ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE 2023
“What an incredible place!! Thank-you so much for a cherished time…moon rising sun searing and a thousand cockatoo alarm clocks!! Can’t wait to return. We were guests at The Corridor Project and had the whole place to ourselves. Bloody hell! An old wool-station re purposed and brilliantly converted into a ‘creative space’ for loads of artists to use…set in an ancient rock strewn valley with a thousand Cockatoos chiding the sun, which in turn chased wedge tail eagles through the sky and the biggest brightest moon, pouncing every night from behind bushes, surprising the Kangaroos”
Image: TCP - Pamela U’Ren - artist’s palette NOV 2023
Video above illustrating TCP environment, studio-space, living space, accommodation
David Collins and Pamela U’Ren French
Residency november 2023
About David
Website HERE
David Collins is a landscape painter who has lived on the Hawkesbury River, NSW, with his partner and fellow artist, Ana Pollak, since 1987. Bushwalking, rowing on the river and painting or drawing from its shores have been the major influences on his work over this time. Since 1990, David has held 20 solo exhibitions of paintings and drawings and participated in many group exhibitions. He has worked in various locations both within Australia and overseas, including The Kimberley, The Pilbara, Central Australia and France, with residencies in China, Queensland, New Zealand and The Monaro Region of NSW. [Self directed user-pays model]
about pam
Instagram HERE
Is a professional visual artist living on remnant wetlands at Cobbity near Camden NSW. Pam advocates for the preservation of this important place. Pam focus is on personal discourse and the theme of human disconnect from natural environments. Visual denaturing and denaturing of understandings through language enables public policy which threatens these sensitive habitats. URen French seek to reintroduce you to these landscapes on an emotional level. For the viewer to experience landscapes as places of immense value, full of inherent beauty and diversity. [Self directed user-pays model]
“Returning to the CORRIDOR project has been a really productive time. Being able to spend over two weeks and further develop work on my current project ‘no one owns the river’ a body of large works on paper and paintings. I immensely enjoyed the diverse range of birds and knowing there were platypus in the river where I worked. It’s nice to have one of these works from the series chosen as a finalist in 61st Fisher’s Ghost Art Award 2023, Campbelltown Art Centre. Thank you for a great place to stay and to feel so much at home. ”
peachey and mosig
residency - august 2023
About
Website HERE
Peachey and Mosig [Rachel Peachey and Paul Mosig] are visual artists who live and work on the lands of the Gundungurra and Durug people in the Blue Mountains. They have an ongoing interest in human/environment relationships, which they explore from a range of perspectives and across a range of media including photography, video and textiles. Their work celebrates notions of mystery and wonder, the centrality of the sense experience, the poetic relationship between science and philosophy and the meeting of the rational with the intuitive. They are committed to the process of collaboration, often working with their two children and practitioners from a range of other disciplines. They use field studies and play as research tools to create mixed-media installations and internet based art works.
Peachey and Mosig first visited the CORRIDOR project in 2021 to perform live video with contemporary music group Ensemble Offspring. They had an immediate connection to the site and have since returned on multiple occasions - as part of a group conversation on art and walking in the landscape, to document the aftermath of a flooding event and in 2023 to develop new works for exhibition. [Self directed - supported by The Corridor Project]
Testimonial
“We feel very fortunate to be part of the residency program at the CORRIDOR project. For almost 20 years we have been using field studies as a fundamental part of our art-making process and the CORRIDOR project not only support this type of working, they really understand how special it is to visit the same site over a sustained period of time with the potential for collaboration and conversation. We spent most of our recent visit on the river just under the dam wall, where the environment has been scrubbed bare by numerous flood events. The scale of the human intervention has created a dramatic landscape but we have been focused in on the micro ecologies of algae that abound when the water is turned off. We are fascinated by the contrasting scales - one minute jumping over the huge boulders, a giant body of water above us being held back by human engineering, then staring for hours into tiny stagnant pools filled with simple primitive rootless plants, bubbling, flowing and dancing in the sunlight.
