Contemporary artist branches out at CSA
Renowned contemporary artist Fiona Hall is working at the Canberra School of Art as ANU Creative Arts Fellow. While here she is participating in the Canberra-wide project Archives and the Everyday (coordinated by the Canberra contemporary Art Space) and a Garden commission for the National Gallery of Australia. Pieces from the two projects will be showing at the CSA Gallery until October 19. Fiona Hall was born in Sydney in 1953 and studied painting at the National Art School from 1972 to 1975. Her practice has included photography, sculpture, ceramics and installation. In 1982 she was awarded a Master of Fine Arts (photography) from the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York. This year she was the first recipient of the prestigious Contempora 5 award for contemporary art at the National Gallery of Victoria. From this acclaimed exhibition, the sculptural Nocturne and the series Paradisus terrestris will be shown at the CSA Gallery. CSA director David Williams said the ANU Creative Arts Fellowship was awarded to leading Australian practitioners in the arts: writers, musicians, cultural historians and artists.
"It is a time for intense experimentation, quiet reflection and engagement with all the facilities which the Australian National University can offer, and an opportunity to explore the richness of Canberra's resources. While taking up her Fellowship, Fiona Hall will be maximising this potential," he said. "The several projects on which she will be working during her Fellowship are combined in the exhibition at the ANU Canberra School of Art Gallery. There is a selection of recent works, her contribution to Archives and the Everyday, and the National Gallery of Australia garden commission." The presentation of this exhibition represents a highlight in Fiona Hall's program at the Canberra School of Art as the 1997 ANU Creative Arts Fellow, Mr Williams said.