Ruminations - rumsey art walk outdoor exhibition

Kath Fries, Aboreal, 2012,
fabric, gold leaf and charcoal in the rose garden bolted pear treesLink to more information about this work
Kath Fries, Aboreal, 2012, 
fabric, gold leaf, charcoal and bambooLink to more information about this work
Chrissie Ianssen and Majid Rabet, Hello, 2012,
welded steel, fibre glass, fabric, threads and megaphone
 Link to more information about this work
Chrissie Ianssen and Majid Rabet, Hello, 2012, (photographed during installing)
welded steel, fibre glass, fabric, threads and megaphone
 Link to more information about this work
Vanessa White with Karl Krebs, Charca Rosa, 2012
performance, (photograph by Kath Fries)
Link to more information about this work
Vanessa White with Karl Krebs, Charca Rosa, 2012
performance, (photograph by Pamela Lee Brenner)
Link to more information about this work
Simon Alexander Cook, Xpandourossa systemica #2, 2012
plastic pipework, (photographed during artists' talks 14 Oct)
Link to more information about this work
Simon Alexander Cook, Rosette Lawn, 2012
plastic pipework, (photographed during installing)
Link to more information about this work
WeAve Parramatta, Gods' eyes, 2012
wool, raffia, twine, ribbon, bamboo, twigs, flax stalk and dowel 
Link to more information about this work
WeAve Parramatta, Gods' eyes, 2012
wool, raffia, twine, ribbon, bamboo, twigs, flax stalk and dowel
Link to more information about this work

 Ruminations Art Walk, Rumsey Rose Garden, Parramatta Park
13 October - 11 Novemver 2012

Thank you to all the artists for your enthusiasm and participation; and to our wonderful audience at the artists' talks and performance last Sunday. This outdoor exhibition would not have been possible without the support and interest of Sue Clunie and Verena Mauldon at Parramatta Park Trust www.ppt.nsw.gov.au; and Antony Lewis at ParraCan www.parracan.org.

Site Map - Ruminations Art Walk

Ruminations brings temporary site-responsive art installations and performances into the Rumsey Rose Garden in Parramatta Park. With historical and contemporary multicultural references to people, place and horticulture the works include: golden bandaged trees; a giant pipe rosette; series of woven gods’ eyes peering out from the climbing roses; a huge suspended fabric gramophone horn with soundscape in the rotunda trellis; and a Flamenco/Japanese fusion of live music and contemporary dance performed on the overgrown duck pond. Ruminations invites you to pause, reflect and ‘stop to smell the roses’ as you stroll through Parramatta Park’s Rumsey Rose Garden this spring. Curated by Kath Fries.

Participating artists ~ Kath Fries, Simon Alexander Cook, Vanessa White with Karl Krebs, New Neighbours Project: Chrissie Ianssen and Majid Rabet, and WeAve Parramatta.


Ruminations - Rumsey Art Walk: opening & events invitation


Ruminations: Rumsey Art Walk
13 October to 11 November 2012

Rumsey Rose Garden, Parramatta Park, Parramatta NSW
Opening + Performance: Friday 12 Oct 5-7pm
Artist Talks + Performance: Sunday 14 Oct 2pm

Artists: Kath Fries, Simon Alexander Cook, Vanessa White with Karl Krebs, New Neighbours Project: Chrissie Ianssen & Majid Rabet, WeAve Parramatta

Part of Parramatta Park's Spring Festival Program:
ParraCan EcoFest Sustainable Urban Living, Saturday 13 October
Heritage Garden and Rose Open Day, Sunday 14 October
www.rumseyartwalk.blogspot.com.au

Kath Fries

Kath Fries, Arboreal concept, digital sketch, 2012


Arboreal is an intervention installation wrapping the rose garden’s central pear trees in strips of fabric, like injured human limbs. Earlier this year, one of these trees was naturally splitting in half, but now the tree has been bolted together - a process similar to inserting surgical pins in a human broken bone. Arboreal extends this anthropomorphic narrative to playfully suggest alchemic healing with glimpses of gold leaf and charcoal residue in the bandages, and an oversized bamboo crutch supporting a lower bound branch. This work has been inspired by the traditional horticultural practices that Kath observed in Japan on a research trip in 2011, thanks to The Japan Foundation’s New Artist Award. 
(*Anthropomorphic means the attribution of human characteristics to nonhumans.) 
Kath Fries, Bandaged tree in Kyoto, Japan 2011, image link

Kath Fries has been based at Parramatta Artists Studios over the past two years. Her work explores materiality, spatiality and archetypical narratives relating to transience of existence and fragility of life. Her site-sensitive process and use of found materials infers a poetic commentary about human struggles with nature and that which is naturally uncontrollable in our lives. Fries has been awarded a Masters of Visual Art from the University of Sydney, the 2010 Japan Foundation New Artist Award and a 2011 ArtStart Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts. www.kathfries.com

Kath Fries, Kyoto tree crutch, Japan 2011, image link

Heritage Garden and Rose Open Day: Sunday 14th October

A day of roses, food and music together with the opportunity to purchase rare heritage plants. Situated on the site of Parramatta's convict powered lumber yard, roses now bloom where convicts once sweated.

