Every time I get back from working on Groote Eylandt – Mulga has changed something. It is constantly evolving."

UNIQUE TEXTILES AND BESPOKE GARMENTS BY ARTIST ANNA REYNOLDS

Geelong Regional Artist, Anna Reyolds set up a boutique shop only 2 years ago with her very own studio, where she can customise clothing for her clients and create her art! CLOTH is situated on the main road in Hesse Street, Queenscliff on the Bellarine Peninsula. …