Soa.anu.edu.au

Crace: Walk the Line
An Exhibition of Visual Art
The Australian National University
School of Art
Environment Studio
2014 Crace Field Study
various venues In Crace, ACT 12.0 cm Ink jet print on canson archival rag paper t. Gungahlin Hills Nature Rron Approaching F
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Crace - Walk the Line Blaide Lallemand See page iv for artist statement Andr
An Exhibition of Visual Art Crace - Walk the Line

Crace - Walk the Line An Exhibition of Visual Art , Field trip 1, Mar 20 - 30 November 2014 various venues in Crace, Canberra, ACT

The Crace Field Study was convened Many thanks for access to the For more information about The Crace by John Reid and field co-ordinated following venues: Field Study: by Heike Qualitz and John Reid, • The Central by Goodwin Environment Studio, School of Art, • The District Café - Bar Australian National University. The • Crace Early Learning Crace Field Study is a science-arts • Diyaluma Curry House Catalogue Design: Heike Qualitz collaboration with The Crace Study • Crace Community in the People and Place research Development Office Copyright resides with the artists and program led by Professor Helen Berry at the University of Canberra. The Environment Studio gratefully acknowledges funding for the Study from Goodwin Aged Care Services Limited, ACT; PBS Building, ACT; The District Café; Connections Community Development, ACT, and their Crace Community Facilitator, Erin Schrieber.
om the air

1 Crace Field Study: An Introduction3 Crace Field Study: As it Happened The Artists - Crace 7 Carolina Velastegui Paez 29 Keziah Craven 11 Marzena Wasikowska 13 Hanna Hoyne & Amelia Zaraftis 35 Mariana Vadell Weiss 15 Maria Koulouris 37 Suzanne F Poutu 39 Melissa Gryglewski 19 Kerry Shepherdson 42 Odessa Zaraftis & Thea Coddington 23 Bonnie Haiblen 25 Ximena Briceño 27 Harriet Lee Robinson , Field trip 3, July 2014, phot The Artists - Crace's neighbours 48 Zoe Anderson51 Hayley Lander y field base
52 Hanna Hoyne & Amelia Zaraftis 53 Franz Schroedl

Crace Field Study: An Introduction Crace is a new development in Canberra, safe neighbourhood that promotes Australia, which will accommodate fun activities, social interactions and around 4,000 residents in 1,500 homes sustainable living. Crace is built to a when completed in 2015. It is designed ‘walkable' grid with 25% of total land as a ‘mini-city' with a shopping centre for common use, including walking/bike surrounded by a high-density urban paths, and access to bus stops, parks, precinct, which in turn is surrounded and shops. Current thinking is that these by large and small suburban homes design features will also have long-term of different types. Key aspects of the benefits for the health and wellbeing design of Crace were based on best of Crace residents. But is this true? The practice to create an attractive and Crace Study aims to test this idea.
Artist Briefing with Andrew Mackenzie, Cnr Stowport Ave and Redruth St, Crace, Field trip 1, March 2014, photograph: John Reid
The Crace Study
Successful cities of the future will need ‘time-pressured couples with children', of Australians. Over the years, it will be Crace Field Study
Informed by The Crace Study results; People and Place in to promote, in flexible and reliable ‘connected retirees' and ‘marginalised possible to see how the completion of challenged on location by Prof Helen Berry; ways, healthy and sustainable ways of Australians'; see Berry et al., 2008).
the streets, paths and amenities like grounded by consultations with members Faculty of Health living for diverse types of people. The From 2012 to 2017 residents are parks and shops has affected people's of the Crace community; and inspired by Crace Study run by the University of being surveyed at key stages in the behaviour and health, including personal field observation and inquiry in Canberra is a yearly survey on what it Crace's development (the first survey their physical activity and health, Crace, artists participating in The Crace is like to live in Crace. It aims to shed was in Spring 2012 before the main neighbourhood social participation, Field Study have produced a folio of fine art light on what makes somewhere a parks and shops were completed). The sense of belonging and wellbeing.
work that: (i) meets individual curriculum great place to live - and what doesn't! survey results are being examined to Professor Helen Berry, University of requirements for enrolled students; (ii) In particular the Crace Study examines gauge relationships between health, Canberra, and The Crace Study scientists integrates with The Crace Study research how home and neighbourhood can sustainable behaviours, urban form have worked with artists participating methodologies; and (iii) contributes to The promote healthy and sustainable ways characteristics, and the demographic in the 2014 Crace Field Study.
