Events - Anne Graham at Niigata Water and Land Art Festival 2009
Anne Graham at Niigata Water and Land Art Festival 2009
18 July 2009 - 27 December 2009
From 18 July - 27 December 2009, this festival celebrates the unique city of Niigata. Located at the mouth of two rivers, the Shinanogawa and Aganogawa, the port city combines the distinctive cultures from the mountains and the waters. Famed for its food and flowers, the city prides itself on its skilled farming tradition in the notoriously difficult conditions of its fertile swamps. The six month long art festival boasts an ambitious line-up of national and international artists who work in and around the city installing their works along the theme of earth and water.
The leading Australian-English artist and academic Anne Graham has been invited to participate in the festival, in which she will present the work, 'Kozaburo's House'. In the installation, touching on village history, Graham projects swimming fish onto the screens of an old farmhouse, which amorphously become different beings over time. Another work will respond to the singing sands of Kakumihama,in which sand will fall through glass funnels making a sighing sound similar to waves on a beach. Projected onto the floor of one of the rooms will be a film of fish playing, this will continue the metaphor of fishing and water. Outside a herb garden will be planted this will evoke the memory of "Echigo medicine Peddling" by the women of Kakumihama, herb tea will be made in the house and offered to visitors. Children will be able to make paper fish to add to the installation or to take away.
Anne Graham
The Head of School of Fine Arts, University of Newcastle, Graham's public artworks and sculptural installations are often performance-based. Her tent series, 'Working in Public with Walla Mulla' (1992) for example, involved sustained interaction with communities, including displaced and marginal dwellers. She collaborates with the subjects, assembling possessions, photographs and interviews to emphasize the subject's life rather than their appearance. Having held over 23 solo exhibitions, including the 2003 Echigo-Tsumari Necklace project; the 2000 'Construction and Process' in Poland; the 1986 Biennale of Sydney 'Origins, Originality + Beyond'. She also held a 1995 solo exhibition at Tokyo's Hinode-Machi Gallery. Her awards include the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) Merit Award for Passage, 2000 for the City of Sydney Sculpture Walk.
| Date | 18 July 2009 - 27 December 2009 |
|---|---|
| Venue | Niigata City |
| Admission |
Adults 2500yen University Students/Over 65 2000yen Primary/Junior High/High School Students 800yen |
Niigata Water and Land Art Festival 2009