If you’re looking for something to do with the family this weekend (or any weekend until January 2020) ITC suggests you take a trip to Eden Gardens and view the Eden Unearthed Exhibition.
Eden Unearthed 2019
This exhibition is now in its fourth year. With 42 installations, spread over Eden Gardens two and half acre, you will be impressed. This is a curated exhibition with installations that celebrate nature while at the same time highlights the current environmental crisis. The curator is Meredith Kirton.
Meredith has worked hard on creating an exhibition that is thought provoking and enlightening. Meredith said, “This year’s exhibition will spark conversation, highlight environmental concerns and bring joy to those who take time to explore and unwrap it.”
Kids Will Love…
Installation Art can sometimes be seen as highbrow and not for the masses, however there is something for everyone at the Eden Unearthed. A special Children’s Art Trail and child friendly signage has been incorporated this year, along with a number of fun and fascinating workshops and a family art day.
Your kids will love the following:
Message Tree
Message Tree is an interactive sculpture upon which the audience is invited to hang anonymous, (or not), messages of their own design: thoughts of wisdom, random musings. Messages are written on card in plastic spheres and jars hanging from the tree, allowing viewers to become part of the installation.
Message Tree is created by Matt McLarty. Matt is a Lane Cove based artist and photographer. His painted works feature bold colours and abstract styles. Matt McLarty has been commissioned by various councils (including Lane Cove Council) across Sydney to paint signal boxes and has had various private commissions. You will see Matt’s signal box as you drive from Lane Cove to Eden Gardens.
Matt McLarty’s signal box artwork is entitled Risen from the Flames. It located at the intersection of Epping Road and Sam Johnson Way, Lane Cove West. The artwork celebrates over 120 years of continuous industry and employment in the Lane Cove area. His work depicts the Chicago Starch Mills on the Lane Cove River in 1894, the great fire of 1897 and the industrial area as it stands today. Matt also created a Guiding Star for last year’s guiding star installation in Lane Cove Plaza. Read more here.
Flotilla
Flotilla is a collection of small boats, scaled down to change how we see what we know. The twenty-five boats ‘float’ on air, rather than touching the water itself. The central sculpture is a representation of how memories change and shift with time – such as a boat once shipwrecked will change as the ocean washes over it. Our perceptions and memories shift, as do the oceans, and we have cause to ask ourselves: what do we really know?
Floatilla was created by Danielle Minett. Danielle is a Central Coast multidisciplinary artist whose works explore ideas of memory, absence and shifting perspectives. Minett looks at creating works which almost fit naturally into the space … but not quite. Danielle is running an art workshop for children, “Boat Building”, on October 8. Further details here.
The Magic of Garden
The Magic of the Garden celebrates children and their love of nature. Using texture and colours, yarn insects and flowers, this piece will encourage exploration and imagination, creating another world and embracing nature. The Magic of Garden was created by Alison Thompson.
Alison is a Sydney based yarn artist with her own craft business, Billy, Peg & Tom. Inspired by nature and colour, Alison has used her love of yarn to create various installations with a community involvement. Her love of crochet was formed through the need to ‘feel better’ and has grown into a passion that is shared with communities, both corporate and education. Alison will be running two art workshops, “Garden Magic Crochet,” on October 11 (for kids – book here) and October 13 (for adults – book here).
Capitalist Bloom
Capitalist Bloom shows how single use plastic and people’s lack of responsibility for waste recycling and compost is damaging our environment. By creating Australian native flowers out of waste and placing them outside in a vast juxtaposition The creator, Chloe Alice hopes to grab the eye of people passing and entice them into Eden Unearthed. Chloe Alice (In Colour Creative) is an Australian lighting designer.
After almost a decade of lighting concerts internationally, sewing, building sets, doing art and decorating Chloe decided to pull all skills in one and start making light installations. Chloe will be running an art workshop “Recycled Flowers” on October 10. Further details here.