Crace Study communication strategy.
of living for all kinds of Australians (e.g. characteristics defining different kinds

Crace Field Study: As it happened. John Reid Field Study viable. The Central's non-teaching periods. The hard-won the Study's three field trips as a builder, CBS Building, came to the status of sustained fieldwork as an field research component of their Discussions to implement a 2014 funding party too. The Environment integral part of the weekly timetable major study or course program.
Field Study program focused on the Studio had pacemakers. A program for advanced undergraduate The first Field Study field trip is new suburb of Crace, Gungahlin, schedule (100% externally funded) research projects had bitten the crucial – it canvases the lay of the ACT, began in early December 2013. and promotional documents were dust – another type of climate land. Five formal briefings, in situ, It was Professor Helen Berry, immediately prepared and circulated.
change impact. Now undergraduate were organised for the orientation Associate Dean Research, Faculty of Prevailing circumstances traceable students would participate through of artists. Helen Berry, UC, spoke Health, University of Canberra (UC), back to the condition of the tertiary enrolment in an Elective Study, about ‘The Crace Study'. Jim Purcell, and lead researcher of the ‘People education sector at large had which would conclude after only Goodwin Aged Care Services, and Place' research program, who instigated changes to the Field Study the second field trip with an end of outlined the design considerations raised the prospect of a Crace Field generic procedure. The trademark semester assessment. Visual artist, applicable to senior citizen tenancy Study with John Reid, Environment three field trips to the same location lecturer and accomplished Field of ‘The Central'. Rebecca Palmer- Studio co-ordinator, School of Art, mixed with intervening periods of Study Co-ordinator, Heike Qualitz, Brodie, Coordinator, Bush on the Australian National University (ANU). studio development and delivering a was engaged to offer the Elective Boundary, Conservation Council Helen's well-established research public exhibition would persist; but, Study. Honours and postgraduate ACT Region, gave a comprehensive project, ‘The Crace Study' (part of the fieldwork would be undertaken in students would still register in account about flora and fauna the ‘People and Place' program), could provide an excellent scholarly Artist Wrap-up, Hilltop Reserve, Field trip 1, March 2014, photograph: John Reid
foundation for the production of Artist Briefing with Helen Berry (standing), Recreational Park, Field trip 1, March 2014, photograph: John Reid
fine art in response to the suburb of Crace – a suburb conceived to to the discerning visual artist eye. major player in Crace's development promote sustainable and healthy There was a catch. The with its apartment complex, The suburban living. Located 15 minutes Environment Studio had a zero Central, and personified by the from the ANU School of Art, this budget. This daunting red light impeccable Jim Purcell, acting prospective field location had a lot turned green when in February at the time as CEO, committed going for it – available on impulse 2014 Goodwin Aged Care Services, a sufficient funds to make a Crace form. It was not until field trip three, of Crace. The exhibition opening on suburban design, art and life. in July, that artist /community contact incorporates a ‘DESIGN Canberra On behalf of all artist involved in (about art and its potential role in Festival' event, ‘Crace : Walk the the 2014 Crace Field Study, I hope community) began to take place.
