ART POD

Join us in the ART POD for a multisensory experience celebrating Kaurna culture this NAIDOC Week.

• Watch videos of Kaurna Elders talking about their connection to important cultural sites around Tarntanya / Adelaide from the recently launched Kaurna Voices project
• See footage of council’s first ever Park Lands cultural burn in 2020
• Witness live painting and speak with the City of Adelaide NAIDOC Commission Lead Artist, Mali Isabel (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday)
• Listen to the breezeway sound installation
• Enjoy native plants from the City of Adelaide nursery.

Image: Artists Drew Kilner and Mali Isabel painting NAIDOC week mural Kardlapurruna (Burning Still). 

The City of Adelaide’s Contemporary Art Collection offers a window into Adelaide’s past, present and future, inviting audiences on a journey of discovery, reflection and inspiration.

Since 2010, the collection has evolved into a vibrant reflection of the city’s dynamic identity, creating and preserving our shared culture and history with over 60 artworks by 40 artists.

The Collection has its origins in 2011 when a shift in Council’s cultural stewardship saw a newly committed approach to the preservation and celebration of Adelaide’s Contemporary artistic heritage. Through deliberate acquisitions and strategic partnerships, the collection has continued to grow as a vibrant testament to the city’s artistic vitality, embracing diverse voices, themes and mediums. Works by 34 artists who are either based in South Australia or connected to the state through work or study will be on display throughout Adelaide Town Hall.

As we grow this collection that celebrates the richness and diversity of Adelaide’s cultural landscape, we recognise the transformative power of art. It not only reflects the world around us but also has the capacity to question, challenge, subvert, imagine and shape the world that lies ahead.

[un]Guilty Pleasures - This residency is an exercise in examining and unpacking the idea of guilty pleasures - those things that we do or consume that bring joy - but are often looked down upon as trivial or undignified.

This interest in guilty pleasures stems from a deep love of fandom and the ways in which we seek connection and a build sense of identity. This intense devotion can often be dismissed by outsiders as something best kept to themselves or requiring justification. This attitude is often extended to craft-making as well, however labelling these pursuits as ‘hobbies’ has similarly devalued the significance of the labour and dedication involved with these activities - often perceived as mindless, decorative and delicate, devoid of significant content.

[un]Guilty Pleasures invites the public to divulge their weird and wonderful hobbies or obsessions. Those little things that bring pure and utter joy. Our communal joys will be stitched onto a quilt, to hold and spend time with them, providing an avenue for celebration and connection.

This ART POD residency is delivered in partnership with Guildhouse through the ART WORKS program.

IMAGE: CARLY SNOSWELL. PHOTO BY AUBREY JONSSON

INTERSECTION by Callum Docherty explores and captures moments of the city and its visitors through contemporary art practice. The project showcases the City of Adelaide’s dynamic and vibrant culture and provides an opportunity to pause and reflect.

Callum’s most recent work has been informed by and created from processes such as the collection, observation and conservation of found objects, photographic documentation, and multidisciplinary collaboration with a focus on responding to site-specific materials and areas of interest.

A series of participatory experiences enables visitors to collaborate with Callum in art making including contributing to the photographic print series displayed across the front window of the ART POD; looking at human forms and our presence in the urban environment; focusing on the intersecting elements such as architectural features and citizen behavioural patterns as observed within the City of Adelaide.

INTERSECTION is driven by community engagement and considers accessibility for all visitors.

This ART POD residency is delivered in partnership with Guildhouse through the ART WORKS program.

Image: Callum Docherty, photograph by Sia Duff

The ART POD resident artist, Sally Parnis, is busy telling the story of our city, through her ART WORKS project ‘Collected’.

This collaborative community effort sees Sally repurpose objects found in the City and Parklands into a series of colourful animated digital artworks, multimedia projections, printed pieces and mixed media works.

Sally invites the community to contribute to this evolving project by gathering objects found within the city boundary and delivering them directly to Sally in the ART POD. These items will be reimagined and incorporated into Sally’s future works and then disposed of responsibly, using the City of Adelaide’s Waste, Recycling and Composting systems and the Reuse and Recycle Hub located at the Customer Centre.

