Ten Days on the Island

If all of the world’s water filled a bucket, the total amount of fresh water would be equivalent to one teaspoonful.  

From the icy snow of the Western Tiers to the beauty of the dunes on the northern coast, from the wide fertile plains of the Fingal Valley to elegant Entally Estate on the urban fringe of Launceston, the Tamar Estuary and Esk River System (TEERS) extends across a quarter of the island’s land mass. This highly valuable and biodiverse water source nurtures 137,000 people.

Artists have been commissioned to research, develop and assemble work that speaks of our interaction with this land and its water resources, be it as sustenance or as the subject of overuse and abuse.  Five site-specific installations create experiences to be encountered, their strange and out-of-place elements holding the keys to connections and understandings that invite us into important conversations.

Curator Dr Jane Deeth has written an essay about In TEERS.

ARTISTS:

Top of the catchment: Poatina
Study X (a) -Techno/Water/Power
Artist: Jacob Leary

Poatina was built in the 1950s to accommodate hundreds of construction workers and operators of the hydroelectric power station that converted the vast quantity of water collected in the Great Lake into electricity. The equation of water plus gravity generates power that gives light and form to the cities and habitats we exist within.

Agricultural Rostrevor Estate
Muddied Waters
Artist: Michael McWilliams

The valleys of the northern plains echo an Aboriginal landscape sustained over millennia through careful management of fire. Europeans arrived here just over 200 years ago, including artist John Glover who painted this landscape grappling with its unfamiliarity. The new arrivals and their descendants sought to refashion the land into a little England. It hasn't always worked.

Peri Urban: Entally Estate
A Fitted Kitchen is a Joy to Behold
Artists: Patrick Ronald & Shannon McDonell

Humans have always been drawn to the most fertile landscapes. As settlements expand, more of the best agricultural land is divided up into small-scale hobby farms, orchards and vineyards. These then give way to the relentless pressure of quick-build suburbia. Entally Estate was built in 1819 and still stands more or less unchanged after almost two centuries.

River edge: The George Town Memorial Hall
Lichenography: imagining landscapes from the river’s edge
Artist: Sue Henderson

The river edge advances and retreats. Lichens react, develop and grow, sensitive to change and responding to the health of an environment. This vulnerability makes them useful in assessing the effects of pollution, depletion and contamination. Mould grows on dead organic matter everywhere in nature. There are circumstances that might cause lichen or mould to grow on this site.

Coastal: Ivy Lawn
Sherbet Forest
Artist: Mairi Ward

Every plant is native to somewhere. They say a weed is just a plant growing in the wrong place. History, culture, aesthetics, politics affect what is acceptable and what is not and this changes over time. Going back to the beginning or adopting and adapting to change...there are many possibilities.

ART MADE EASY WORKSHOPS

• Ten Days is presenting a program of Art Made Easy workshops, facilitated by Dr Jane Deeth
  
• November Art Made Easy workshop

ARTFORUM @ UTAS

The curator, Dr Jane Deeth will present an overview of a project followed by artists Michael McWilliams, Sue Henderson and possibly others in a conversation chaired by Catherine Wolfhagen.


PRESENTING PARTNERS
  

SUPPORTED BY



SPONSORED BY

The Australian Government is proud to be associated with Ten Days on the Island. This project was made possible by Festivals Australia, an Australian Government program which supports cultural activity at regional and community events.

Curator: Jane Deeth
Artists: Jacob Leary, Michael McWilliams, Patrick Ronald & Shannon McDonell, Sue Henderson, Mairi Ward