Line – Design, Art, Life'. Designers, you see the show – and tell the So . the big hope with the architects, developers, Indigenous exhibiting artists what you think! November 2014 Crace Field Study leaders, residents, commercial 15 November, 2014 exhibition and for this catalogue operators, researchers and artists is to move the Field Study from its will ‘walk the line' from one venue initial consultation phase to genuine to another with exhibition patrons through this multi-award winning November show is spread over six suburb enjoying an intoxicating and venues concentrated in the centre challenging cocktail of commentary Artists in the basement of The Central with PBS guide (left), Field trip 2, April 2014, photograph: John Reid
Contemplating Crace - ANU School of Art Foyer
gallery, June 2014, photograph: Heike Qualitz ‘Living on the urban edge'. Hoa Luu, program's procedural modifications for artist cross-referencing; and for Design Manager, CIC Crace Pty Ltd., (think swings and round-abouts) community feedback, which might recounted the processes associated was the impetus for a Field Study benefit the regular Field Study with ‘The Development of Crace'. exhibition in June – before field exhibition scheduled later in the year. And finally, Andrew Mackenzie, trip three. Riding on the backs of There was a great opening event and UC, posed the question ‘Why does the undergraduates (10 artists) excellent Canberra-wide press and Crace look the way it does?' The and their bulging assessment television publicity. Despite this it second and third field trips are folios, a substantial exhibition was would seem (because it's difficult to configured to support individual convened. Titled ‘Contemplating ascertain for certain) that very few artist research – targeted meetings, Crace: First Thoughts', the exhibition Crace residents engaged with the included the work of all Crace Field artists after seeing the show. In June, Study participants (25 artists) and 2014, Crace community networks A surprising outcome of the provided and excellent opportunity and associations were just starting to Carolina Velastegui Paez
Beings from the Alcheringa time 201442.0 x 59.4 cms Beings from the Alcheringa1 time the drawn and the written languages. is a diptych of drawings and digital Also, the artwork pays tribute to the compositions of mythical beings importance that mythical beings have inspired by the Aboriginal site Yurwang in the collective memory. Dhaura of Crace. Textures and patterns This process was inspired and found in the natural surroundings informed by the setting of Crace, of Crace provide the foundation for where the presence of scarred trees these half-animal beings, rendered and the Yurwang Dhaura site is a living with a mixture of lines and words. testimony of the contact between I am using words in Spanish, English material and spiritual realities, giving a and the Australian Aboriginal language historical background for the suburb's of the Ngunnawal people, to bring identity and landscape.
the beings into life. The use of text in different languages makes reference 1 ‘Alcheringa' is a word that relates with to my personal experience of being a the Dreamtime, the first place where ‘man foreigner in a new country. One of the and nature come to be'. ‘The act by which the mind makes contact with whatever purposes of this work is to experiment mystery it is that connects the Dreaming within the thin line that exists between and the Here-and-Now.' (Jacket 2, 2014) John Mills
Sound Portrait of a Young
Suburb 201434.2 x 17.8 x 41.7 cm Computer animation and A sonic portrait of Crace, the sounds of its construction mixing with those of nature. The digital sound recordings were made in April 2014.
Spectrograms of the sounds are scattered on the screen, using a palette based on colours found in the Crace ‘Suburban Style' brochure.
As the suburb nears completion, the sound world will slowly change: the sounds of construction will be replaced by the sounds of maintenance, and the warm hum of lawnmowers and small planes will find the resonances of the outdoor spaces.
Helen Braund
Skeleton (detail) 2014
We change the landscape, shaping it 60.96 cm x 40.64cm into something new. excavating and (24 x 16 inches) building on the past, we access and awaken what came before. Crace construction. Redruth Street 201476.0 x 102.0 cm Digital test print Hanna Hoyne and Amelia Zaraftis
The Apron of the Honourable A Z Echidna,
Kaleen Ambassador to Crace 2014 From The Apron Project (Echidna) 2013-14Dimensions Variable Calico, tulle and wooden clothes pegs Apron Project (2013-14) by Hanna Hoyne and Amelia Zaraftis presents an ongoing collaboration that investigates notions of human vulnerability and safety in the ways that we inhabit both the physical Hanna Hoyne and Amelia Zaraftis
and psychological landscapes. The Apron Project's first iteration of photographic The Apron of the Honourable A Z performance documentation and sculptural Echidna, Kaleen Ambassador to Crace garments (in the exhibition Safe Passage, 2014) presented a spirited re-imagining of From The Apron Project (Echidna) the domestic apron, set in an Australian suburban backyard. During the third Crace Field Study field trip in July 2014, Performance still the Honourable A Z Echidna presented its Performer: Amelia Zaraftis ambassadorial credentials to the Crace Photographer: Hanna Hoyne Inkjet print on rag paper Maria Koulouris
The Central by Goodwin 2014
25.0 x 40.0 cm
Digital print on paper A commonly occurring feature in the Crace landscape is scaffolding covered buildings still under construction. The photo displays an edginess and an orderliness in the scaffolding poles and blue shade cloths. The signage suggests a luxury building is yet to emerge from beneath the masque of Shesha Reddy
Blueprint (detail) 2014 Array (detail) 2014 38.0 x 31.0 x 1.8 cm 2.0 x 21.0 x 30.0 cm Porcellaneous Stoneware My painting practice investigates how How to represent vitality? our suburban environment shapes Can public micro-sculpture initiate human experience, with particular or reflect conversations about reference to the Canberra landscape. (sub)urban lives? In Blueprint, I have explored how Are critiques of McMansions variations in modes of representation can reflect on the transformation Is the absence of multiplicity in occurring across time in Crace. (sub)urbia a symptom of short- Kerry Shepherdson
Puzzleing 2014
29.0 x 169.0 cm
Mixed media on board The Crace Field Study there, seemed to me like the frieze just like the suburb of Crace for Grandparents to live near introduced me to the concept of sum of countless multifarious with references to pleasurable their families, the community holistic approach to designing a activities that may be possible fresh produce garden and the unique community from scratch My mind turned to the old for the inhabitants. I considered village life impression.
