cwacbdbranch

Many years ago now, I saw a fabulous talk by a British architect and academic, Jeremy Till. Aside from wearing a delicious pea green suit that I was completely taken by, he presented a very affecting talk entitled Angels with Dirty Faces. I have talked about this many times before, so apologies to my friends who’ve already heard it, but in this lecture, he presented the idea that architects should be this particular kind of angel. He professed that we must always maintain an overview through distance, always keeping an eye on the big picture. This is our angelic side. But we must also dwell on the ground, we must get our hands, or faces, dirty. Getting our faces dirty in the context of architecture means engaging with context and the unpredictable complexity of individuals and communities. If we manage to strike this balance between perspective and engagement, then we could be the best kind of architect.

The current activity for our Branch – developed by guest artist Narelle Jubelin (Australia/Spain) working in collaboration with local artist Lucy Bleach – engages with the work of a Tasmanian architect whose designs modulate between these two modes of participation.  Esmond Dorney is a well-known Tasmanian modernist architect who practiced from the 1930s until his death in the early 1990s. Their project, in two components, centres on the St Pius X Catholic Church in Taroona, designed by Dorney in the 1950s and the former Dorney family home, built at Fort Nelson. (1966). I should note that I am writing about this project from a distance as I’m currently completing an artist’s residency in Queenstown. Our president, Paula, who is curating the project, has been the conduit to understanding and reflecting on the process to date.

The first part of the project began this week at St Pius X . The building is widely recognised as the first Modernist church in Australia. While sitting well within modernism in form and detail, it could be considered to be at the ‘dirty faces’ or grassroots end of the architectural spectrum as it was very much a building of the community. The funds to design and construct the building were raised by the church congregation and Dorney worked closely with them to fit a long, distinctive, barrel vaulted building amongst a cluster of eucalypts. The quality of light provided by these trees was a critical part of the architectural delight of the building, but over the years, the trees have been removed as the dropping limbs of the particularly species on the site became dangerous.

So this week on May 1, which is the International day of the worker, artists Narelle Jubelin and Lucy Bleach, horticulturalist and garden designer Kris Shaffer, our president Paula Silva and Paddy Dorney (Esmond’s son) came together with the church congregation to plant new trees as a way to symbolically reinstate the original eucalypts and initiate the church’s community garden. Connecting to a series of subtle aspects of this situation, the original trees have been replaced with a safer eucalypt species with common names Ghost Gum or Weeping Gum that has a very similar leaf to the original.  Using donated fruit and vegetables harvested from the gardens of the congregation, a picnic lunch was baked by Lucy and was shared amongst the group at the culmination of the planting. Members of former CWA Taroona branch, Marie Brownlie and Anette Hitchman joined in the planting and picnic and shared stories with the congregation members, some of them neighbours.

The second component of the project took place in the Dorney house. Sitting high on the slopes of Fort Nelson, this building is closer to the ‘angelic’ end of the spectrum, being more about the pure expression of ideas. The building a unique object with vaulted living spaces, extensive glazing to the river and large conversation pit, seems to reflect an idealised or utopian take on family life. Jubelin is interested in ‘inhabiting’ this Modernist narrative in order to consider ways to celebrate, shift and consider the future possibilities for this currently uninhabited house. The artists invited some of the project participants to inhabit the building, including the council fire officer who resides in the adjacent building, to recount their own subjective experiences of modernism. In the centre of the house, guests spoke of their memories and aspirations, while Narelle transcribed onto the windows the footnotes from a 1975 seminal text by RoseLee Goldberg Space as Praxis that speaks of space not as physical and measurable but performed instead. The fugitive text written on the floor to ceiling glazing, seemed as though it was both enveloping and floating over Hobart’s CBD cityscape hence becoming the third space of this collective piece.

Having participated in and observed both parts of the project Paula describes, “On May 1, while a baked meal was shared, seeds were put on the ground, memories and aspirations were spoken. Continuous care is needed for those to grow and expand.

Narelle and Lucy’s project pays homage to the important grass roots work done by communities such as the St Pius X Church congregation and the CWA.”

Judith Abell, Branch Secretary, CWA CBD Branch.

Narelle and Lucy are guests of the CWA CBD Branch. For bios, please look at our Branch Profile page.

The gorgeous photographic documentation was captured by  local Hobart photographer Sarah Foley.

A fabulous first market for our CWA CBD Branch at MoMa (the MONA market). Here are a few shots from the day.

Ready to go. Weather calm.

The front of our stall featured Lucia Usmiani’s beautiful teatowels stitched with our CWA CBD initials.

Preserved lemons. Flowers picked and arranged by Bec Stevens.

The CWA quilt that is always used on fundraising stalls, with squares from branches around Tasmania.

Bouquet garni, bunches of bay leaves, spiced elderberry cordial, preserved lemons, organic fruit muffins.

