Architecture and vitality

Included drawings directly on the walls of the gallery, architectural process-models and proposals for architectural spaces that involve ideas concerning ways to cross body-environment boundaries, installation of designs based on Wilhelm Riech’s designs for the Orgone accumulator and images taken using 1.100 scale architectural model people.

Flows and catchments : stone soup

Installation of the makings of three types of soup: stone soup, axe soup and heirloom soup in accordance with the folk stories. Formed part of group exhibition of photographs, films, installations and drawings, and sound in response to the artist-researchers involvement with the Lake Bolac landscape and community and research being conducted on Charles Dawson an 18th century businessman who engaged and advocated for the cultural rights of the Indigenous peoples of SW Victoria. The aim of the research is to suggest that creative research constitutes a important way to understand and engage local communities for the purpose of exchange and cultural development. My work in particular suggest a way that artist induce community collaboration by creatively producing collaborative platforms that require cooperation and benefits everyone.

Indigenous climate change adaption in the Port Philip Bay region : a longitudinal investigation into the physical and cultural transformation of the bay from an indigenous and landscape architectural perspective

Currently there is a dearth of research into Australian Indigenous knowledge and their understanding of climate change especially in regard to how it fits into their world view. Recent discussions by the National Climate Change Adaptation Research facility (NCCARF) have highlighted this deficiency but also the need to source relevant research projects that may address this knowledge and perspective, and enable the incorporation of Traditional ecological Knowledge into the planning climate change adaptions strategies in the Port Phillip Bay region thereby increasing their engagement in this discussion. Within this context, this paper examines the use and understanding of landscape, both urban and regional, surrounding Port Phillip Bay and the risks and opportunities climate change adaptation brings to the local Indigenous communities. It synthesises focused interviews with the (Wurundjeri (Yarra Valley), Wathaurong Geelong-Bellarine Peninsular) & Boon Wurrung (Mornington Peninsula)) to elicit a contemporary and local response to issues raised by NCCARF but importantly to articulate a possible Indigenous position about the formation, change and direction that Port Phillip Bay and its environs should take from their perspectives. Research draws upon how these communities have adapted to climate change physically, mentally and spiritually over their long habitation of a shared geological asset and their perceptions of climate change in respect to forecasting and adapting to climate change for this century. The project looks to uncover a longitudinal perspective of change and adaptation focused upon Indigenous views of ‘country’ and traditional custodial obligations to ‘country’ including accumulated cultural and environmental histories.

Re-discovering Wardell’s Chantry Chapel for Lord Petre : a crumbling fabulation

In January 2009 The Times reported that the Historic Chapels Trust (HCT) was undertaking the preservation and conservation of the Chantry Chapel of Thorndon Hall, near Brentwood, Essex, England, once the seat of the Petre family, one of England’s oldest Catholic families. The chapel has lain severely neglected for many years with missing and loose tiles, blocked gutters, and heavily eroded stonework. In spite of its desperate need of repair, inside, glimpses of the richly carved and lavishly decorated interior remain, witness to exquisite craftsmanship. Because of its quality Nikolas Pevsner had attributed the building to A W N Pugin. More recent research has established that in fact William Wardell was the architect.

By 1854, when Lord Petre commissioned this mausoleum for his estate, Wardell would have been especially known for his London curvilinear decorated churches at Greenwich, Clapham and Hammersmith. Wardell produced three complete sets of drawings for the Chantry Chapel. Drawings for all three designs are extant, and give valuable insights into Wardell's design methods and the evolution of his design thinking. They raise questions about Early Victorian and High Victorian Gothic sensibilities and establish Wardell’s architectural and design credentials beyond a doubt. This paper explores Wardell’s debt to Pugin, posits the Chantry Chapel as a rival to Pugin’s St Giles Church, Cheadle, and considers the question of patronage.

Now acknowledged to be ‘of outstanding architectural and historic interest ‘ by HCT and English Heritage, the Chantry chapel - a crumbling fabulation - is the subject of major heritage considerations. Questions about authenticity in rebuilding and reconstruction are currently overridden by the urgent need to secure the structure from collapse.

Excavation

This work is one of a suite of drawings that responds to the work 'Kangaroo Stalking' by S.T.Gill. It also plays with certain ideas or problems in the depiction of landscape more broadly.

