POSTCARDS FROM THE SKY TALKS & POETRY

Postcards from the Sky has been running at the Belconnen Arts Centre since early February. Your last chance to see this art & text exhibition is this weekend but the good news is you could also catch the last talks and poetry readings. Be there Sunday at 2 pm for PS Cottier, Hazel Hall, Kathy Kituai, Chris Mansell (tbc), Melinda Smith. The topic is Living the Studio. They'll also share poetry related to the exhibition theme. 

The exhibition has been a fabulous success with visitors fully engaging with the poetry as well as the visual aspect of the diverse works. Above is Melinda Smith's Orion as a woman unhelped by White Ribbon (foreground). It was terrific to have Wollongong artist Michele Elliot (below) here for the opening — in the flesh after many weeks of online collaboration. Postcards from the Sky (main foyer) opened together with Gaia Hypothesis (main gallery) on February 8. Over 200 people attended including Canberra installation artist Cheryl Jobsz (seated left). Just behind her you can see someone using speech time to read Chris Mansell's suspended postcards where Sky has sent handwritten messages to humanity. The Living Studio continued throughout the exhibition with extra artists and writers joining in. More on that later.

Here I am with Michele Elliot and our Skylines collaboration

Over 200 people at the dual openings.

SKYLINES 8

In the day blackjay

just ahead In the night

Corvus somewhere

above So many stories

Perched on a shoulder

whispering in an ear

Fallen bird Soul from

the sky Who was your 

message for Will they 

see it in the stars

Lizz Murphy

skylines treetops

blue day heat

wing flutter

I’m flagging

Michele Elliot

SKYLINES 7

and a misshapen platform to land on

the lightest touch

  heart tremble


  Michele Elliot 

The moon wanes stars fade

I’m convinced I am on track

find my ankles swathed in stripped bark

resort to torchlight find my bearings

I have roamed westward pulled up before

ploughing into a broadening eucalypt

I right wheel and a Froglet

risks a leap across my path

and even tonight with

the new moon surprisingly golden

stars rampant in all directions

singing me from dark to dark

still I cannot read the sky


Lizz Murphy

 

SKYLINES 6

 

I ask the stars is there ever a right moment no good

asking the moon it just questions the tides The moths

are waking They leave the cool of cave take to the 

night skies travel the migratory route Lay their eggs

Die The pupae hatch navigate the same path gather 

in the billions cavern cavity crevice On the way they 

may divert block the light 

Lizz Murphy

I tell the moon the time is now

she rises in magnificent silence



I ask the tree for shelter

in her green shawl



Michele Elliot

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy new year cheers to you all. 

Here's the drum: Postcards from the Sky at Belconnen Arts Centre (BAC) was an inspiring five mornings of artists and writers coming together November-December; BAC surprised us by offering a small exhibition opening early February — 10 artists and writers working frantically over Christmas and New Year and still at it!; Skylines with Michele Elliot continues and will be part of the exhibition; more info to come.

Best news is an artsACT grant to complete a full length final draft manuscript. I'll be using visual arts a great deal to find my way into new poems.

SKYLINES 5

 

   sky sea soft steel
   stillness broken
   by whale breath

    Michele Elliot 

under the stars
a right whale breaches

in the moonlight
blossom clusters
the sky is whale skin

Lizz Murphy

 

SKYLINES 4

Handkerchiefs 
over noses mouths

above is umber
the sun a burn hole
moon a light stain
one breakthrough star

black-faced brown crows
line the bridge  men below
deal their hands

Lizz Murphy

 

who left this

leaf trick

disguise over eight

letters wait

a hand held still

inside a full house

Michele Elliot

Skylines is a collaboration between Michele Elliot and
Lizz Murphy which has grown out of the One Sky Many Stories exhibition 

at Belconnen Arts Centre ACT 2018.


 

POSTCARDS FROM THE SKY INVITATION

Writers and artists are invited to participate in Postcards from the Sky a 5-week living studio in the Belconnen Arts Centre (BAC) which has grown out of the recent One Sky Many Stories: What the Stars Mean to You exhibition.

Dates:     Thursdays Nov 15-Dec 13

Time:     10.30 am-12.30 pm

Address: 118 Emu Bank, Belconnen, ACT

The emphasis is on art & text including cross-art, ekphrastic works, artists books etc — whatever you are inspired to do — the sky’s the limit. Work in situ independently or potentially in collaboration with other practitioners, generate new ideas, display work/in progress created during the living studio. Enjoy the space offered in the BAC foyer and meeting others interested in investigating the theme.

The first week will include a meet & greet, guidelines for working together and some discussion on what the stars mean to you. Bring your own research materials (maybe some to share) or prompts; bring your own writing or/and art tools and materials.

One Sky, Many Stories explores western and Indigenous conceptions of the night sky. The Griffyn Ensemble, directed by Michael Sollis, has been asking ‘what the stars mean to you’ since they first performed Southern Sky in 2012, and recently travelled to Tennant Creek to discover and create some more stories and songs about the stars.

In recent months BAC has hosted a One Sky Many Stories live concert by the Griffyn Ensemble and Living Studio in the main gallery with several artists developing new work. Postcards from the Sky is the latest activity at BAC exploring One Sky Many Stories: What the Stars Mean to You.