in a bushland setting. The Chinese Tangram, a square the geometric division of the development of a practically self- puzzle consisting of 8 pieces that landscape into house blocks, the contained village incorporating can be rearranged into over 2000 preservation of the grassland natural, constructed and simplified abstract combinations habitat of the endangered historical features that aimed to representing different objects, Golden Sun Moth, the easy access encourage a sense of cohesion animals, plants and figures.
to nature reserve and parklands, and well being for the people Metaphorically my Tangram the building materials, density who would eventually live artwork evolved as a narrative and uniformity, the opportunity John Reid
National Heritage Trust - Crace Share Certificates
Denomination Set 201452.0 x 132.0 cm. 7 certificates at actual size.
Digital ceramic ink print on rag A NATIONAL
The ‘National Heritage Trust' was arts with the discerning focus of Aesthetic Documentation Aesthetic Documentation Aesthetic Documentation tr Aesthetic Documentation
Aesthetic Documentation Aesthetic Documentation established in 2008 by John Reid (EcoForum Field Study, Cockatoo In this Crace series of share Front Courtyard
Crace Under Construction certificates attention is focused One Five Hundred Dollar Share ce Field St 14 C
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2014 Crace Field Study S
to promote the aesthetic One Five Dollar Share on the (fleeting) heritage of One Fifty Dollar Share Crace Under Construction wo Hundred and Fifty Dollar Share One One Hundred Dollar Share C t
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development. Proceeds from wenty Dollar ShareT race Field Study Share certificates are produced Crace certificate sales will support Blue Marker Crace Under Construction
Pipes Crace Under Construction
The Central Crace Under Construction
2014 Crace Field Study 2014 Crace Field Study and traded on a dollar-for-dollar a Crace community cultural event.
basis for Australian currency. Funds raised are used to further the aim of the Trust by assisting visual artists to undertake the To purchase NHT share certificates important task of creating imagery that combines the [email protected] aesthetic aspirations of the fine Bonnie Haiblen
Interaction: Time and Crace
201420.0 x 20.0 cm x 4 Photography and found Crace is a suburb of importance of the surrounding integrated environments nature reserve was embodied that sit in harmony and help within the planning of Crace, and to create a healthy sense has significantly influenced the of community. This body of materials, techniques and aesthetics work seeks to explore the embodied within this work.
coming together of the built Time and Crace uses similar leaf and natural environments, photographs as those in ‘Sharing and how they form a singular Space', however the actual multidimensional leaves are propped above the environment that is neither photographs to create a series of completely natural nor simple 3D images which focuses completely new, but seeks to on the notion of time in relation to blend the boundary between the construction of Crace and its the past and present. The Tarn Smith
Gungaderra Grasslands Nature Midori Oxide ‘The sustainable Reserve 2014 paradox' 2014 10.0 x 55.0 x 75.5 cm bracelet: cardboard, pigment, Brass, copper, aluminum, steel and metal leaf, varnish The Gungaderra Grasslands As life corrodes the dream of a new Nature Reserve located in the home and the green wash turns suburb of Crace, ACT is the native to rust, is what's left sustainable? habitat for the Golden Sun Moth (Synemon Plana). This series of bracelets celebrates the moth's natural habitat and champions Australia's conservation policy to protect critically endangered species under the Environment Conservation Act 1999.
