A STITCH IN TIME – MY EXPERIENCE AS ARTIST IN RESIDENCE AT COSSACK
Artist-in-residence programs give artists the opportunity to live and work outside of their usual environments, providing them with time to reflect, research, or produce work. During a residency, artists can explore new locations, different cultures, and experiment with different materials. Absolute immersion in place and all it offers, to make art is the idea of bliss for me.
The Cossack Art Awards offer an artist’s residency opportunity each year. As an artist and Pilbara resident I have always enjoyed the fresh vision and interpretation a visiting artist offers the region, not to mention the opportunity for locals to take gain new experience through the workshops offered.
2020 was the crazy year of uncertainty. All planning was done in constantly changing parameters. As a result, the Cossack residency was offered only to Pilbara based artists. Although an artist’s residency has been high on my list for a time it has not been practical for various reasons. Although Cossack is in my neighbourhood and it’s a location I am familiar with, it holds a certain air of mystique. During the three-week residency I was absorbed in hours of research into the origins as a colonial settlement and passage through history. Now a partially resorted ghost town the site is sprinkled with historic artefacts. Its splendid isolation permits hours of contemplation and solitude to focus completely on one’s self and the art that evolves from the time and place.
The outcome from my time spent at Cossack was an evocative exhibition where I explored the troubling history of the pearling industry and hardship experience by the women early settlers using materials both gathered from or closely associated with the historic township.
Applications for the 2021 Cossack Art Awards Artist in Residency Program are open and close on April 30 2021.
Carrie works as an independent artist as well as an artist at Cheeditha Art Group
https://www.cheedithaart.com.au/
Her Insta handle is carriemcdowell_artist
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