The last of his kind

'The Last of His Kind' is one of a suite of drawings that responds to the work 'Kangaroo Stalking' by S.T.Gill. It also plays with certain ideas or problems in the depiction of landscape more broadly. This work is in part a kind of thought experiment on non-human (or not quite human) consciousness and the organism's particular register of it's environment.

Expedition

'Expedition' is one of a suite of drawings that responds to the work 'Kangaroo Stalking' by S.T.Gill. It also plays with certain ideas or problems in the depiction of landscape more broadly. Expedition is an imagined studio portrait of the ST Gill's hunter commemorating his triumphant return from his sporting expedition.

Self portrait as time traveller

Self Portrait as Time Traveller' is one of a suite of drawings that responds to the work 'Kangaroo Stalking' by S.T.Gill. It also plays with certain ideas or problems in the depiction of landscape more broadly. The work plays on an old spatial illusion or trick of photography(think tourists at the Leaning Tower of Pisa). Maybe the trick works temporally as well as spatially or at least fails equally to convince us in both dimensions.

The search : version 1

The Search (version 1) is one of a suite of drawings that responds to the work 'Kangaroo Stalking' by S.T.Gill. It also plays with certain ideas or problems in the depiction of landscape more broadly. The exhibition invited SCCA staff to each respond to a particular work within the Deakin collection.

Stone soup installation

This installation work sets out a number of proposals for future collaborations with the Southwest Victoria regions communities. Through a series of drawings/ diagram that focus on particular aspects of the region: stone walls, eel weirs. The concept for the work is taken from the folktale of travelers who come to a village asking for food and when denied, they make a magical stone soup which only need a few garnishes. in the end the traveler have enough soup for the entire village. this stands as a allegory of the way artist engage with community and induce cooperative activities a through the trickery of art practices by which all can partake and produce common, mutually beneficial experience.

Stone soup drawing exhibition and workshop

This series of drawings based on the folk tale of stone soup, axe soup and other tales of travel and engagement with a new community. I also conducted a community workshop in which people drew on paper prepared by myself in which memories and placeswere the focus. As the community drawings were produce I substituted them for the ones I had produced and left them with the festival committee as a gift to the community.

A/r/tography and place ontology

Through lived experience, I learn how my education, life habits, changing abodes, and different career trajectories are intertwined with my identity and place. A/r/tography is a way of exploring these interconnections through reflexive practice as a visual artist, creative arts therapist, art educator, and researcher. Knowledge emerges from contemplating my artistic practice, my art education, the drawings of clients who participate in my creative art therapy sessions, and the work of students who attend my art classes, from which I contemplate early art images as shapes or figurative forms floating on the page. This paper asserts that creative art therapists are able to use the creative-artistic processes of living inquiry found in a/r/tography to make connections between identity and place.

Stigma toward mental illness : a cross-cultural comparison of Taiwanese, Chinese immigrants to Australia and Anglo-Australians

This study investigated the relationship between culture and attitudes toward mental illness. In total, 196 men and 347 women were recruited from Australia and Taiwan. All participants completed a questionnaire assessing their attitudes toward mental illness. Australian-born Chinese and Chinese immigrants to Australia also completed a questionnaire assessing cultural values. Chinese immigrants to Australia and Taiwanese held more stigmatizing attitudes than Australian-born Chinese and Anglo-Australians. Australian-born Chinese adopted Australian cultural practices more than Chinese immigrants, but these groups did not differ in terms of adherence to Chinese cultural practices. The adoption of Australian cultural practices was significantly associated with lower stigmatizing attitudes. These findings reveal the influence of culture and acculturation processes on stigmatizing attitudes toward the mentally ill.

Calm active and focused : children’s responses to an organic outdoor learning environment

This study reports on children’s observed responses to natural features introduced in the redevelopment of a childcare centre garden. Using an action research approach, the redevelopment was based on the preferences of the director, staff and 18 three- to four-year-olds, as expressed through interviews, conversations, photographs and drawings. Adults and children overwhelmingly preferred natural elements. The kindergarten teacher and assistant observed children’s responses to the implementation of features including a teepee, mulch, greenery, flowers, and loose organic materials. In follow-up interviews, they reported positive child responses including: richer imaginative play; increased physical activity; calmer, more focused play; and positive social interactions. These findings provide further evidence of the importance of providing children with naturalized outdoor play spaces.

Silent windows

Silent Windows was a major exhibition of Terry Matassoni's paintings and works on paper spanning 23 years. It was held at Maroondah Art Gallery (Ringwood, Melbourne) in 2012.