The word “phase” has a number of loosely related definitions, associated with time and change; with making things happen in gradual stages; or with being in (or out) of harmony.
The current point of history, globally, is one of rapid and typically unplanned change: one phase has ended, and a number of phases are swinging into operation. Many of us feel ‘fazed’ by the changes and the prospects they bring; many of us fear what comes next in this sequence of events.
In this exhibition, members of the faculty and our collaborators explore the meaning or the experience of ‘phase’, and aim to interrogate, illustrate, elucidate or illuminate something fresh about the term.
About the Artists
Exhibiting artists are drawn from the staff and doctoral candidates of the Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra. These artists have worked together for several years, with some collaborations stretching over a decade. They produce artworks in a range of media, including photography, artist books, installations, textile art, design objects and digital art. Among those presenting work in this year’s Phases exhibition are:
Jen Webb (poet and academic who works on questions of materiality and change)
Rhonda Ayliffe (Cobargo-based artist who works primarily with salvaged books and the book form, exploring ideas about knowledge and place, self, site and sustainability)
Xaiolan Cai (her work is committed to collaborative place-making and reflexive engagement with civic infrastructure)
Keziah Craven (now Melbourne-based, her work explores the intersection of trauma and creative expression through wearable art)
Megan Deas (addresses the use of images to tell stories and make sense of the world)
Dianne Firth (Internationally recognised textile artist and landscape architect, whose layered and stitched textile art explores qualities of mood and place)
Caren Florance (Bega-based with a long practice in the ACT, her work spans publishing options, from casual zines and street art to fine press artist books)
UK Frederick (artist/archeologist who works with ideas and objects that already exist in the world, inviting us to consider how value is created and maintained)
Michele Grimston (artist and community cultural development practitioner who explores slow, meditative textile processes, practicing care and connection for earth, community and spirit)
Katie Hayne (mixed-media artist who has been documenting Canberra’s urban fabric through painting, video and installation)
Paul Magee (poet and scholar who works with Indigenous colleagues to document how the experience of Country informs storytelling and culture)
Kerry Martin (visual artist and researcher who explores the reparative aesthetic as a response to issues of social injustice)
Irfan Master (writer whose work sits at the intersection of creative practice, postcoloniality, and arts and wellbeing)
Artie McCarthy (explores ways to rethink the role of children in humanitarian practice)
Diana Rule (designer and illustrator who works across creative innovation and community engagement)
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