antonia aitken
residencies
Arts Tasmania Residency
Arthur River, Tasmania, Novermber 2020 & July 2021
During two trips of focused field research in 2020 and 2021, I was introduced to the unique West Coast environment, community, and histories through walking, talking and listening. I documented the experience through drawing, photography, sound and video. I consider the Arthur River estuary a generative transition zone of material and conceptual encounter. The town settlement lies where cool temperate, tannin-tinted waters merge with the wild salty swells of the Southern Ocean, creating a fertile ecotone. It is situated amongst important and sensitive cultural sites along the the takayna / Tarkine coast; places embedded with ancient and continuing Palawa culture. It is also imprinted with the marks of our nation’s violent frontier conflicts. These histories are shaping current discourse around how our community sustainably manages and respects this unique location and each other into the future. This place is providing an opportunity for me to explore the idea of transition, a moment or process of physical and philosophical tension and change.
Temporary Residency 4
Queenstown, Tasmania, March 2013
In March 2013 I participated in a project that brought six artists together from interstate and overseas to participate in a 10 day collaborative residency at Land Art Research Queenstown (LARQ). The project was facilitated by New York based artist Prawat Laucharoen and Australian artist Raymond Arnold and was in conjunction with the Tasmanian 10 Days on the Island Festival. The result was six very diverse and engaging artworks, reflecting social and environmental aspects of the site of Queenstown. The work was shown at LARQ in March 2013 and at Sawtooth ARI, Launceston in May 2013.
Women’s Studio Workshop Art-in-Education Artist Book Residency
Rosendale, NY, USA, October 2012
I returned to Women’s Studio Workshop in February 2012 to create an artist’s book. Drawing the Step uses hard-ground etching, sound and letterpress to record seven daily walks in the area. With my left hand marking my right footstep and my right hand marking my left footstep, I scratched into the etching plate as I walked. The book’s accordion structure allows it to be read walk by walk or as one seven-day passage. The project was part of an ongoing investigation to use time based as well as performative drawing and printmaking processes to represent my body on site. During the residency I taught etching to senior high school students from Kingston, NY as part of the WSW Art-in-Ed Program.
Bathurst Regional Gallery, Hill End Residency
Hill End, NSW, May 2012
In May 2012 I returned to Hill End to work in collaboration with Hill End Press. Hill End is a place that was significant during the mid 1800s resource boom, and later an important site for artists and the development of Australian modernism and new traditions of landscape painting and representation. It has provided me with a site to make prints and drawings looking the remnant mine sites and further investigate areas that have been subject to extensive mineral extraction and human use.
CraftACT Talking Water Artist-in-Residence
Gudgenby Ready-Cut Cottage, Namadgi National Park, April 2012
I was one of four artists who participated in the 2012 Artists in Residence program, which was aimed at creating a response to the theme of ‘water’. I spent a month living and making at Gudgenby Ready-Cut Cottage in Namadgi National Park in April 2012. During the time I researched the Canberra's water catchment and created Flood Nest, Gudgenby 2013, a work which was shown at Craft ACT Craft and Design Centre in an exhibition titled ‘Talking Water’ in April 2013.
Black Church Print Studio International Residency
Dublin, Ireland, July 2011
In July 2011 I was awarded the International Artist-in-Residence at Black Church Print Studio in Dublin. The work that I developed during the residency was a series of woodcut prints based on the Liffey River, continuing my investigations of rivers and the role they play in our lives and environment.
Women's Studio Workshop Art-in-Education Fellowship
Rosendale, NY, USA, February 2011
In February 2011 I undertook a 7-week residency at Women's Studio Workshop. Whilst there, I made a series of woodcut prints inspired by the post industrial landscape of the Hudson Valley and in particular the Binnewater and Rosendale cement mines. During the residency I taught screen-printing to junior high school students from Kingston, NY as part of the WSW Art-in-Ed Program. The prints resulted in an exhibition titled ‘Vestiges’ at Megalo Print Studio in November 2011.
Bundanon Trust Residency,
Bundanon, NSW, October 2009
In October 2009 I undertook a month-long residency at Bundanon on the Shoalhaven River. I focused on the tidal nature of the river and used the tides to directly draw with.
Bathurst Regional Gallery Hill End Residency
Hill End, NSW, July 2008
In July 2008 I undertook a month-long residency at Hill End in NSW. The residency was in collaboration with Canberra based Composer Timothy Hansen. The residency was an opportunity for both of us to share our practices with each other and experience the place and it's community. Whilst in Hill End we facilitated an art and music-making workshop for three local primary schools. The aim of the workshops was to bring the schools together and to share their stories through making shadow puppets and music.
M16 Artspace Emerging Artist Support Scheme (EASS) Studio Residency
Canberra, ACT, 2007
In 2007 I was awarded the M16 Artspace Emerging Artist Residency. It allowed me to have six-months in a studio to develop new work. Whilst there I developed a solo exhibition titled Drawing Breath: Breathing Place, which was on in the M16 Artspace Gallery in October 2008.
Megalo Print Studio + Gallery EASS Studio Residency
Canberra, ACT, 2007
The 2007 Megalo Emerging Artist Residency allowed me 6-month studio access and was a time of experimentation. I developed a series of etchings, which were exhibited in Caring for Land at the Botanic Gardens in 2007 and Drawing Breath: Breathing Place in 2008.