This landscape feels eerie and even though the algae has a beauty if also makes the water feel unhealthy even though the circumstance clearly work for these plants and they are thriving. It is unavoidable to make value judgements about landscapes and it is hard to avoid centring the human experience or the experiences of the species that we have alliances with. The photos and videos we have been making this visit will make their way into a larger performance at the Blue Mountains City Art Gallery and as always happens when we head out to the CORRIDOR project there is a wonderful moment of serendipity as we learn of a colony of bats that we can visit on our way home. Not something that we were looking for but a perfect fit.”
ANGUS FISHER
residency - june 2023
About
Website HERE
Angus Fisher’s art practice investigates nature and humankind’s relationship with the natural world. For Fisher, the idea of nature is a not a static term, but an evolving concept. Through the detailed study of history and natural subject matter, his work grapples with the idea of how nature exists, and has existed, in human imagination. Fisher does not only investigate ecology through his subjects, but the evolving attitudes and changing philosophical interpretations of the wider natural world. Primarily working with etching and drawing, he utilises traditional working techniques, methodologies and aesthetics to place his work in direct connection to historical contexts and traditions. Fisher’s work can be found in the collection of The National Gallery of Australia, The Art Gallery of NSW, The New South Wales State Library, The National Art School, Australian Galleries in Sydney and Melbourne as well as private collectors. Angus Fisher has collaborated with the CORRIDOR project as tutor and presenter for National Science Week 2021 + 2022 and year round science/arts workshops. Angus has been invited as a durational participant in the CORRIDOR AiR [annual artist in residence program] during 2023. During Angus’s durational residence he tested processes to produce new work for exhibition. [Self directed - supported by The Corridor Project and a donor]
Image: Angus Fisher - Charcoal drawing - CORRIDOR AAiR 2023
Testimonial
“I have just spent the last week at the CORRIDOR project as part of their artist in residence program. The opportunity to work in such a quiet and inspiring location, away from regular routines and environments, has given me such valuable space to reflect on my practice and the time to explore, experiment and trial new approaches and ideas. I approached the opportunity with an open mind but was drawn to the exquisite night skies and the celestial bodies high above as inspiration. Something I have always been interested in, but never approached in my art practice. Using an on-site telescope, I made observations and studies of the moon which, at that time, was sitting high above just past half full – waxing gibbous. One part bathed in the purest of light while the other lay in perfect blackness, the two sides exquisitely opposed in light and dark. I began in pencil and had time to develop my sketches into a full-size charcoal drawing over the following days. It is a project I am excited to continue to explore and develop in subsequent trips out to the CORRIDOR project, hopefully culminating in a larger series of finished drawings. The Moon, high above us in endless cycles, syncopating the lives and rhythms of the natural world. As much a model of scientific study as it is a spiritual beacon. Both alien and familiar and as comforting as it is distant.”
sAMMY HAWKER
residency - mAY 2023
About Sammy
Website HERE
Sammy Hawker is an Australian based visual artist working predominantly on Ngunawal, Ngunnawal, Ngambri country [Canberra Region, ACT]. Sammy’s work is multi-disciplinary and driven by an interest in the immaterial and material presences within sites, spaces and the body. ‘Acts of Co-Creation’ was the title of Sammy’s first major solo exhibition and it remains a relevant term to describe her work. Inherent to these acts of co-creation is recognising the sentience of the more-than human. Sammy has co-created work with many beings including oceans, honeybees and even human ashes. In the making of these works she recognises a distinct visual logic emerge from the material resonance of these more-than human contributors.
Many of Sammy’s works have evolved from ongoing relationships with Traditional Custodians, scientists & researchers, and other practitioners working with site. 5% of her artwork sales goes towards organisations supporting the vitality of culture, community and Country. Sammy has collaborated with the CORRIDOR project on residency during 2022-23 and as workshop tutor. Sammy has been invited as a durational participant in the CORRIDOR AiR [annual artist in residence program] during 2022-23.