Rumsey Rose Garden, photo by Kath Fries
Sunday 14 October is Parramatta Park's annual Heritage Garden and Rose Open Day to celebrate the peak flowering of the Rumsey heritage rose collection. The Heritage Rose Society will be on hand to identify mystery roses and solve your rose and other gardening problems. The Garden History Society and the National Trust will have stalls with interesting old fashioned garden plants and second hand books for sale. Camden Park Nursery who specialise in plants grown and distributed by the Macarthurs of Camden Park in the 1850s and 60s will have rare stock for sale as will GreeneNursey who specialise in heritage roses. You can also quiz the Parramatta Amateur Bee Keepers Association about back yard bee keeping.

Sheet music folded rose, etsy image

Chill to the smooth sound of the Trevor Brown Jazz Trio playing traditional pre ‘50s jazz. Bring the kids for fun planting activities with take home plants and enjoy delicious food and drinks, or bring a picnic and just enjoy the music and the flowers in the Rumsey Rose Garden.

Simon Alexander Cook

Simon Alexander Cook, Xpandourossa systemica #2, plastic pipework

Xpandourossa_systemica_#2 is a large plastic pipe rosette inspired by Islamic Taprat mathematic calligraphy in continuous lines. This geometry also references a mythologic Ouroboros symbol (snake eating tail) and the closed loop of organic cycles in ecology. Whilst natural systems are flexible they are often overridden by our consumption and economic desire for increasing growth. Attempts to control naturally balanced systems is implied by  the unruly grass growing through the scissor-like arms of the sculpture. The motif is continued in Rosette Lawn (below Old Governement House on former Pitt Street) where you are invited to walk the grass path that follows the rosette. Similar low-lying labyrinths are found in the floors of medieval Cathedrals, where they are walked in contemplation to represent a spiritual journey.
Simon Alexander Cook, Candelabra of Dispossession

Candelabra of Dispossession is created from weathered plywood and wax candles. This sculpture is a further reference to traditional expressions of spirituality and memorial.
Simon Alexander Cook, Brahmarina menorama 24/7 
Brahmarina is a giant pipe sculpture linking Ruminations Art Walk and Parramasala Festival. This branched conduit references vascular nutrient systems of trees and plants (carbohydrates) and the non-stop burning of gas and oil ‘fossil fuel’ (hydrocarbons). Symbolic echoes in this work include the Jewish Menorah candelabra, the Christian Rose of Sharon and the Sanskrit verb for Brahma represented as ‘seven swans’. *Exhibit 2-13 Nov, supported by PopUp Parramatta, Riverside Theatres, Parramasala & Thirfty Bathrooms Granville.


Simon Alexander Cook is an artist and designer with ongoing connections to the Parramatta area and currently has a studio with Pop-Up Parramatta. He has trained in Ceramics, Natural Area Restoration & Interior Design; has exhibited furniture and designed landscape installations in Sydney’s west. Simon’s work addresses ecological sustainability and seeks synthesis through innovation with intergenerational and global relevance.  www.mpathe.com.au

Simon Alexander Cook would like to thank his supporters ~ Thrifty Bathrooms; Pop Up Parramatta, Riverside Theatres and Parramasala

Chrissie Ianssen and Majid Rabet

Chrissie Ianssen and Majid Rabet, Hello installation sketch, 2012
Chrissie Ianssen and Majid Rabet have shared a studio space in North Parramatta for the past year, as part of the New Neighbours Project. This studio is set up as a space of exchange between local artists and newly arrived refugees. Chrissie and Majid are collaborating on an installation, titled Hello, to hang from the rotunda at the garden. They will install a large metal and fabric installation that responds to the old time feel of the garden. Looking like a fabric flower or the horn of a gramophone record player, the object will emit music taken from old 78 records. 
Chrissie Ianssen and Majid Rabet, Hello installation sketch, 2012
Chrissie Ianssen is a painter, multi-disciplined artist and the coordinator of The Refugee Art Project Studios. She hand painted a series of ping-pong tables for the 2012 Sydney Festival in Parramatta. She completed a Masters of Visual Arts with a scholarship in 2008, at The University of Sydney. In 2010, she was awarded the Parramatta Artist Fellowship and with this she explored the design nuances of Granville. She has floated down the Parramatta River on a hand painted raft in her 2010 project Homage to the River. Also in 2010, she won the Lane Cove public art prize and made a suite of street furniture, which is now installed outside the Lane Cove Library. She was awarded an ArtStart grant in 2011. Her current solo exhibition, supported by an Australia Council New Works Grant, is being held at Brush Farm House from the 6th of October to the 14th of October. Later this year, she will undertake a wall work commission for the Parramatta Artist Studios. www.chrissieianssen.com

Majid Rabet is an artist, engineer and inventor. Operating his own forge in his native Iran, he produced large scale, hand made steel works. Majid also hand made electronic cars for films. He has designed and built large-scale drilling machinery for industry. During his time in Australian Immigration detention, he ingeniously exploited whatever material he could find, creating a massage machine from jeans and a dvd player, and paint brushes using the fur from a stray cat he befriended. In his Sydney studio he has built a marching robot that is activated by a mobile phone, and an exquisite scale model of the Anzac bridge by shaping spaghetti with an angle grinder. He continues to paint and exhibit with the Refugee Art Project. www.therefugeeartproject.com
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