Jacqueline Spedding, Skyscapes (detail), 2017. Photograph by Mandy Schoene-Salter.

Jacqueline Spedding, Skyscapes (detail), 2017. Photograph by Mandy Schoene-Salter.

Jacqueline Spedding, Skyscapes (detail), 2017. Photograph by Mandy Schoene-Salter.

EXPLORERS: NARRATIVES OF SITE IN CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICE, WOODFORD ACADEMY, BLUE MOUNTAINS, 2017

Skyscapes, Explorers: Narratives of Site in Contemporary Art Practice, 7 October to 18 November 2017. Woodford Academy, NSW National Trust.

Skyscapes arose from walking the Academy’s paths and mentally tracing the rhythm of indents and shadows in the stones. The repetition of the punch marks, now weathered and pitted, in the worn surfaces carry multiple narratives of people and place over time. Taking impressions of the stones with blotting paper revealed a universe in miniature; black holes and swirling constellations on one side and rough lunar landscapes on the other. Skyscapes responds to ideas of observation and ecology present in Aboriginal and  European knowledge systems. The imaginary star maps projected in the installation are fictional yet grounded in the fabric of the building, the bodies that shaped it, and the site on which it sits.

Explorers: Narratives of Site in Contemporary Art Practice was an extended, multilayered, accumulative exhibition project, which responded to the complex and overlapping narratives of the historic Woodford Academy site in Woodford NSW. The exhibition was developed by Modern Art Projects (MAP) Blue Mountains in conjunction with Woodford Academy and supported by funding from Create NSW. The show involved a group of 17 Blue Mountains and Western Sydney contemporary artists and co-curated by Beata Geyer and Mahalya Middlemist.

View the complete catalogue here.
View website for the project here.