Residency plan
‘Using the text The Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet as a point of departure, my work within this site-specific residency will respond to the call for a 'relearning of curiosity' in the more-than human voices of the worlds around us. Through practices of reciprocity, active listening and immersion, I will continue my practice of working directly with site to co-create imagery and give voice to the immaterial and material presences (ghosts & monsters) that exist there’ Sammy Hawker 2023. During Sammys residence she will be working on this long term project involving research and producing new works for exhibition.
Image below - Sammy Hawker ‘Caterpillars and Metamorphosis’ work developed from the TCP artist-in-residence - MAY 2023 winner of the first prize in the inaugural Canberra Contemporary Photography Prize. Hawker said she had found the caterpillars drowned in a trough at TCP, collected them in a jar, ground their bodies and turned them into a chromatogram through a photographic process first invented by botanist Mikhail Tsvet in 1900.
Testimonial
“I consider myself extremely fortunate to have visited the CORRIDOR project a few times now as part of their Artist in Residence program. One of the first weeks I spent making work there, I arrived just as the decision was made to release water from Wyangala, causing Galari (the Lachlan River) to flood. The river was twice its usual width and I could hear it raging as I fell asleep at night on the hill above. By the end of the week the river had receded and a carnage of broken roots, dead animals and leaf litter decorating the branches of the casuarinas and red-gums was revealed.
When I spend time at the CORRIDOR project I feel myself dropping deeper into the stories of the more-than human world. Wondering at what other ghosts and monsters might be concealed beyond my scope of vision. I find the more times I visit, the more these stories begin to reveal themselves to me - I learn where the snakes like to hibernate, how the wolf-spiders always seems to appear at full moon, and how the granite boulders are slowly morphing shape as the lichen breaks them into sand. In the CORRIDOR project’s enviable curation of books (a reason enough to want to visit!) is one of my favourite texts - Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet (eds. Tsing, Swanson, Gan, Bubandt). It is a book that argues ‘… to survive, we need to relearn multiple form of curiosity. Curiosity is an attunement to multi-species entanglement, complexity, and the shimmer all around us.’ My time as an Artist in Residence at the CORRIDOR has allowed me to exercise this curiosity and I’m excited by the way this is translating into my visual practice”
Shani Nottingham And Freya Jobbins
residency - April 2023
About shani
Website HERE
As a multi-disciplinary artist, my practice is woven together with many strands, from collages, mixed media, photography, drawing, illustration, sculptural forms and installation. Based in Central West NSW, the dramatic light, seasons and seemingly constant environmental challenges facing rural and regional Australia imbue how I live and create. I am known for my work with The Breadtag Project, a long term art/environmental/ awareness program, using breadtags as a creative medium. The breadtags are saved and sent to me from people all over the world, making these donators an inherent part of the creating process. Whatever the medium, I am drawn to pattern, colour, line and repetition. The theme of collecting is consistent too, creating order from chaos, observing similarities and disparities. I interrogate and explore the narrative that objects can tell us, imbued with cultural energy, laden with social meaning, personal attachment and symbolism. In seeking out small elements of beauty and interest in everyday life, I find moments and objects that can either bind, comfort and hold us, or confront and surprise us. [Self directed - supported by The Corridor Project and Orana Arts]
About freya
Website HERE
Freya Jobbins is a contemporary German/Australian multidisciplinary artist based near Sydney where her practice includes assemblage, installation, video, collage and printmaking. Her work is based on appropriation, re-assemblage and subversion of pre-existent objects, where I continue to explore notions of identity, motifs and my own dissimulation. Freya’s work always resonates with her past and present. The emotional connection to her work has been obvious, connecting directly with her personal issues; from masking mental health, maternal vulnerability, feminism, and loss. Freya’s sustainable practice encompasses the found/discarded object, whether it is plastic, cardboard, paper or used clothing, her primary medium is assemblage, her great love which she can not divorce from. As well as continuing her experimentation in imagery using her assemblage masks in to find her sense of belonging in a country she was not born in. Plus working in new forms of printmaking on different surfaces, favouring mono prints as well as still using lino. [Self directed - supported by The Corridor Project and Orana Arts]
RESIDENCY PLAN
Multidisciplinary artists Shani Nottingham and Freya Jobbins planned an intensive residence supported by Orana Arts to collaborate on an installation now exhibited at M16 Artspace in 2023. Their joint residency was to ideate, develop new work, and co-explore ideas and processes for exhibition. Manipulating primarily found and waste objects they jointly created astonishing new narratives.
