after/Landscape – The Tree Museum, Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada, 2010, part 3

The Tree Museum was established in 1997 as a site for both National and International artists to create unique outdoor installations/projects exploring the complex relationship between man and nature. The Tree Museum is set on the Pre-Cambrian Sheild and includes both undeveloped waterfront, and forest. For the participating artists, this opportunity represented a rare occasion to realize major outdoor artworks in an uncultivated environment. For a month in August, the Canadian and Australian artists lived on the site either in small cottage style lodging or camp sites. We spent our time exploring on foot and by canoe with the intention to discover not only a spot that resonated with our individual projects but also to be present with this landscape. My walks revealed to me a site where I imagined a gigantic glass bell jar at architectural scale situated in the forest. I set in motion the creation of Cloche in situ, a large photograph on vinyl, which became a trompe L’oeil an architectural folly once installed. My second project was using the orb lens I had created in the hot glass studio at Canberra Glassworks. The beauty of the orb lens was that it inverted the view turning the world upside down. I spent days wandering and exploring the site and taking photographs and discovering the inversions. One of my favorites were the photos taken at the beaver pond.

after/Landscape – Australia and Canada 2009-2011

The multi year project was the curatorial brainchild of Barbara McConchie (Craft ACT Design Museum, Canberra, ACT, Australia) and Anne O’Callaghan (The Tree Museum, Gravenhurst, Ontario Canada).  The project took place between 2009-2011 with artist residency exchanges, workshops, artist talks and exhibitions in Australia and Canada. In Australia each artist was hosted by an art centre, Craft ACT, Canberra Glassworks, Megalo Print Centre and the Print and Sculpture departments at The Australian National University. In Canada, The Tree Museum was the main host for the artists to build in situ works in the forests of Muskoka culminating in the prestigious annual exhibition.

www.craftanddesigncanberra.org

www.thetreemuseum.ca