See the BAC website for more information on One Sky Many Stories:

https://www.belconnenartscentre.com.au/exhibitions/one-sky-many-stories/

View Southern Sky at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdcLh_lbil0Enquiries

RSVP would be helpful — cheers.

lizzmurphy7[at]gmail[dot]com 

Image: Postcard #1 by Chris Mansell who visited during the living studio in the main gallery. She responded with a series of postcards which were displayed until November 1 when we all bumped out to make way for Lucy Irvine's large-scale woven sculpture Made of Holes — part of the Design Canberra Festival.

ONE SKY — SKYLINES 1

Wollongong-based artist Michele Elliot said recently let's indulge in an online collaboration of words and images. Oh joy said I!

So why not on the theme of One Sky Many Stories for the Belconnen Arts Centre (BAC) — many thanks to Moni McInerny for inviting us to join in. Over the next few weeks we'll periodically post Skylines here, at Project 366 and on Instagram @michele_elliot_artist. It's a bit random — we're doing what we can when we  can and it's up for grabs who provides images or/and words at any time but there is a commitment to responding to one another's work somehow. Michele kicks it off beautifully:


 SKYLINES 

1.

 

Photo by Michele Elliot

 
 
skylines treetops
clouds scratch flag

Michele Elliot




 
scratch


a stellar creature
rubs its back
against the sky


Lizz Murphy

ONE SKY — ADD A POSTCARD

This is where my One Sky Many Stories is up to (at October 12). Some of the early puddles have come down, and the micro poems and found text now make up a second arc (reminiscent of The Milky Way from above). There is quite a bit of reading (about 15 poems of one kind or another). I think I might aim longer term for one strong poem arranged in a similar way but line by line in large text. 

Meanwhile a trickling in of delicious 'Postcards from the Sky' to add to the wall (far left): poems by Kathy Kituai and Sarah St Vincent Welch. More to come in including images by Deborah Faeyrglenn. See also a close-up of another art & text piece below.

POETS & ARTISTS DROP OUT OF THE SKY

A spirited morning of discussion on the skies, poetry and visual art in the One Sky Many Stories Living Studio at Belconnen Arts Centre, with good friends and colleagues Sarah St Vincent Welch (writer and photographer) on the left, Deborah Faeyrglenn (installation artist and writer) and Chris Mansell (poet and publisher). Sarah and Deborah have been hoping to drop in for a while and Chris who lives in Berry NSW happened to be in Canberra — serendipity — they all dropped in as if from the sky. (Not quite.) Add to that the Highly Creative Moni McInerney, Creative Director, who of course is never far away.

It was a quietish day until they got there. So many personal stories about constellations, mythologies, other works on the theme. Inspiring. Passionate. Much laughter.

And below is another found poem/micro poem from my growing installation (as it's shaping at the moment). 

One Sky Many Stories has been extended until late November. Thursday morning is my most regular time if you want to say hallo or to add something to the project.

 

ONE SKY: FOUND POEM

Learning the night sky ... is one of a few found poems I've created as part of One Sky Many Stories. The main gallery in Belconnen Arts Centre has become a poetry refuge when I can steal a couple of hours from a busy schedule. Always hankering after something more in-depth I continue to scud through the topic and to write or make micro poems. So much fun though.

ONE SKY — DOES THE SKY BLEED

Do stars tremble in the face of the wind

does the wind roar in the face of the star

if you fall upon a star

what if you land on a point

who decided a star had five points

who first drew a five-pointed star in one continuous line

do you remember how hard that was

what if the sky was granite

what if it was galvanized leaky tin

what if all the birds took to the sky at one time

would it just be a traffic jam or would they eclipse the sun

what if the sky was a crow’s wing

‘raven’ (it’s not the same bird) always sounds so much nicer

the sky would be a satin shelter

what if you dream your room has separated from your house and is spiralling  up into the black sky and now the walls are disappearing and your bed is going to slide  out into the night into space would you be singing twinkle twinkle little star

what if you are in your pyjamas on the stairs and they separate from everything

and fly up into the sky and you are sitting on the edge of the first step

and the bannister has gone

is reaching for the sky an unachievable unrealistic goal

why do they say reach for the stars

that’s a big reach

it’s not like getting a dish off a high shelf

who washes God’s socks

is that when it rains

is falling through space like almost drowning

is falling through space like drowning only faster

if the sky fit

would you wear it

midnight blue

a wattle bird nests in a drought-thwarted tea tree

when I walk past it flaps its way out

cuts a line through space to a higher point in a nearby gum tree

does the sky bleed when a eucalypt pierces it

is that why the sky turns red as the sun goes down

does the sun get a sinking feeling

A draft poem for the One Sky Many Stories project at Belconnen Arts Centre

ONE SKY POETRY WALL

Taking shape

ONE SKY — WOMEN STITCHED ...

women stitched into

forest like stars into night

she makes pinholes in cloth

they follow light

sewn sturdy

for Michele Elliot

after photo by Kelly Ryan Photography

workshop at Wild Rumpus Jamboree (2017)

Written for One Sky Many Stories 

at Belconnen Arts Centre