TESTIMONIALS
“I am an artist from regional Wollondilly Shire (Dharawal Land) and I recently had a week long AiR at the amazing place The CORRIDOR project just outside of Cowra. I found this AiR invaluable for me personally and my practice, as we do not have many opportunities like this in the Southern Tablelands…. The large space in the shearing shed were perfect to work together on our large installation, the quarters were great and what I liked the best were the communal kitchen and the large dining table which we utilised frequently.Without this opportunity we would not have been able to collaborate as artists from different regions, to create together, to experiment to actually work face to face. A big bonus was seeing the incredible local area, I fell in love with the Wyangala Dam and the incredible Orange Regional Gallery. During this AiR I also had a profound revelation about my own work and my entire practice which I will always be grateful for.”
“Home now after an artist residency at the always inspiring the CORRIDOR project( with thanks to a grant through Orana Arts I was there with fellow regional Australian artist, the highly accomplished @freyajobbins. We were there to work on our collaborative installation which will be at @m16artspace in Canberra later this year, but we also took some time to think and work on our own art practices. Flicking through my images taken during the week I see texture, pattern, light, shadow, working with sustainable materials, responding to the site, tension between doing what is known and stepping into somewhere new. Residencies are so important for this reason. Ihave many new ideas and thoughts about how to develop this breadtag project, this work... my head spins”
Matt O’Brien
residency - April 2023 + December 2023
About matt
Instagram HERE
Matt is a visual artist who maps landscapes using diverse methodologies relevant to the Anthropocene. A selection of Matt's work was selected as part of Orange Regional Gallery - 'Material Measure' exhibition based on work produced at TCP 2021-2022 curated by @_stranger + @thecorridorprojectcowra. The residency was supported through a CORRIDOR AiR [AA- annual artist in residence] [Self directed - supported by The Corridor Project]
RESIDENCY PLAN
Matt used his residency to experiment with onsite soil post flood and found remnant wood. Using OSB board (oriented strand board) as a paint surface he is redefining traditional methodologies with super exciting results. Matt is creating a new body of work title SUSPEND which is a studio keyword for digital and traditional visual art processes/amalgamation. The symbiotic relationship he translates between digital and traditional arts unhinges fixed points and perception to morphed new realities.
TESTIMONIAL
“Upon my return to the CORRIDOR project as a recipient of an AAIR residency for 2023, I have realised the importance of this site and the usage of natural materials to make work with a sense of respect and reverence for country. I am mindful of my participation on country here and it forms a conscience to the making of work here. Whilst there can be many breakthroughs in making work in a place that is not home, not entirely familiar, there is something else that is a contributor here - I am directed by the environs. It is a profound effect is difficult to articulate in words, though the dynamics are felt and appear in the work. Accessing the site usually involves a lot of walking and making, and it is a chance to be open and accessible to dialogs that surround. I find that I am quite prolific here and that I stop making work from sheer exhaustion. This is immensely satisfying. I am thankful for the opportunity to participate in this program and to keep momentum and drive from what I do, something that I am challenged and passionate about.”
