A Landscape of Resilience
Adderton: House & Heart of Mercy, All Hallows’ Convent, Brisbane, 1 May - 7th November
Landscape of Resilience is an interactive exhibition and community studio hosted by Adderton: House & Heart of Mercy in Brisbane, Queensland. Contemporary visual artist Chrys Zantis facilitates site activation, individual learning and community engagement through the studio space and her unique, time-honoured creative practice. The central installation, A Landscape of Resilience Project (2009 – Present), is a participatory art project situating artist as mentor, community members as artists, and the works produced and displayed collectively in the shared space as installation, work station and sanctuary. Inviting members of the public to claim collective ownership of Landscape of Resilience as it unfolds forms part of the tactile tapestry of Adderton’s RE-COLLECTIONS programme.
Zantis sensitively engages with individuals and communities affected by marginalisation, particularly based on migrant status, cultural and linguistic diversity, mental ill-health and gender. Zantis’ facilitation style and choice of media enables ‘talking around the table,’ where traditional crafts and cultural hospitality open up meaningful, long overdue conversations to stimulate personal growth and communal empowerment. Landscape of Resilience unites Adderton’s mission to respond to and redress systemic oppression with Zantis’ pioneering altruism, advocacy and activism in a supported, safe and sacred place. This collaboration provides members of the community who may not otherwise be linked with fine art to discover first-hand the unique part they play in benefiting and advancing society by authentically expressing themselves.
RE-COLLECTIONS calls upon members of resilient communities to reflect upon and celebrate their strengths. Landscape of Resilience demonstrates, in real time, how these strengths can be actualised towards lasting, positive impacts on groups of people and the world at large.
*Photos are all work in progress. This is a participatory performance installation.
A Landscape of Resilience Project
Installation Performance Participatory Project, Evolution Studio Brisbane, King George Square Brisbane, Lifestyle Markets Brisbane, Salvation Army Hostel Brisbane and Beenleigh Neighbourhood Centre, 2009 – present
Fabrics, yarns, threads, and beads (10m x 2m)
A Landscape of Resilience Project is an installation/ performance art work that is primarily a knitted and textile landscape. Activities such as knitting sewing and quilting have long been, and still are a means of exchanging skill, experiences and stories. It is with this in mind that Zantis takes these bolts of textile landscape into communities to open the discussion about resilience, community resilience personal, ecological and more. Those communities add to the work through workshops and other events. It is with sensitivity, awareness of group process and care that Zantis facilitates the workshops in communities for this project. Creating awareness of the resilience already within oneself and participating communities is one of the key objectives of this project. The installation grows with individual expression but becomes a testament to community resilience.
Fibre art making is naturally interdependent, intergenerational and affiliative. Most textile handcrafters do not use textiles to create specific metaphors. Of course their work may unconsciously represent inner feelings and thoughts, but the product is not created with a conscious metaphoric intent. Through her workshops Zantis assist the participants to creatively express through the use of various textile mediums and techniques the resilience within themselves and their community. She like other textile artists uses textile art for expressing societal issues as well as for mood change and self-expression.
The action of knitting one row or hundreds, sewing on it, printing on it, writing into it, is all an act of support and acknowledgement of resilience in themselves and others. It drapes park benches, schoolyards, verandas, drought affected paddocks, halls and crafter markets. It’s a continual performance piece that adjusts and moves with any circumstance, as do resilient people.
This participatory art project gives people who might otherwise not be linked to the art world an opportunity to come to a closer understanding the importance of art in creating enriching cultural experiences that benefit all of society.
If your community wishes to be part of The Landscape of Resilience please email chryszantis@gmail.com