Homeland at the JamFactory
According to the curators, Joanne Cys and Jane Lawrence, University of South Australia, "The idea of homeland is both familiar and foreign; a paradigm, a place and an idyll. It is of the past and the present and houses memories, experiences, objects, cultures and relationships. Homeland suggests sustenance and shelter – where place and dweller are intimately and sensually connected.”
The 2016 exhibition Homeland: returning, remembering, reimagining will be displayed from September 23 to November 27 at JamFactory GalleryOne. The curators invited alumni of the 50 year history of the University of South Australia’s current Bachelor of Interior Architecture and its antecedent programs (Certificate in Interior Design; Advanced Certificate in Interior Design; Bachelor of Arts (Interior Design); and the Bachelor of Interior Design) and awarding institutions (South Australian Institute of Technology (SAIT) and South Australian College of Advanced Education (SACAE)) to consider homeland in relationship to their professional practice and their personal lives and situations. The exhibition also celebrates the 25th Birthday of the University of South Australia.
Lawrence and Cys have selected 12 artists to ‘come home’ from their daily practice and ‘share their personal reflections on, and responses to, the notion of homeland’.
The individual works reflect the interdisciplinary nature and inherent explorations of interior design practice. Some exhibitors have chosen to respond to the proposition of homeland in three dimensions through furniture and object (Agostino & Brown and Stephen Soeffky), lighting (Saul Scanlon) and installation (Andrew Schunke). Others explore their response through hand drawing (Hannah White, Alex Gilmore-Johnston and Michael Geissler) while others experiment with other media and representation techniques including digital media (Jordan D’Arsie and Vi Nguyen) and photography (Lisa Zamberlan).
The 12 exhibits are contextualised by a pivotal spatial installation piece designed by alumnus and lecturer, Michael Geissler. The installation collectively acknowledges all alumni since the first graduating cohort in 1966 and abstractly references academic staff who have guided the current and antecedent programs.
The experimental works collectively direct the discipline of interior design outwards into an expansive condition, rich in new possibilities and generative concepts. Each piece, however, is conceptually grounded by interior design’s essential purpose of responding to the fundamental needs of human habitation. This is an understanding, and a skill, that has been instilled in students and practiced by graduates of UniSA’s interior design program for half a century.
Dr Joanne Cys LFDIA is Associate Professor in Interior Architecture and Dean: Academic in the Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of South Australia. Jane Lawrence is Associate Head of School: Teaching and Learning in the School of Art, Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia. Both are interior design graduates of UniSA.
The exhibition coincides with the biennial Asia Pacific Space Designers Alliance (APSDA) Conference, hosted for the first time in Australia in Adelaide on 24-26 September. The theme of the APSDA 2016 Conference is ‘Welcome Home’
More information from www.jamfactory.com.au