time out
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
he may have only been in the job for two months but CraftACT’s new chief executive officer, Rachael Coghlan, has already overseen some landmark events, including launching two new exhibitions which expose our grim and wasteful world.
Rachael Coghlan with Niklavs Rubenis’ Side Table, part of his exhibition Crafting Waste.
Crafting Waste by local designer Niklavs Rubenis focuses on waste and consumerism and Aesthetics in the Time of Emergency, by five Melbournebased craft artists, epitomises glass practitioners who create around urgent environmental issues. Coghlan, who has spent 20 years in national cultural institutions, says her new role has a different connection with the local community of artists. “I am savouring every minute,” she says. CraftACT is a pivotal player in Canberra's visual and contemporary craft and art landscape, collaborating regularly with other arts and cultural organisations. It has been going for nearly 40 years and supports 150 artists in its exhibition program each year. Coghlan says Australia is in the midst of a vast transformation of contemporary craft culture. “Today, craft and design practitioners are confronted with radically different demands and opportunities. They don’t make things simply to get admired. They use materials to tell stories about society. They’re changing how they produce, integrating new approaches and techniques and reworking traditional ways.” For Rubenis, ordinary but brilliantly designed and then discarded items, such as milk cartons and tin cans, are re-evaluated and transformed. Bethany Wheeler, Beyond Measure
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He says the ways of working and thinking in the 19th and 20th centuries no longer apply. “The world is full of stuff and it’s hard to justify creating more stuff,” he says. “We need new ways of working, thinking and interacting with the world.” Aesthetics in the Time of Emergency is a body of work created by a micro-community of craft artists with a shared vision. Sarah Field, Jennifer King, Nadia Mercuri, Jasmine Targett and Bethany Wheeler challenge and reshape the traditional Australian glass movement. Each artist explores an idea surrounding a current “state of emergency” which has an impact on the individual and society. They include our lack of compassion, nuclear disasters and melting icebergs. Coghlan says double meanings emerge from their juxtaposition. “The works talk to one another and the undertone within the overall exhibition reflects a sense of guilty pleasure in viewing works of sinister beauty.” She says Craft ACT strives to change the way people think about craft and design in a powerful way. “Our makers push boundaries of excellence far beyond what has been accomplished or expected before. This exhibition will inspire audiences to reflect on the issues these artists are bringing to light and appreciate the significant impact craft delivers to our nation.” She says curator Mel George has pulled together the exhibition program, which runs until 9 July, to contrast in a very meaningful and thoughtful way. “It shows exactly what is exciting about contemporary craft, both socially responsible and excellently executed, but also unpredictable.” - Diana Streak
Photo Gary Schafer
CONFRONTING OUR THROWAWAY CULTURE