CARE IS A RELATIONSHIP
How might we care more, care better, care together for ourselves, each other, and the places we hold dear?
This exhibition presented art created during four research projects led by the Arts-based Knowledge Translation Lab at Black Dog Institute, the Knowledge Translation Strategic Platform of Maridulu Budyari Gumal SPHERE (Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research, and Enterprise), and UNSW’s 3C (Career Coaching for Carers) program.
Each project explored different aspects of care and the social, emotional, and environmental relationships at the heart of health and wellbeing - from caring for a loved one with dementia, caring for our own and others mental health, to caring for the environment in the face of climate collapse. Each project used art as a tool to reflect and share knowledge and experiences for research and social change.
Crafting Stories of Care
'In August 2023, a group of people gathered at UNSW Library to begin collectively working on the artwork A Cloak of Care during a workshop facilitated by artist Michele Elliot. On swaths of calico Elliot carefully dyed with avocado pits and onion skins, the workshop participants stitched their stories of care.'
A common thread connecting the works in Care is a Relationship is the materiality of the art forms. The artworks are textured, comprised of multiple layers of clipped imagery, fabric scraps, and small found objects selected and assembled for their storytelling ability. In the Stitch it for Dementia series, participants attached photographs and personal artefacts belonging to loved ones onto their banners. The life size body maps in Mapping Stigma harness the suggestive possibilities of colour, shape, and found objects to articulate embodied sensation, feeling, and experience. While the sprawling Tentacular installation collects and reassembles found imagery extracted from magazines and books to express exo-anxiety and climate distress.
Together, these projects navigate an effective path between meaning and message, utilising everyday materials to explore a range of personal, social, and environmental topics.
The fabrication techniques utilised to create the banners, rosettes, collages, and body maps in Care is a Relationship not only represents stories of giving and receiving care but are cathartic in their own right. These works invite us to pause and reflect on the experience of the individual while also reminding us that, ultimately, care is social and that we are all connected.
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A Cloak of Care, 2023
Mapping Stigma, 2023
Tentacular, 2023
