Valency: Combining creative processes

Profiles

Barbara McConchie: Curator

Barbara McConchie curated the exhibitions there's no time, Still Lives, and Exhibition Home to explore the role objects play in our lives. McConchie is interested in the role of contemporary craft venues to present, promote and investigate objects made by craft artists, makers and designers and which adds to our rich cultural landscape.

McConchie's appointment to Craft ACT has produced exhibitions and programs that take a wider look at our experience of craft and design both within and beyond the gallery space. They have also provided engaging themes that have stimulated and entertained Canberra audiences.

there's no time, curated two performance art pieces and exhibitions investigating the object through physical interaction. Whilst performance art is located predominantly within contemporary visual art this project shifted the emphasis towards the contemporary craft sector and opened up discussion on the nature of the object as concrete - craft, the object as ephemeral - performance, the object as ritual - craft and performance and the experience of the object.

Still Lives, curated exhibition and film program with guest speakers, delved into the use of the object in film and narrative. Six artists were invited to respond to a selected film. Each movie revealed very particular relationships between the characters and objects in their lives. They ranged from the edgy postmodern virtual reality of Fightclub, to the existential humour of Mon Oncle, Hitchcock's film noir thriller, Rope and the Age of Innocence with its luscious period display of consumption and status, to Rose Troche's suburban exploration of the role of the object in The Safety of Objects, to the final contemporary cultural obsession of commodity worship in Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet.

Exhibition Home, a one week offsite exhibition whereby contemporary craft practitioners, designers and artists tested the currency of Sydney Ancher's award winning architecture of an elegant and stylish apartment, in Canberra. Originally commissioned by the National Capital Development Commission the apartments were designed to offer and present a modern life style in Canberra in the early 1960's. Furnishing this apartment with new and contemporary works the apartment easily passed the test of time. This project was a part of the ACT Government's public art program - 24:7, a program of exhibitions, performances and events in public places, linking ACT Government agencies with artists and arts organisations.

Content(s), was a one day forum with guest speakers investigating the impact of objects in our daily lives and established the significance and complexity of our everyday interaction with objects. Through the forum Content(s), Craft ACT brought practice, presentation and theory together creating a stimulating opportunity for contemporary craft artists and related arts industry professionals.

McConchie completed a Bachelor of Visual Art with Honours - Major in Printmaking Canberra School of Art, ANU, in 1993, a Master of Philosophy, National Institute of the Arts, School of Art, ANU in 1999 and has worked in the cultural industries for over ten years. She is the Executive Director of Craft ACT.

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This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, as part of its Craft-in-Site Initiative managed by Craft ACT.