Saturday, February 25, 2012

Swap Shop News

BrizCATs Swap Shop Offerings
We had a fabulous Swap Shop gathering at QUT in February. Do you feel like you missed out by not being able to make it? We don't want you to miss out. We understand that life as a CAT is not always conducive to coming to gatherings so we would like to share some of our ideas and resources/links here .


Offerings from Karma: Imagine the Land and interesting links
Karma shared with us her work in the Imagine the Land Project
http://www.imaginetheland.org/
ekarasa mandala artwork
The Imagine The Land Project was gestated in 2008, in 2010 in became a collaborative project with Croatian artist Ekarasa Prem. The project works to re-establish a connection between people and the environment through art. The work uses natural resources in organic, impermanent land based installations.



This conversation between art, culture and Nature evokes ancient ceremonies that lie within the collective subconscious of humanity. We establish a space for people to connect with the land in a cooperative new art exploration and while developing a deeper understanding of our interconnectedness with Nature each other. The work draws on ancient world cultural practices particularly basing the template of the work on mandalas and medicine wheels. We have been working in a range of settings from art galleries, public programs at museums and community arts, as I develop my practice towards Arts Therapy I am starting to work in more community contexts with the work.



Karma recommends a show of Gonkar Gyatso, a contemporary Tibetan artist who works with notions of ancient Buddhist practises combined with takes on modern western culture, his work and story is very compelling.@ University of Queensland Art Museum 25 Feb -29 April & Griffith of Queensland Art Museum 25 Feb- 14 April
Karma also suggests these links.

Offerings from Anne : Anxiety in young girls and Soap sculpture
Anne shared with us some of her work with young girls experiencing anxiety. Using a peer support model based on play and creative arts, she suggested using handmade scented soap sculptures to increase levels of connection and nurturing.
  1. We begin by lying on the floor in our own space(wordless classical music playing): tending and relaxing individual parts of the body from the toes up, then the whole body together.
  2. In the whole body relaxed state, I asked them to remember a time when they felt like this.
  3. When they had a picture in their mind we each did a painting.
  4. we Shared our images with each other and asked each other questions to get a feel for each others 'moment'.
  5. We each then wrote some words on pieces of paper around the painting, that came to mind
  6. I asked them to choose of one or two of the words from these that seemed to have more importance or 'power'
  7. Then I asked them to what image came to mind when they pondered that word
  8. We each created a sculpture of thatimage from soft lavender soap (made to the consistency of stiff dough)
  9. We shared our words and images.
This gave information about what might be needed in order to feel less anxious as well as an image to keep or bathe with.


Offerings form Lynne: Spiritual reflection and Dialoguing with Images
Lynne shared with us her new book. It included faces and poetic prose that emerged out of her personal spiritual reflective practice of allowing portraits to emerge in her drawings. She followed this with a dialogue with the face which brought her to the rich and inspiring text. To find out more contact Lynne at Insight.Arts.Counselling@gmail.com or visit her webpage. http://www.gcinsightartscounselling.com.au/


This work emerged out of Lynne's experience of Faber Spirituality http://www.faberspirituality.org.au/spiritual-exercises.html


Offerings from Cate:
Cate shared her art making from up cycled materials. She mentioned a project where participants are given a surprise bag of objects (junk to be reused) The challenge is to create an art work from the objects in the bag (with the possibility of adding a few extra items if needed)...sounds like great fun to me! Cate also shared with us some ideas around Shrine Making: contained sacred spaces in boxes.
 
This was a great reminder of the fun stuff that can be found at Reverse Garbage http://www.reversegarbage.com.au/


Offerings from Susie:
Susie shared with us some art therapy books that she found inspiring.
  • The Soul's Palette by Cathy Malchiodi
  • the Expressive Arts Activity Book by Suzanne Darley and Wende Heath. Susie explained a version of the special box exercise from this book She suggested creating your own unique box then writing on three different pieces of paper, 1. something that you love (eg rainforests) 2. something you want to get rid of (eg my sugar addiction !) and 3. something you want to improve.


Offerings from Mandy: Exploring the experience of cults through arts
Mandy spent considerable time setting up her representation around Experiences of Cults. Below is a picture of it when it was exhibited at MIECAT last year. Unfortunately before we could experience it we had to move venues (due to lack of power in our building and the security guards being worried that we might not know if there was a fire with the fire alarms being turned off). Fortunately we all got to engage hands on in the dismantling of the exhibition getting up close and personal with the content , with its delicate feathers and disturbing images. This led us to a discussion about Cults and other forms of power imbalances and trauma.






Offerings from Gayle: Projects: Artist Trading Cards, And Space and Places
Gayle shared her recent work with Artist Trading Card making and swapping through the '6 Degrees' project. She shared her tiny art works and explained how she had made them (see link below) and swapped them with other arts therapist about the world. She is keen to initiate our own BrizCAT Artist Trading Card swap.(More info to come soon). Gayle also introduced the group to the online Spaces and Places Where We Create Project in conjunction with the Art Therapy Alliance in the hope to create more creative sharing opportunities amongst BrizCATs.
Meanwhile here are some links to wet your creative appetite.


books Gayle loves including Lynne's self published book that she shared with us
example ATC
Matisse Exhibition
Following the BrizCATs gathering a few BrizCATs took the opportunity to visit GOMA and the Matisse Exhibition. This also included a delicious lunch and a visit from a very handsome fellow who was keen to show his creamy lips. Apparently he eats here regularly.