In a world where urban development is fast growing, the golden sun moth natural habitat provides unspoiled views for their new residents for the foreseeable Harriet Lee Robinson
Sensitive Territories 2014
Small container:
8.0 x 7.0 x 6.0 cmLarge double-ended container: 9.0 x 28.0 x 8.5 cmUpright vessel: 16.5 x 9.5 x 7.0 cmCopper and found branches While Crace is a new habitat built visually refer to mature trees and their natural environment, they are to for people and their accessories. hollows, found in both Crace and the be experienced with all the senses, It neighbours the Gungaderra neighbouring reserve. The hollows not just visually. Like the hollows in Grasslands Nature Reserve, the pre- found in these trees are significant trees these objects contain secrets existing home of native flora and as they are habitats for many native that can only be discovered through fauna including endangered species. animals that cannot be artificially close interaction. The domesticity In order to maintain this environment recreated. They are precious spaces and functional nature of these and the species that live within it, that protect animals and as such vessels combined with their organic residents of Crace need to know about are a valuable component of our tree-like appearance aims to makes the reserve and its natural heritage. a beneficial connection between Sensitive Territories consists of a These vessels are meant to culture and society and the local, set of domestic vessels. The vessels be used and touched. Like our natural environment. Keziah Craven
The Displacement of Embodied Matter
2014Dimensions variableDirt, microcrystalline brown wax & beeswax Communities are made up of people coming to contain. Dirt was collected from together from different backgrounds, construction and residential sites in the religions, races and last but not least, of all suburb of Crace and is the matter that ages. We construct, create, cultivate and embodies the hands. In this body of nurture through our hands. In this sense, a work the cast hands unite nature and community is built and sustained through community into one form. them. Anthropologist Mary Douglas in her book Purity & Danger, referenced dirt as being a matter out of place, and as something we are constantly trying Andrew Lyne
Workers of ‘The Central
by Goodwin'. Crace, ACT
(detail) 2014
30.0 x 45.0 cm
Type-C print
The vital role of the construction worker is soon overlooked. When the building is completed, their involvement is quickly forgotten. By making these photographs it is hoped to preserve something of the builders' one-time presence.
Dianna Budd
The octagonal table suggests the All aspects of communication such Stumped (detail) 2014 sharing of food, playing card games, as sporting or social activities, add 72.0 x 18.5 x 48.0 cm reading, or small group activities to the sense of belonging and are Found table, collage with family, neighbours or friends. extremely important in developing The collaged images include the a suburb such as Crace. These first aboriginal cricket players from shared times make Crace a special part of Canberra. Flowers and trees have featured City lights is a commentary on the prominently in my early work, both development and expansion of City Lights (detail) 2014 as a painter and as an amateur our built environment as modern 50.0 x 40.0 cm x 7 photographer. Well travelled, Man encroaches on nature more Colour photograms on I have lived in numerous cities and more, bending it to our will. photographic paper and visited many more. And still, Crace proudly proclaims that 25% wherever I may be, nature provides of Crace is outdoor space, but a immense inspiration at every turn. large majority of it appears to be There is beauty in the simplest of ‘landscaped' space. Furthermore, forms. Recently, as my ideas and we bombard our environments my art continue to develop, so with a never ending cacophony of does my desire to explore ways of noise pollution, unnatural colours expressing my thoughts on issues and brilliant dancing lights; building concerning the environment.
facades, neon signs, shop windows, advertisements, headlights, traffic lights, street lights, mobiles, ipods Mariana Vadell Weiss
Calling of the Wild: Not any, but
ours (detail) 201467.0 x 51.0 cm Diptych Watercolor and gouache on cotton These strange creatures function as with them. Little dogs, domestic a descriptive device of pure tones - cats, the possums and birds – a fiction of drawing and painting in reminding me of the subjective an undetermined context that could view that distinguishes between an be our own home. These images exotic beast or a beloved pet. were informed by observing the I decided to render the fauna in Crace, a place presented to Australian backyard habitat us as an urban entrepreneurship in and its most resilient species a patch of land once feral and now as desirable, loveable pets - a a space of co-existence. harmless experiment of fictional Looking around as a visitor, not only in this new suburb but in this If it is our intervention that makes country, my artistic intention begins a place habitable, is it also what with noticing the different animals makes our contemporary domestic and how people living here coexist animals desirable? Suzanne F Poutu
Would Adam and Eve Live Here?