This ART POD residency is delivered in partnership with Guildhouse through the ART WORKS program.

IMAGE: SALLY PARNIS, IMAGE SUPPLIED BY THE ARTIST.

Your Turn to Listen project aims to amplify Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices on political and social justice issues facing Aboriginal people within South Australia. The ART POD is turned into a homage to Aboriginal protest movements and a space for Aboriginal people to engage in conversations about issues facing their communities. Carly and Dominic will also respond to these conversations by creating artwork and writings.

Carly Tarkari Dodd is a Kaurna\Narungga and Ngarrindjeri artist and curator. Within her practice as a weaver and painter, Carly mixes traditional and contemporary techniques, to produce works that are conceptually and culturally driven.

Dominic Guerrera is a Ngarrindjeri and Kaurna person living on Kaurna Yarta. His practice includes poetry, writing, podcaster, photography and pottery. Dominic’s work focuses on Aboriginal rights and lived experiences.

This ART POD residency is delivered in partnership with Guildhouse through the ART WORKS program.

Image: Carly Tarkari Dodd.PHOTOGRAPHER: Morgan Sette.

Jingwei Bu is a multidisciplinary and performance artist, her work explore themes of culture heritage. Her intuitive mark-making is guided by the study of Buddhist teachings, connection to nature, and an instinct for artistic risk-taking and spontaneous experimentation. Eleen Deprez is a philosopher of art and a curator, she is currently working on the uses of Augmented Reality (AR), researching the interaction between painting, photography and curating an exhibition on the contemporary grotesque.

Jingwei and Eleen collaborate to create a durational live art performance, with in person, virtual and published outcomes. The project, ‘Stop and See’, is a form of visual and literary play between two differently cultured individuals and two different practices. Creating 'a stop', a moment of standstill, for both the residents and the audience. Jingwei makes marks to create an externalised document of her spatial and temporal observations. The marks becoming – a recording or map-making – of her attentive and embodied experience of the moment and those around her. Eleen records in writing what she sees: the space, the flow of traffic through the lane, people. The loop between Jingwei and Eleen, stop and see, activity and observation, text and shredding is ongoing throughout the residency.

This ART POD residency is delivered in partnership with Guildhouse through the ART WORKS program.

Image: Jingwei Bu by Sam Roberts

The focus of Eleanor and Kate’s dual residency is to experiment with and respond to each other’s writing and making processes, culminating in an Artist Book.

The inaugural pairing of a writer and artist in the ART POD creates space for collaborative artist dialogue and experimentation across the written word and painted image.

This ART POD residency is delivered in partnership with Guildhouse through the ART WORKS program.

Image: Kate Kurucz and Eleanor Scicchitano in the City of Adelaide Art POD. Photograph Sam Roberts.

Sue is a contemporary visual arts practitioner and educator with 20 years’ studio and exhibiting experience, her multi-disciplinary practice employs the use of a wide range of techniques and processes and is grounded in experimental creativity and materiality.

Touching on themes of isolation, introspection, transformation and healing, Sue draws inspiration from coastal landscapes and her love of open water swimming. Her recent body of work entitled The Dark Stones was created in response to experiences in Skagastrond, Northwest Iceland as part of a successful artist residency. It represents her personal journey and a process of healing brought about in that place. Her wearable art pieces explore themes of pain, joy, betrayal and hope resulting from personal tragedy. 

During this residency she uses the space as an artist studio with her focus during the residency is creating an oversized textile work that draws on the public’s responses to news headlines.

Sue welcomes you to engage with her and her work in the space to inspire the creation of an oversized textile artwork. To find out more, drop into ART POD when the artist is in residence each Monday and Wednesday from 10am – 3pm, or follow on Instagram @sueninham for more information.

This ART POD residency is delivered in partnership with Guildhouse through the ART WORKS program.

Image: Sue Ninham, Is-Land, 2020, photograph courtesy the artist

Ruby Chew is in residence at the ART POD from August to November 2021. She is drawing on her experience as a teaching artist to create new work informed by engagement with the local community.

Ruby is a painter who feels art is for everyone, who employs process-based making techniques to create open dialogue with her viewers. She invites the public to engage with her and her work in the space that will inspire her residency.