Luke Atkinson, Antoinette O’Brien, and Wally McGregor
residency - February 2023
About the partnership
A partnered residency between The CORRIDOR project and Lismore Regional Art Gallery offering a residency to three Northern Rivers Artists impacted by the Lismore Floods in 2022. Participants included Wally McGregor - IG: wally.mcgregor.ceramics, Luke Atkinson - IG: lukeatkinson_ ceramics and Antoinette O’Brien - IG: antoinette.art
This new initiative supported Northern Rivers multi-disciplinary artists with accommodation, studio spaces, equipment, peer-to-peer mentoring and sector support. The 10-day residency gave the artists space to devote time and care to their practices. Participating artists Luke Atkinson, Antoinette O’Brien, and Wally McGregor were all effected with flooding to their homes and studios. The residency was intended to help them to prioritise their practices in what was difficult year and provide a supportive collegiate environment to inspire their work. The artists spent time at Rebecca Dowling’s ceramic studio, located close to Cowra, and visited Internationally acclaimed ceramic Studio of Greg Daly on the adjoining property led by son and ceramicist John Daly. The residency included visits to Public Regional galleries and introductions to Directors at Orange Regional Gallery, Bathurst Regional Gallery and Cowra Regional Gallery.
About luke
Instagram HERE
Luke Atkinson had a long and successful career as Art Director in magazine design, working for esteemed publications. In 2018 Atkinson changed direction to pursue ceramics, studying at The National Art School and Lismore TAFE. He is experimenting with form, mark marking, and developing his own language in the medium of clay. [Self directed - supported by The Corridor Project and Lismore Regional Gallery]
About antoinette
Instagram HERE
A rising talent in Australian contemporary art, Antoinette O’Brien’s work explores the figure within the social and the natural world. Her mixed media ceramics are animated by conflicting emotions and questions of identity. O’Brien studied at Tasmania University and Lismore TAFE. [Self directed - supported by The Corridor Project and Lismore Regional Gallery]
About wally
Instagram HERE
Growing up in the Blue Mountains, Wally McGregor was surrounded by pottery from a very early age. Both his mother and grandfather were potters. Keen to establish his own creative voice and identity, he studied painting and drawing at the National Art School, but at the start of COVID, he was called into the medium of clay, adding it to his practice. [Self directed - supported by The Corridor Project and Lismore Regional Gallery]
supported
This initiative was supported through The Corridor Project in partnership with Lismore Regional Gallery, and the New South Wales Government through Create NSW. Thanks to Rebecca Dowling for participant use of her studio, John Daly + Catherine Bennett Tour of Greg Daly’s studio, Brad Hammond - Director Orange Regional Gallery, Sarah Gurich - Director Bathurst Regional Gallery, Brian Langer - Director Cowra Regional Gallery. Thanks to Lismore Regional Gallery Director - Ashleigh Ralph and Curator -Kezia Geddes.
TESTIMONIALS
“Having access to a dedicated space to nurture creativity is a wonderful thing, and being able to share that with other two other artists from Lismore at the CORRIDOR project has been a gift. These last ten days has filled a creative void; enabling me to move ahead with confidence, and at last, joy, leaving behind some of the traumas from the Lismore floods of February 28, 2022. After experiencing and witnessing so much personal loss and tragedy, making ceramics, studying for my Diploma, and pursuing my personal art practice seemed trivial and unimportant. I now feel I have permission to express myself creatively. I have been reminded how wonderful it is to be able to create with my hands, to spend all day in a studio with no other distractions and to put part of me into something that will bring happiness to myself and hopefully others. ”
“My time at the CORRIDOR artist residency has provided me with the opportunity to reflect on my practice, process my experience during the recent catastrophic Lismore floods and further my bonds to the local and extended creative community. The time and space provided has opened many new avenues both technically and conceptually and allowed me the ability to play, experiment and refine. It has been a wonderful experience, and the generosity of Phoebe Cowdery, Rebecca Dowling, Lismore regional gallery, my fellow artists Luke Atkinson, Antoinette O’Brian, and all the other people who have taken the time to engage and share with us, has been deeply inspiring”
“I’m blown away by the immensely generous experience I had with you and all yours through the CORRIDOR project. I experienced deep joy for hours on end and a real sense of safety I didn’t anticipate. While I didn’t feel broken by the flood -and rather had an overwhelming sense of gratitude through the whole thing- I have felt my nervous system really soften at the corridor project. So needed. It hurts to be running with the whole nervous system wound up like that and the world doesn’t easily offer a lot of opportunities for that softening to happen. Artistically the whole experience was one of deep encouragement and connection. I really look fwd to seeing where this takes me in the studio next. Deep love and appreciation for you kindness and care. It’s gone a long way in my world. .”
