Image:
Marion GAEMERS
Ray brooches 2023
Beach rope and ghost net
7 x 12 x 0.5 cm
Wednesday 28 June, 2PM–4PM
Leading up to the launch of Interwoven: Stories of Country from North and South, join Benalla Art Gallery for a social, drop-in session where you will meet visiting artist Marion Gaemers of Ghost Net Collective. Enjoy a conversation with Marion about her collaborative practice, touch and feel Ghost Net artworks, or get more hands-on by creating your own Ghost Net ray brooch to wear along to the exhibition launch.
Ghost Net Art is made from abandoned industrial fishing nets and associated marine debris. The Australian movement began in 2009 and had its origins and practice in collaborations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, working together to achieve common goals that recognise and celebrate cultural diversity.
Erub Arts artists, Jimmy John Thaiday, Lavinia Ketchell, Florence Gutchen, Ellarose Savage, Racy Oui-Pitt and Nancy Naawi, continued the ethos of collaboration and have continued to work with Ghost Net Collective’s installation artist and sculptor Lynnette Griffiths and weaver Marion Gaemers to produce large-scale immersive installations such as the work included in Interwoven: Stories of Country from North and South. Ghost Net Collective and Erub artists are at the forefront of the global ghost net artistic movement, exhibiting in more than five major European and Asian centres.
Biodiversity, environmental preservation and proximity to life on the ocean brought these artists together in the mid 1990s and they have continued to develop work that has grown out of their deep respect for cultural practices, stories and the need to care for their environment. Through their artworks, their shared vision of the world connected by oceans, and their belief in the opportunities for regeneration that repurposing presents, their large-scale, immersive, woven and stitched installations now raise awareness of the dangers of pollution affecting the marine environment, both in their own home waters and throughout the world’s oceans.
Ghost Net Collective view rays as a symbol of connection: rays are found all around our coastline and connect Indigenous and non-indigenous people who live near the ocean. As a cross cultural group with their cultural roots in Far North Queensland, the group believes that it is important to use a sea symbol that is connected to Indigenous and non-indigenous people from around the whole of the Australian coastline.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Marion Gaemers holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Graduate Diploma Material Anthropology, James Cook University. She has been active within the art world since 1988, exhibiting my work in local and national exhibitions as well as conducting workshops for various organisations. The exploration of basketry traditions is central to her practice, and she helps to preserve and advance these methods by teaching others and working collaboratively.
As part of Flying Arts (1995/6 and 2003) Gaemers travelled to regional Queensland conducting workshops at Thursday Island, Darnley Island and Papua New Guinea. As part of Ghostnets Australia (2010-14) she facilitated further workshops on Moa Island, Mornington Island, Darnley Island, Bamaga and in Cairns. Gaemers founded Ghost Net Collective with Lynnette Griffiths in 2020.
Gaemers’ work has featured (individually and as part of Ghost Net Collective) in major exhibitions including Taba Naba, Oceanographic Museum, Monaco (2016); Ghost Nets of the Ocean, Tarnanthi, Art Gallery of South Australia (2017); Au Karem Ira Lamar Lu, Ghost Nets of the Ocean, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore (2017); Legacy – Reflections on Mabo, Umbrella Studio, Townsville (2019, touring nationally until 2023); Below the Tide Line, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (2019); Incoming tide, JGM Gallery, London @022); and recently installed 11 large eagle rays for Barangaroo in Sydney.
Where: Benalla Art Gallery – Patricia [Pat] Gardner Studio
Cost: FREE
Ages: 15+
Please note: Completing a ray broach will take approximately two hours. Participants are welcome to drop-in at any time during the session, and can make a start of a brooch to take home and complete