Exhibition title: Kambah Turns 50
Artists: Louise Curham with the Kambah community, Southern Arts Collective artists, Kambah artists and Canberra artists interested in Kambah’s 50th
Partners: The intention is to partner with ArtsACT through Arts Activities Funding, the Southern ACT Catchment Group (umbrella environment group for south ACT) and other groups in the community such as Southfest, See-change Tuggeranong, the Diversity Hub, Lake Tugg Sea Scouts, Mt Taylor Scouts, the Lions Youthhaven, Communities at Work, the Tuggeranong Community Council, schools (Namadgi, Mt Taylor, St Thomas, Lake Tugg College) and businesses eg Amberley Eggs, Cafe Blanco.
Preferred dates: July-Aug 2024
An exhibition by Kambah artists and the Kambah community to mark 50 years since the first residents moved into Kambah in 1974. There will be celebrations across Kambah in July, Aug, including this exhibition.
The exhibition uses the stairwell in the Tuggeranong Arts Centre and upstairs gallery 2 (the back gallery upstairs). Along with the gallery works, a feature of the exhibition is a series of public events in Kambah, focused on the nature parks of Urambi Hills, Mt Taylor, McQuoids Hill, and the Bullen Range Nature Reserve that surround Kambah.
How will the exhibition come together?
A public call for artists to be involved in the exhibition will take place 6 months before the exhibition. A public call for works from the community will take place over the 2-3 months leading up to the exhibition.
1. The stairwell - community call out for documents about Kambah
The community will use the stairwell to share their documents about Kambah.
2. The gallery space - curated by grouping media, artists not just in Kambah but also those keen to reflect on Kambah.
In this space, Kambah will be explored by format - photography in one section of the gallery, textiles in a section, drawing in a section and writing in a section. The artists will be brought together through the Southern Arts Collective and call outs through Canberra arts organisations. The artists may not all be from Kambah but they will be reflecting on Kambah. A public call for works will go out.
3. Events across Kambah with a focus on the nature parks
The event program will include:
interpretive walks on the nature parks led by the parkcare groups
a tree planting on Urambi Hills
A walk around Kambah exploring the digital ‘Kambah Peoples Map’
art-in-unusual-places for ten days around Kambah including extending the flock of sheep in the landmark sculpture on Drakeford Drive
a talk about landscape and design of public spaces in Tuggeranong using Kambah as a case study.
A note about developing 50th events with the community using TAC as a base
There is much interest in the Kambah community about the 50th. I have become aware of this through my 2023 exhibition ‘Kambah’ and my discussion with parkcarers, Scouts and other community leaders such as Taryn Langdon, Geoff Pryor and Liz Stephens. There is an opportunity to hold some meetings with the community to discuss ways to mark the 50th. There’s an opportunity to hold these conversations at TAC and to tell the Kambah community more about TAC and its programs. That is something to discuss further if it is of interest to TAC.
This exhibition investigates life in Kambah 50 years after the first houses were built in the new suburb (gazetted in 1973, first houses 1974). It depicts places, life and atmospheres of Kambah. The artists involved include members of the Southern Arts Collective, artists who live in Kambah and Canberra artists who want to make work to mark Kambah turning 50.
The exhibition builds on my 2022 exhibition Kambah.
Artist bio - Louise Curham
In her art practice, Louise makes performances, photographic works, video and 16mm films and installations. She also draws whenever possible. Themes in her work include decoding the ‘black box’ of contemporary technology and extending the life of old media through creative archiving. Her methods include hand processing super 8 and 16 mm film, making performances using old media and re-enacting early media art performance.
Louise loves the way old media draws attention to relationships, both the relationship with audiences and the performance of technology. At the moment, she’s thinking about the ecology old media needs in order to keep operating. That resonates with other work Louise does in practical land care and in thinking about her suburb, Kambah, a misunderstood suburb of the south of Canberra.
Since the early 1990s, Louise has presented exhibitions, public programs and community events throughout Australia and internationally. Her art has been supported by ArtsACT (2020, 2013), Bundanon Trust (2012), BankART1929 (Yokohama, Japan), UNSW Student Union (2002), Creative New Zealand (1995).
2087
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