Prize Winning Installations
You will also want to visit the prize winning installations.
Eden Gardens Prize
This prize went to Jan Cleveringa for ‘The Corporate Snake’
‘The Corporate Snake’ is an installation about waste that also offers a long term, big picture idea and solution in its extended art statement, both symbolised in aesthetics and demonstrative in its execution, as a way to make our communities sustainable long term.
The artist suggests we start at looking at our corporations’ law in the context of community sustainability; these discarded but working 5,000 light globes, worth about $37,500, were simply found as discarded waste when they can still be used and redistributed.
Jan Cleveringa is a contemporary, multidisciplinary artist exploring the acts of global cultural change. Part of his practise centre around discarded and recycled materials by business and various issues around sustainability.
Highly commended was Marta Ferracin for ‘Forget me not’. ‘Forget me not’ highlights Eden Garden’s water reservoir to indicate its valuable contribution to the sustainability of Eden’s environment and to reflect on the precious natural resource of water.
In Forget me not, each drop of water that falls into the reservoir from aerial drip lines creates wondrous water ripples. These are invisible messengers spreading the word all around the surroundings. They reveal the importance that water possesses and iterate that humans must manage and protect their environment and existence.
Marta Ferracin born in Italy, Ferracin lives and works in Sydney. She graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from Sydney College of the Arts in 2018.
The Student Award
The winner was Jack Poppert for ‘Eden: slipped, tripped, stumbled’
This installation consists of two contrasting pillars. Forming support for an existing structure within the gardens, this ‘prosthetic’ attempts collective repair of a de-stabilised natural world initiated by post-modernist tendencies.
Jack Poppert is an emerging artist and writer. Poppert’s practice explores notions of, and reactions to, the modern period; with writing often a key component. Written work has been published in UNSWeetened Literary Journal, Kindling III, Arcadia/Blitz and Framework. Poppert, founder and editor of the Lyre Literary Journal, is also the current coordinator of UNSWeetened Literary Journal. Poppert’s work has been exhibited in various galleries and venues within Sydney such as: Gaffa Gallery, ADspace, and Randwick Eco Park.
Highly Commended was Natasha Abram for ‘CAUTION: Subject to Drought’
‘CAUTION: Subject to Drought’ consists of five ‘drought’ metres – the invert of flood meters -and measure the danger of water level being too low. This includes the repercussions this could have on a number of natural life species due to irrigation reuse of water. Positioned at various points through the garden, they reference the water recycling initiatives throughout Eden.
Natasha Abram is a Sydney based artist working foremost in sculpture, installation and jewellery-making. She is currently in her third year of her fine arts degree at UNSW and has been displayed at NOX night sculpture walk. She received a $500 grant towards this work from Randwick Council.
The Accessibility Award
This award went to Alison Thompson for her work ‘The Magic of the Garden’. Eden Gardens has an assessable pathway into the gardens. This prize is awarded to an artwork the experience of which increases enjoyment for people of all abilities.
Family Art Day – 13 October 2019
Art is a fantastic way for family members to connect with each other and create wonderful memories together. Eden Gardens will be running family art classes, making art from recycled products and running various drop-in art activities throughout the day. Plus, a curator’s tour of Eden Unearthed especially for kids. Details and bookings www.edengardens.com.au/events
The People’s Choice
After exploring Eden Unearthed, grab a voting form or head online to vote for your favourite. You’ll be in the monthly draw to win lunch for two at the Dragonfly Cafe. All entries will then go into a final draw for two tickets to the VIP launch of next year’s exhibition.
Social Media Comp
Tag your social media photo of the art #edenunearthed, and you could be one of the monthly winners of a $50 gift voucher.
Eden Unearthed runs from now until the end of January 2020. Admission is free.
Contact Details
Address: 307 Lane Cove Road (cnr Fontenoy Road), Macquarie Park
Website: www.edengardens.com.au
Facebook: @edengardensclub
Instagram: @eden_macquariepark
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