201426.0 x 44.0 cm Watercolour Collage on Saunders Waterford rag paper Influenced by the standing that Crace, a city within a city, founded on the intention of sustainability. I question; when the "ready made" houses are built to last externally 30 years and internally 10 years: plus, the purification of the recyclable water system, relying on constant cutting of Reeds to keep the waters purity. I wonder in 50 years time will Crace have lived up to the designer's original intentions? Sk8rFinch 2014 Pencil, marker, and watercolour In my imagination the lines I had whilst I was journeying between human, plant and animal through Crace contemplating the are very fuzzy. Indeed, I find joy in human/non-human relationships discovering the uniqueness but also that I encountered. It is with the connectedness of all things. absolute delight that I share these My work speaks directly to my observations, and as importantly, imaginative process : each piece is the sentiment of endearment that a visual representation of a thought Nigel Dobson
Human Habitats 2014 Caiman 2014 215.5 x 96.2 x 96.6 cm Crace Fossil Reconstruction Steel, concrete, bricks I have been challenged with Graphic media on photocopies of the concept of a suburb being erected from nothing. This work resembles a personal dwelling or space that can be occupied by a human. It reflects the suburb of Crace and how we as a society can create a suburb out of nothing and inhabit it in a matter a years. I wanted to comment on human habitats, also with new suburbs how the blocks are smaller and the houses built, generally take up Odessa Zaraftis & Thea Coddington
the entire space, leaving little to participatory drawings 2014 no front or back yard. The shape Crace Fossil Reconstruction Project of the sculpture is cage like and creates a visual personal space Graphite on photocopies and implies a human habitat. John Reid
Compassionate Tenancy Step 3 2014
Video loop. One minute
Opposite: Video still Heike Qualitz
The Bitumen Divide: Varying
Perspectives 2014Video loop 37:04 min (no sound) The Bitumen Divide is an between box gum grassy woodlands observational video work taken and major arteries connecting the whilst circumnavigating Canberra's sprawling city. The new development newly hatched suburb of Crace on features a pathway navigating the my bicycle one mid-week morning in entirety of its boundary and makes for April. Cycling has become my chosen convenient travel along the smoothly form of transport since moving to paved and barely trafficked surface. Australia's capital, affording me to This path along the threshold also actively engage with and observe my serves as a contemplative platform physical surroundings as I traverse for considering what lies within and the spacious and undulating territory. beyond it, for observing the various Crace itself is set into natural habitats, those newly created and temperate grassland, tucked in- those impinged upon.
K.B. Jones
Camouflage series (detail) 2014
Dimensions variable
pencil and ink on paper, printed A neighbourhood needs a sense of community: it's own rituals, clothing, and style. I give three patterns the Crace suburb, to use as they wish. The color is inspired by the landscape and architecture of Crace, and the subject matter is conveyed through a black line drawing. The drawings could be printed once, on a flyer or a poster, or they could be printed in repetition, as in wallpaper or Crace could be like any and every other suburb in the world, but it is not. The signs of its individuality are everywhere, and the patterns here are based on particular houses, animals, and plants that I observed while visiting Crace in July 2014. Each tree that I drew is specific and unique to Crace's lovely terrain.