More preserved lemons. Bags made from curtain material (that never got to be curtains!). Frilled aprons (hanging above).

Lucia being the essence of craft as we waited for the customers to come.

Our stall at the top of the stairs, just near the end of the MoMa “Feathered Serpent”.

And happy customers at the stall.

A big thankyou to everyone who visited, chatted and donated to the stall. The day was a success and we look forward to next market.

Judith Abell, Branch Secretary, CWA CBD Branch.

images: Taken by Judith Abell and Paula Silva.

If you want to remove blackberry stains from your fingers, rub them with a fresh, unripened blackberry.

To remove residue from the bottom of a bottle, put a tablespoon or two of rice into the bottle with some water and shake.

When you pick lemons, make sure that you cut them from the tree with secateurs, leaving some of the stem connected to the lemon. The lemons will keep longer.

In the lead up to the CWA CBD market stall coming up on the 18th of February, I’ve been doing my fair share of preserving on my ancient Modern Maid stove (see above). With a visit from my mother part way through the process, tips such as those above naturally bubbled to the surface.

For anyone who hasn’t heard yet, we are doing a stall at the MOMA market, out at MONA this weekend, where we will be exchanging homemade goods for donations to causes that we believe in. Where possible all of our making will have come about through material donations or a little bit of creative urban harvesting. We see this stall as being a little like the crowdfunding site kickstarter, where artists ask for small donations to their project, in return for something artful from their hand.

While we’ve made a call out for donations, what we have all tended to find is that the things we have needed have come about through conversation and exchange within our own extended networks. I spotted one Elderberry tree while sipping coffee at my brother’s place, one in his neighbour’s backyard and another only minutes from my house, seen while out walking. Bottles for preserving have come from existing and new friends  - whom I’ve visited in their kitchens –  sometimes arriving in the middle of their own moment of preserving. A short sewing machine fixing session was held at my house to sort out a misbehaving bobbin.

When we discussed what we would like to do for this stall, we decided on this idea because it was the perfect time of year for preserving, it was something that we, as a busy group of women, could do ahead of time and importantly, it linked us back to the way that CWA women have always raised money.

Personally, what I’ve realised through these last few weeks of bottle exchange and fruit gathering, is that the process represents the real heart of the CWA. From the very beginning, it has been an organisation set up to provide opportunities for women to connect with each other, share information and build relationships through a common task or goal. These opportunities for connection can happen in a range of contexts and as artists, we are used to coming together with a particular group of people for a short period of time, but I’m starting to appreciate that the longer term nature of an organisation allows for this to happen within real time frames. While the pace of life seems frenetic these days, I’d argue that the pace of relationship building hasn’t really changed. It is a slow process, that builds through a series of shared encounters. Somehow I think I’d still placed this CWA CBD adventure within the more temporary ‘project’ category, but I’m beginning to realise that the way that it is set up, steps into entirely different territory.

As ever, we really hope you can make it along to our stall. If you can’t make it along this weekend, then we’ll be doing another on the 17th of March and the last on the 14th of April. Note that the market is now running from 12.30pm to 5pm. We will be donating to the cause selected by the Tasmanian CWA and a cause of our choosing, with the remaining funds contributing to ongoing CWA CBD projects.

Judith Abell, Branch Secretary, CWA CBD Branch.

Image: Spiced Elderberry cordial underway on the ancient Modern Maid. Taken by Judith Abell.

handy hints: thanks to Mavis Abell and possibly generations of women through whom these tips have been passed.

Given its inaugural success, I’m sure you are all now aware of the MoMA market and are gearing up for the next one tomorrow, which sounds even more promising than the first. The market will be on every saturday from 1.30 until 6pm until April – 13 weekends in all – and our CWA CBD Branch will be taking part on February 18th, March 17th and April 14th.

In keeping with the spirit of the CWA, our concept is a fundraising stall, where we will exchange goods for donations. Items for exchange will be within three donation price brackets – $5-$10; $10-$15 and $15-$20. When you give within one of these brackets you will be entitled to pick an item matched to that price range.

Our wears will be delicious or gorgeous homemade goods that are made from household or urban abundance.

This is where we need your help!

We are asking our community of interested peeps for donations of flower posies, bottles (for preserves and cordial) fruit suited to preserving or fabric remnants, which will be whipped up into fabulous things by our members for our fund raising table. Remember that fruit must be in good shape to make for good preserving and bottles are much lovelier if they are clean and label-less! Fabric remnants need to be pieces big enough to make bags or aprons and we would love flowers to come preprepared as posies, so that a little bit of you is presented in your arrangement!

All fabric remnants and bottles can be dropped off at CWA Headquarters in North Hobart:

434 Elizabeth Street, North Hobart. Opening hours 9am-3.30pm, Monday to Friday.

If you have fruit or flowers, the timing is critical. Give  Paula a call 0400 865 207 or email us on cwa.cbdbranch@gmail.com so that your lovely abundance can be picked up at the right time for the stall or for making.

