Julie Briggs - September 2023 Artist of the Month
Inclusive Conversations Bring Julie's Art to Life
Julie Briggs of Narrandera had been thinking about art for many years before stepping over to the creative side of arts practice. Though always experimenting with poetry, text and art, the process of becoming an arts practitioner herself was a gradual awakening - a mindset shift.
“What was missing was my own understanding of art. I think I had been limiting my view to traditional ideas like canvases on a wall, which I certainly appreciate and love, but ultimately are not a satisfying way for me to express ideas. I don’t have technical skills in any discipline of ‘making’ in the way that a trained artist or a sculptor might. I do things that I can do with what I have, including long discussions, writing, poetry and time to think.”
With a dawning understanding of her need for creativity and personal expression, Julie started to research the philosophy and practice of conceptual and socially engaged art, whereby the ideas and thought processes behind a work often take precedence over the final appearance or execution of the piece.
When Vic and Sarah McEwen of The CAD Factory asked Julie to contribute a work to ‘On Common Ground’, a series of large-scale installations and projections on the Narrandera Common, she admits to being simultaneously terrified and buzzing with an idea that she could not shake.
“I had been reading about the ‘swan hoppers’ of the 1860's; workers employed by pastoralists along the Murrumbidgee to destroy the eggs and habitats of the black swans. The lagoons and sanctuaries all along the river were relied upon by the swans for breeding and food. I wanted to tell that story but also express my feelings about it, and my thoughts on how we pretend to have nature in our lives – in objects like artificial flowers and even teddy bears – but carry on with the destruction of the real thing.”
Her first piece ‘Faux Nature is a Real Thing’ comprising large-scale pink origami swans for ‘On Common Ground’ was a moving commentary on eco-grief, solastalgia and our feelings over the loss of nature in our immediate worlds.
The realisation that there was a like-minded community of artists creating extraordinary and thought-provoking pieces, provided Julie with the confidence she needed. ‘Curation of Shadows – Tension(s) 20/20’, for the Tamworth Textile Triennial 2020-2022, which Julie developed and created with artist and weaver Kelly Leonard is an industrious interweaving of ideas, text, and hand-loom woven textiles. The work is in the permanent collection of the Tamworth Regional Gallery, the gallery catalogue describing it as ‘..emblematic of the two potentialities of exploitation and care between which humans must choose in order that we prevail.’
Julie continued creating and exploring large-scale installation works with 'The Light Prevails' and ' Shelter for a Distressed Forest' - exploring and commenting on her concerns for environmental and social justice. Current works include a collaborative piece for the Regenerative Communities initiative Borders Project. With this work, using handmade tissue moths as a motif, Julie aims to engage audiences in the idea that human vulnerability is at the same position as that of nature, and though we may be generally ambivalent to moths as creatures, their fate is our own fate.
“In this region there is an amazing network of people who want to extend ideas. The conversations are expansive and gentle, but important. The work I’m interested in lets me wrestle with an idea over a long period of time, express it, and allow it to go beyond me.”
In conversations, creativity and work with other artists Julie has learned to hold the mental space and time for her art practice, ensuring each day that it is centred and considered amongst the demands of family and life.
Images: Julie Briggs courtesy Camille Whitehead. 'Curated Shadows' Julie Briggs and Kelly Leonard courtesy Julie Briggs.
Story: Gemma Purcell September 2023
