[Release by Big hArt Gold]
A new exhibition by the Big hART GOLD Team goes on show at the Griffith Regional Art Gallery next Thursday. GOLD – CROP incorporates over 1200 photo images, 1 tonne of soil and 50 metres of fencing wire. Postcard prints mounted on lengths of wire stand in furrows of dirt spread out across the gallery floor, creating a lush field of images.
At a time when crops are failing and harvest yields are low, the Big hART GOLD team celebrates its relationships with and the generosity of farming families and rural communities across the Murray-Darling Basin.
Big hART has been working since early 2006 with young people in Griffith and farming families in three states, exploring the social impact of climate change and drought. Over this time some unique relationships have developed with families in Talgarno, Rand, Boree Creek, Griffith, Trundle, Stanthorpe and Goondiwindi. It’s these relationships that allow GOLD-CROP to capture and reveal both the hardship and happiness of those Australians directly facing the consequences of climate change.
At the invitation of farmers, young people from Griffith and Big hART’s team of photographers, filmmakers, designers and producers have been spending time on rural properties. Here they have been recording the stories and histories of individuals and families, creating an extensive collection of personal portraits. This collection is a remarkable record of life in the midst of a changing Australian landscape.
GOLD – CROP also includes an exquisite series of short films made with farmers and 20 large photographic prints that celebrate people and place.
GOLD – CROP opens on November 13 at the Griffith Regional Art Gallery.
The opening will accompany the launch of an interactive website based on stories and experiences directly related to climate change and “dryness”. www.au.org.au will benefit farming families and rural communities by providing a social networking space where people have the opportunity to interact and respond to the stories being presented.
About Big hART
Big hART is a group of professional artists, arts workers and producers who have been making work together since 1992 – creating theatre, film, television, painting, photography, dance, new media and radio.
Big hART works around the country, with people experiencing the effects of marginalisation in regional, rural, and geographically or socially isolated communities. Big hART experiments with the process of making art with such groups
over three-year periods and in doing so, provides opportunities that are inclusive and responsive to the community. This often creates new opportunities for participants, builds skills, assists regional development and helps foster a more inclusive
Australian culture.
The finished work, the personal and social narratives it highlights, and the processes involved in its making, are then presented both locally and in national and international arts festivals, forums and the media. In this way Big hART projects aim to challenge and inform the narration of our nation.
The company has won many awards including 7 Council of Australian Government (COAG) Awards – for crime and violence prevention and a World Health Organization Safe Community Award. Big hART’s work has received strong praise from diverse sources such as the United Nations, Ministers in the Australian Parliament, people at the grass roots of communities and the Chair of the Australia Council – Mr James Strong. These accolades recognise Big hART’s exemplary work in communities, and the quality of the Art it leads to, reinforcing the company’s standing as a leader in both the Arts and Social Change.
Big hART’s most well known works include:
Ngapartji Ngapartji, about the Cold War nuclear testing impact on indigenous families in central Australia, that recently had sell out seasons in four major festivals;
The Northcott Narratives Public Housing work that produced the ABC documentary 900 Neighbours and the 2006 Sydney Festival hit StickybrickS and;
Junk Theory, the Chinese Junk that has sailed around the waterways of Sydney and Adelaide with images from the iconic beachside suburb of Cronulla projected on its sails.
In addition to Gold, Big hART is currently running five other projects around Australia.