Country Arts SA pays respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and recognises their continuing connection and spiritual relationship to these lands, waters and skies. We are committed to listening and helping care for Country, and safeguarding, sharing and celebrating First Nations’ living cultures.
Healing Hearts and Minds
Healing Hearts and Minds is a multimedia arts project by Port Lincoln sisters Susanne Wegener and Janet Raleigh.
Launched for Mental Health Week at Port Lincoln’s Nautilus Art Centre, the exhibition aims to encourage open and transparent conversations regarding mental illness and the affects on individuals and families.
The artists are exhibiting Healing Hearts and Minds in three venues across regional and urban South Australia from December 2015 – March 2016.
The exhibition comprises of 36 large vinyl wall hangings grouped as 12 triptychs and featuring 12 gilded sculptures.
Janet’s 3 dimensional sculptures are formed from papier mache and arise from a series called TRASHformations. Formed from discarded waste materials, the pieces are finished with rich metallic gilding. This juxtaposition of worth and worthless in the composition of the pieces asks the viewer to also question their attitudes towards people with mental challenges. The sculptures look creatively at some of the issues we all face as human beings, often challenged to reconcile our own thoughts and feelings of worth.
Janet presented Susanne with a series of photographs she had taken of modelled 3 dimensional hearts created with scrap materials and found in nature. Susanne then interpreted these heart images to create a series of 12 triptychs to share her own mental and emotional story, a journey often known as the “dark night of the soul”.
Susanne is a digital artist who primarily works with portraits and in this series invites the viewer to recognise their own journey through the words and images used.
The artists also run full day practical visual art workshops in conjunction with their exhibition. Adults and children are invited to participate in creating their own personal story through a triptych, using many of the techniques utilised by the artists. These include drawing, painting, rubbings, sculpture, self reflection and digital art.
- Friday 11 December 2015, Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery
- Saturday 30 2016 January, Roxbylink Gallery in Roxby Downs
- Tuesday 22 March 2016, Flinders Medical Centre in Bedford Park, Adelaide
- Wednesday 16 – Thursday 17 March 2016 – Practical workshop in Roxby Downs (dates are tentative)
For more information or to express an interest in a practical workshops CLICK HERE
For more information on visual art opportunities CLICK HERE