'Songs over Seas’
'SONGS OVER SEAS’ presented as part of the exhibition
FABLES, FOIBLES + FOLKTALES, IOTA 2024
I am very happily the designated ‘keeper’ of our family’s history. One of the most impressive items is the large album of The Australian Imperial Choir’s 1933 tour by ship from Melbourne, Victoria, to England stopping at many exotic ports along the way.
The tour was instigated by my maternal Grandfather, Graham Burgin, a Yorkshire man, a shirt and pyjama manufacturer, a singer and a conductor. He was aided by wife Ruby, who also sang.
The album contains wonderful photos of the choir members in various settings plus leaflets and booklets from places visited. They toured extensively and sang regularly. A trip of a lifetime for all.
The Album is enormous and filled with many potential starting points. The more I researched the more I felt that this was a social and educational tour with singing the catalyst. I broke the story into three parts;
Ladies at Leisure, Porthole Views and Time for Tea (five sections).
Op shop purchases are the base of every work with digital printing on fabric and hand stitch employed on each piece.
IOTA 24 – Fables, Foibles + Folktales
WA Shipwrecks Museum
Cliff Street, Fremantle / Walyalup Saturday
10 August – Sunday 29 September 2024
The exhibition catalogue can be viewed here: IOTA CATALOGUE
Following the enormous success and attraction of IOTA21, in 2024, Western Australia community can again enjoy a programme of exhibitions, workshops and talks that invite cultural exchange through the medium of contemporary craft.
With the theme of Codes in Parallel, Fables, Foibles and Folktales was selected as one of the exhibitions to feature in the highlighted catalogue exhibitions – VIEW HERE…or visit our instagram page – INSTAGRAM
This exhibition tells six whimsical stories crafted from memories, fantasy and hope.
These tales of the past and of imagined futures have been created by artists, Diane Binns, Valdene Diprose, Gail Hawes, Jan Mullen, Molly Ryan, Sultana Shamshi and Susie Vickery. They use weaving, embroidery, printing, video installation, collage and frottage to talk about vanishing craft traditions; showcase local and personal histories; and present endangered animals bent on saving the planet.
These fresh, rich stories reinterpret the past and suggest, through play, new ways to coexist and reinvent the world.