We hope that you can be part of this project.

Judith Abell, Branch Secretary, CWA CBD Branch.

images sourced from Etsy and somewhere on the web.

In the lead up to the third conversation for STOP. REST. PLAY. happening tomorrow (see below for detail),  I thought I would reflect upon one of the ideas that came up in Conversation 01 entitled What do children think, when they think of a better city? The participants in the conversation included our invited guests and a group of interested parents.

The thread of the conversation that particularly interested me, was to do with the way that we might rethink the city as a series of props for stimulation, inspiration or exploration. Landscape architect Sue Small talked about taking this thinking into the design of all aspects of the city, rather than just focussing it on designated play areas – “How do you make every space that children pass through (or anyone for that matter), interesting stimulating, beautiful…” Following on from this, Nick Hobbs discussed the way that he had been seeing the city through his son’s eyes, particularly in relation to stairs. At an age where this kind of ‘prop’ within the city presents a beautiful challenge to combine balance, strength and coordination with an element of danger, Nick’s son has become fascinated by stairs.  So Nick has begun to seek out public staircases that his young son can test his climbing muscles on. Stairs that pass his toddler criteria include the grand passage to Carnegie gallery and the 60s styling of TMAG. He also seems to like the slightly more risky open risers at the State Library. Nick has found that in allowing his son to engage with his current fascination, he has also had to negotiate ground with the risk averse keepers of public space, who he see children and stairs as an inherently bad mix.

This conversation challenges us to think through all of the spaces we know and retest them with children’s eyes. We might enjoy the carved, glossy timber of the Carnegie Gallery stair, but how often do with think of it as a celebratory climb? Do we consider the patterns of ground surfaces in the way that a 5 year old might? It reminds me that the lines of the footpath, in the town where I grew up, always morphed into a long hopscotch run in my years under 10. As designer who works within the public realm myself, I know that there are so many competing pressures on the decision making that we don’t always stop to think what a 2 year old, a 4 year old, a 7 year old might think of the design emerging on the page, so the discussion was a valuable reminder.

One of the reasons  STOP. REST. PLAY. exists is to make visible a large group within our community that has slipped to the peripheral vision of the city. Consequently, it is also there to prompt conversation and action on this topic. Encouraging people who design and implement new work within our public domain to talk with children about what they would like and watch how they behave in the city are two clear ways that things can change. People like Kate Turner and Jane Cooper are already heading along these paths. Kate gathered children’s responses for the Gehl report on Hobart and Jane Cooper consults regularly with children in her role as Families and Children’s Officer at the council. But surely a third layer of information, as a supplement to the input of children, is to simply remember. While the information is less immediate to us as adults, we all have the potential to remember ways that we engaged with our built surrounds as children. And as adults are still the decision makers for all things urban, then it is actually imperative that we do so.

To join in a discussion entitled How do we put these ideas into action? come along to the STOP. REST. PLAY. space at 126 Murray Street tomorrow from 2.30-3.30pm. Joining us will be invited guests:

Tim Short, Economic Development Officer, for the Hobart City Council

Judith Abell, Branch Secretary, CWA CBD Branch.

(image: ‘Umschreibung’ (ReWriting), by Olafur Eliasson, in Munich)

Conversation 02 for Bec Steven’s project STOP. REST. PLAY. kicks off this friday at 2.30pm.

The topic for this conversation is: “What parents think of when they think of a better city for their children?”

Our invited guests for the discussion are:

Megan Baynes - Mother and Senior Urban Planner at the Office for the State Architect.

Meg Walch and Jeremy Parker - Mother and Father of Felix; Megan is an Artist and Educator, Jeremy a Ship’s Captain and Educator. Meg and Jeremy have spent time parenting in both Hobart and Spain.

Jacquie Maginnis - Mother and Health Promotion Coordinator for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Nicky Adams - Mother, Architect and Urban Designer.

Jerry de Gryse – Father, Landscape Architect and Director of Inspiring Place.

Natasha Lowry - Mother and Architect at Core Collective.

Greg Milne – Father and Park Planner for the Open Space Planning Team, Hobart City Council.

Once again, we’re hoping that you can make it along to join in the discussion. Bec’s project is ongoing for another week (until 17th of December).

Judith Abell, Branch Secretary, CWA CBD Branch.

Just a few photos from our beauty pageant as a memory of the day.

Apologies that these photos aren’t as crispy clear as they could have been – must have been all of the love in the room!

Judith Abell, Branch Secretary, CWA CBD Branch

Images from top to bottom (all taken by me): 1. Our ornate and lovely Town Hall 2. Rhonda Voo in casual ‘wear’ before the show 3. Wendy Morrow 4. Andrew Wilkie as you’ve never seen him! 5. Andrew Wilkie’s walk 6. Neil Cameron 7. Gai Anderson 8. Undine Selbach 9. All of our beautiful people!