Observe her process and the progress of her work across many stages, participate in workshops, chat to the artist and add to an ongoing collaborative artwork.

Completing a BA Visual Arts Hons. at Adelaide Central School of Art (2010), along with further study at Central Saint Martins, London and the Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Ruby’s work is deeply rooted in traditional painting techniques; the foundation of her practice.

This ART POD residency is delivered in partnership with Guildhouse through the ART WORKS program.

Image: Ruby Chew, (detail), mixed media dimensions variable. Photos Rosina Possingham

Rebecca McEwan is the ARTWORKS artist in residence at ART POD from the end of March to July 2021. During this time she is using the space as an artist studio to continue her exploration of the human connection to water by delving into the stories and history of Karrawirra Parri (River Torrens) and creates new work that reconnects with this significant waterway. While in ART POD Rebecca is collecting stories, researching the history of Karrawirra Parri, and asking the question “What is your water”? She invites contributions from the public via call outs on social media, messaging in ART POD, and by connecting with passers-by. Call by ART POD and let Rebecca know “What is your water”?

With an arts practice based on the Fleurieu Peninsula, Rebecca has a profound fascination with the visceral connection humans hold with the natural world. Through her multi-disciplinary approach to making she seeks to reconnect us with our environment through the exploration of stories, ancient wisdoms and intrinsic knowledge.

This ART POD residency is delivered in partnership with Guildhouse through the ART WORKS program.

Image: Rebecca McEwan, 4000 stories (detail), honey, glass, metal, cork, dimensions variable. Photo Steph Fuller

Image: Rebecca McEwan, 4000 stories (detail), honey, glass, metal, cork, dimensions variable. Photo Steph Fuller

Jane Skeer is activating the ART POD over a few months, while working on a body of work for exhibition.

Jane Skeer lives and works on Kaurna Land. Working predominately in sculpture and installation, creating works in response to her observations of people, objects and materiality. In this residency Skeer is immersing herself in urban culture to discuss, rethink and continue current research on commerce and trade to further build on the #we’reinthistogether art project. This project is a way for Skeer to map human culture during COVID-19, calming her fears and insecurities in the process. Interested in the way artworks hold ideas, Skeer decides to investigate real feelings in the urban environment, placing herself precariously in the public domain, asking questions, exchanging thoughts, listening, and recording these findings digitally. Discovering reassurance and confidence in our commonalities, strength in each other and surprisingly an enlivened community spirit. #we’reinthistogether is a journal responding to our lived experiences. It is the process of gradually building a collection of information en-masse.

This artwork is recording the voices of people internationally and will be built on during September in the ART POD, Pirie Street, Adelaide. #we’reinthistogether stretches Skeer as an artist to get out of her comfort zone and interact more with the public to find the real conversations waiting to be told.

#we’reinthistogether is Skeers’ way of making art for the now, it’s a documentation of current events, a moment in time to reflect upon, connecting us to the future!

This ART POD residency is delivered in partnership with Guildhouse through the ART WORKS program.

Image: Jane Skeer, #we’reinthistogether, 2020, (installation view). Image courtesy of the artist.

Jasmine Ann Dixon is in residence at the ART POD from February – August 2020, and is working on paintings exploring elements of the City of Adelaide’s 2016-2020 Strategic Plan themes of Smart, Green, Liveable or Creative for exhibition in 2020.

Jasmine Ann Dixon was born in 1993 in Adelaide. From an early age she was drawn to painting, and in her later years of school became particularly interested in portraiture. This passion led her to study a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design at the Adelaide College of the Arts from which she graduated in 2014. Since then, Dixon has been a part of the Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition, where she won the Peter Walker Encouragement Award, exhibited numerous times with Hill Smith Gallery, been a Finalist in the Emma Hack Art Prize and the Black Swan Portrait Prize and won the RSASA 2016 Youthscape Prize. Dixon’s practice thus far has focused on combining textiles and colour with hyper-realistic portraits. She sees the face as the window to the soul and hopes to celebrate it in each portrait by highlighting individual’s character and beauty though her detailing.

This ART POD residency is delivered in partnership with Guildhouse through the ART WORKS program.

IMAGE: JASMINE ANN DIXON “GOOD BOY BLUE”