Artists participating in the Crace Zoe Anderson
Field Study inevitably became Lady Kim of Belconnen aware of their own suburban origins. Three visual artists have the distinction of living in suburbs that neighbour Crace, There was this princess, Cleopatra And she didn't stir or waken another artist and a poet live Who got bitten, by an adder As her tower, struck by lightening nearby. Presented in this closing In a tower, had a slumber, So the roof, it cracked right open section of the catalogue are Earth rotations without number And the rain, it trickled sometimes their works. The snake, he was no wicked fairy When it wasn't snow or sleeting Just a reptile who was fairly (It's the future, there's shit weather) Furious to be mistaken And time was measured in the meanwhile For some spindle, he was trying Between the sleeting storms and bushfires To sell fruit to turn a living In the hills above Belconnen The point is that he pierced her finger No one left was counting decades And she felt extremely sleepy ‘cos hurricanes don't know high numbers And the rain decayed the bedclothes In a tower in Belconnen Made her bed, she'd washed the linen And the carpet and the floorboards Cleaned her teeth and drew the curtains, Made them soft and wet and spongy Though she'd left the window open So that mould and mites and fungi Taken out her contact lenses, Found their way into the tower Put her phone upon the nightstand Where they drank up the rainwater Closed her eyes and started dreaming Then an apple in the corner There followed year-in year-out sleeping Left abandoned by the adder While the wind it blew the curtains Felt the earth that was around it View from Percival Hill, February 2014, photograph:John Reid
‘till they tattered into ribbons Split and sprouted, shoots and tendrils.
Hair a cloud of fine black tangles Place where Princess still lay sleeping Cleopatra she was sleeping Filaments in branch and bramble Cradled there by bough and fern frond Fingernails of moss and mottle Kim lay gently down beside her She was dreaming, she was breathing Knew in time the forest's growth would And beneath her broken ceiling Stains from rain and leaves leave bottle Wind around her body also All her jet black hair was growing, Greenish blotches on her visage Bound beside the sleeping woman Overflowing off the pillow Kim stared and stared, for longest moment Kim smiled because they were together Over floor and out the window But then a lisping in the corner In a forest, in a tower Past the swiftly sprouting seedlings Sounded just like ‘kiss, kiss, kiss her' In Belconnen, burnt and windblown Who'd brought friends, small leafy greenlings Some part of Kim just longed to wake her There would stay this sleeping story Fine laced roots like fingers, feeling Kiss her gently, hold her, ask her The forest, with its shade and secrets Seeking anything to hold to How it felt to be so truly Grew to fill another day.
Slow and tender like a loverMil. by mil. they did discover, Soil and forest, leaf and fungi Weave with skill like blind bone mother Then Kim had another visionSleeping woman, waking screaming Fine white roots and crow black hair Hair all torn from scalp and seedling Soon, hair twisted around branches No more at peace, but stuck between Vines grabbed onto it for purchase A forest and a human being And of course, as nests, for birds So Lady Kim, Urban explorer Four-score years passed in Belconnen Then laid down her best machete ‘till one hurricaning morning And her wrist guards, on the night stand The Lady Kim, Urban Explorer Took one look past curtains, creepers Dropped with a cry her best machete To the hurricane, still raging Looked with pure ungarnished wonder Turned away from planet's aging, At this woman of the forest Fruitless cry, instead towards the View from The Central, April 2014, photograph:John Reid
Hanna Hoyne and Amelia Zaraftis
On the Urban Fringe 2014 The Apron of the Honourable A Z 61.7 x 36.0 x 2.5cm Echidna, Kaleen Ambassador to Crace From The Apron Project (Echidna) Performance still Performer: Amelia Zaraftis Photographer: Hanna Hoyne Inkjet print on rag paper Chris Ramsey
Unity 2014 Gungaderra Grasslands Nature Reserve - Crace 2014 Acrylic on watercolour paper The clay was produced from the As a landscape painter I explore ways area of Casey, Crace & surrounding to evoke a personal connection and Gungahlin area. It signifies how emotional response to our natural a community is developed from environment, thereby cultivating literally the ground up and how the positive feelings of health and well ground we live on is shared by all. being. I'm constantly inspired by the This vessel is a testimony, not only to native landscape around my home in the development of new suburbs, but Palmerston and neighboring Crace, also to the development on producing and the fusion of nature and suburbia. a common bond between individuals I've lived in this area for ten years and as a community.
I'm pleased that the importance of the Gungaderra Grasslands Nature Reserve has been exemplified in the planning and development of Crace. I believe incorporating nature into our urban, and suburban environment has the ability to rejuvenate ones sense of well being, and promote a healthier, happier living environment for the future

Source: http://soa.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/2014%20Crace%20FS%20Catalogue%20lr%20pdf%20(1).pdf