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Publication Details

CATALOGUE
Nalda Searles - Drifting In My Own Land catalogue
A 75 page, full colour 23.5cm w x 27cm h catalogue containing images of all works from the exhibition including details of a number of pieces, additional works, text written by the artist and curatorial essays by Ted Snell, Andrew Nicholls, Kevin Murray and Bronwyn Goss.
$25 plus $5 p & h

DVD
Nalda Searles - Drifting In My Own Land - DVD
This 30 minute DVD shows the artist at work and includes footage of her speaking about her artwork, ideas, inspiration and techniques. A moving tribute to one of WA's most respected practitioners, and a brilliant teaching resource.
$35 plus $2 p & h

EDUCATION KIT
Nalda Searles - Drifting in My Own Land (catalogue, DVD included)
$75 plus $10 p & h
Special Education Members' price:
$68 plus $10 p & h
Drifting in My Own Land is an exhibition of recent artwork made from recycled and natural materials, by prominent WA fibre-textiles artist Nalda Searles. The exhibition is an expression of identity in relation to physical and social landscape.
Outcomes covered: The Arts
Age: Primary and secondary Yr 3-12
Education Notes: 14 pages, A4, full colour, spiral bound.
Room sheet: Full colour
Poster: Full colour
Catalogue: 76 pages, full colour
Gallery Education Sheets: 4 A4 pages: 1 primary, 1 middle school, 1 secondary and 1 post-exhibition visit worksheet for primary.
DVD: 30 minute DVD about the artist and her practice.
Themes: skills, ideas/stories, personal identity, the landscape, textile techniques.
Project Coordinator: Christina McGuinness
Artist: Nalda Searles.

Exhibition Details

CURATOR
Nalda Searles, Curatorial Advisory Panel

COORDINATOR
Christina McGuinness

ARTIST
Nalda Searles

WRITERS
Nalda Searles, Andrew Nicholls, Dr Kevin Murray, Bronwyn Goss, Professor Ted Snell

MEDIUM
recycled clothing and textiles, animal fodder, hair, wax, native plant materials, found objects

INSTALLATION
21 works, including 6 major works
150 - 200 square metres
Display equipment included

DOCUMENTATION
Catalogue (76 pages, full colour)
Exhibition brochure, Room Sheet/List of Works, Posters, Invitations for overprinting
and electronic version,
Media kit with press release and digital images

EDUCATION
Education Packages (includes teachers notes, activity sheets, exhibition brochure, dvd)
Didactic panels
Lectures and floor talks upon request (subject to
availability and funding)

CRATES
Up to 9 crates, approximately 7 cubic metres

TOUR DURATION
WA June 2009 - December 2010
Interstate February 2011 - January 2013

ARTIST TALKS
Available subject to availability and funding

COST SHARE
WA $2,750.00 (inc gst)
Interstate tba

ARTIST ON THE MOVE & ARTBUS
Sponsored by Healthway to promote the Heart Foundation's Smarter than Smoking message

Nalda Searles is a living icon of Western Australian art. For nearly thirty years she has been an innovator in the use of native fibres and found objects from the environment for the production of fibre-textiles, sculpture and installation artworks.

Her practice draws from the unique landscape of the West of Australia to express the contradictions of post-colonial identity and the complexities of her relationship with the land and its inhabitants, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

Nalda Searles - Drifting in My Own Land showcases new works created by Searles in an intensive period of creativity undertaken since making the decision to return full-time to her solo art practice in 2006. Drawing on her own life, memories of her parents and the experience of a number of regionally-based women she has known and researched, the exhibition is a powerful expression of identity in relation to landscape.

STATEMENT FROM THE ARTIST
I have been making work combining ideas and the materials to hand that represent the life I am to be found in for many years now. A curiosity of what has given us certain idiosyncrasies as a society that has struggled to make sense of where and who we are and how those questions have formed us. Developing skills in the handling of plant materials meant I could use the very stuff which has shaped our answers.

The tour comprises a comprehensive collection of artworks, each piece standing independent of others but the whole reading cohesively. Materials that have been used include recycled clothing and textiles, animal fodder, hair, wax, native plant materials and other found and salvaged items along with photography, text and drawing. Animal fodder, a neutral pasture fibre which Searles has been using for several years now, has colonial connotations which she sees as a metaphor for the fragility of the 'woman's condition' and the very material which is the stuff of this particular life. The artists intention has been to deconstruct, reconstruct and re-invigorate materials using well-developed skills.

The exhibition is complemented by a comprehensive catalogue, installation manual, and an education package which includes a dvd and a program of activities to facilitate an active involvement of the audience in the show.