Tuggeranong Arts Centre presents female artists exploring their connection to place

Rechelle Turner, Waybali, Batik 2024. Image courtesy of the artist

Image of an artwork by Jamie-Lea Trindall. She is the Rock, lino cut print, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist

Heidi Smith, She the undertow, black and white study, ink on paper, digital print, dimensions variable Image courtesy of the artist

Tuggeranong Arts Centre’s next suite of exhibitions brings together women artists exploring their connection to place and sets the stage for NAIDOC Week. The exhibition will feature the works of Jamie Lea-Trindall, Rechelle Turner, Megan Dale, Heidi Smith and Michelle England

The Wiradjuri artist, Jamie Lea Trindall, explores the ancient traditions of carving and string making in All Guns Blazing, a show inspired by her upbringing on Waukegan. Using contemporary approaches to fibre, ceramic installation, and printmaking, Trindall’s work embodies the impacts of colonisation in regional NSW and tells brave and authentic stories from fringe dwelling pastoralists, forefathers of the wool trade, tough as nails nurses, to stockman, camp chefs and cowboys, and many others who have gone in ‘all guns blazing.’

Jamie-Lea is joined by Wiradjuri artist Rechelle Turner and Ngunnawal Wiradjuri artist Megan Daley with Sisters Intertwined. Exploring their First Nations heritage in printmaking and textiles, Turner and Daley say their work is a vehicle for self-expression enabling exploration of culture and connection to Country. The work is the result of an artsACT funded residency at Megalo Print Studio.

Breaking Ground: Chaos Theory and the Valley, by Canberra based artists Heidi Smith and Michele England, explore the local environment of Tuggeranong. Considering the impacts of their creative practice, the artists have chosen to create mixed media works using found materials and naturally created pigments. Transforming the mundane and expected; Smith and England present 2 and 3D mixed media works and installations that reflect the beauty they find in discarded, forgotten items intertwined with personal symbolism.

The official opening for the exhibition will be held Friday 14 June, 6pm, Jamie -Lea Trindall will be sharing family stories and talking about how they inform her work just prior to the official exhibition openings at 5pm.

The Details

What: First Nations female art exhibition
When: Friday 14 June to Friday 10 August 2024
Where: Tuggeranong Arts Centre, 137 Reed Street, Greenway
Cost: Free