Galari Writers
residency February 2023
Galari Writers/Arts program - Curated by Aleshia Lonsdale
Professional development supporting regional Aboriginal writers and artists with writer/actor/teacher Ned Manning - Supported by Arts OutWest and BLACKBOOKS a division of Tranby Aboriginal Co-operative and the CORRIDOR project
TESTIMONIALS
“Great weekend spent at the CORRIDOR project with Ned manning, I’ve learnt so much about how I need to write and tell my story, now I feel the need to put it down on paper and format what I write, thank you so much for the encouragement and the friendship, I am inspired.”
“Wonderful enlightening and inspiring experience to be part of the CORRIDOR project with Author Ned Manning. It has been a excellent learning platform and has encouraged me to move forward with writing and passing on my stories.I also enjoyed the ambiance and peacefulness of the space provided and the networking and yarning with everyone who was part of this workshop. Thank you so much.”
“What a magical time it has been, spending time on this nourishing, inspiring and incredibly spiritual country; sharing, learning, discussing our stories, the process of writing and the life of being an artist. Thank you for the opportunity to be part of this special project. ”
Laurence Edwards - UK ARTIST
February - 2023
ABOUT LAURENCE
Website HERE
Laurence Edwards is a British sculptor, best known for experimenting with a lost wax casting process to create Bronze statues. Laurence Edwards’ practice has long been preoccupied by the entwining of man, nature and time. One of the few sculptors who casts his own work, he is fascinated by human anatomy and the metamorphosis of form and matter that governs the lost-wax process. The driving force behind his work is bronze, an alloy that physically and metaphorically illustrates entropy, the natural tendency of any system in time to tend towards disorder and chaos. His sculptures express the raw liquid power of bronze, its versatility, mass and evolution, and the variety of process marks he retains tell the story of how and why each work came to be. Edwards’ is represented by Messums ORG UK.
exhibiting and visiting
Laurence Edward’s ‘A Gathering of Uncertainties’ exhibition was presented at Orange Regional Gallery NSW in February - April 2024. Director - Brad Hammond suggested Laurence visit the CORRIDOR project for a short stay following the opening night accompanied by his partner Jo. We supplied them with a hamper of local produce, artist books and wine. On farewell Laurence generously gave us a lovely watercolour of the surrounding landscape as shown above that perfectly captured the granite boulders strewn in the landscape. Thanks Lawrence. Images above: Laurence Edwards - Bronze sculptures as part of Orange Regional Gallery - ‘A Gathering of Uncertainties’ Exhibition 2023, and watercolours painted at The Corridor Project. [Self directed - supported by The Corridor Project and Orange Regional Gallery + Friends of the Orange Regional Gallery]
TESTIMONIAL
“What an incredible place!! Thank-you so much for a cherished time…moon rising sun searing and a thousand cockatoo alarm clocks!! Can’t wait to return. We were guests @thecorridorproject and had the whole place to ourselves. Bloody hell! An old wool station re purposed and brilliantly converted into a ‘Creative space’ for loads of artists to use…set in an ancient rock strewn valley with a thousand Cockatoos chiding the sun, which in turn chased wedge tail eagles through the sky and the biggest brightest moon, pouncing every night from behind bushes, surprising the Kangaroos”
