Craig Walsh

Asialink presents Home -­‐ Gwangju, an artwork developed through the collaboration of artists Hiromi Tango & Craig Walsh to be shown at Asia’s oldest biennale, the 9th Gwangju Biennale ROUNDTABLE from September 7 – November 11, 2012.
An accumulation of video portraits, interwoven with a screen handmade from donated domestic materials, Home reflects a perennial relationship to environment that is at once intimate and universal.
The collection of portraits for this artwork began in 2010 in regional South Australia at the commencement of Digital Odyssey, an epic two-­‐year regional tour and artist residency program across Australia. These initial portraits were filmed in Murray Bridge, an agricultural town situated on the River Murray, and Raukkan, a small Aboriginal community of the Ngarrindjeri nation. The project has taken place in eight locations across Australia and Home -­‐ Gwangju will incorporate all this content along with new content developed in collaboration with the Gwangju community.
Reflective of the accumulative process undertaken through the collection of the video portraits, Home’s elaborate screen is an amass of everyday materials. Bed sheets, old shoes, discarded toys and clothing are interspersed with family remnants, mementos and relics. The commonplace and the precious are sewn and bound together, evolving with each visit to a new community. The video portraits become the vessels that contain and embody the domestic objects on the screen. Home is part of Walsh’s ongoing exploration of portraiture and site that continues to unfold over time and distance.
Conversational in their processes, the artists cultivate gentle spaces where concepts of home remain specific to individuals, and yet when shown together become reflective of environment, culture and country, providing an honest representation of a locality and it’s people.
Together, they use contrasting media and methods to investigate their shared concerns. Home, Gwangju will pose many questions around the fragility and instability of contemporary existence, as well as our assumptions about the universal nature of this ideal.
About the Gwangju Biennale:
Founded in 1995, the Gwangju Biennale is Asia’s oldest and most prestigious biennial of contemporary art. Titled ROUNDTABLE, the 9th Gwangju Biennale will expand beyond the 8,100 square meter Gwangju Biennale Hall to select locations across the city, the 9th Gwangju Biennale will present 43 new commissions and 15 residencies, including many process based installations and performance works.
ROUNDTABLE invites us to consider diverse forms of collectives within historic and contemporary contexts, the tension between belonging and anonymity, and the affects that temporality, spatiality and mobility have on the individual and the collective.

Craig is one of seven artists and groups funded through the inaugural New Art Creative Development initiative with The Australia Council for The Arts. These artistic teams are now starting creative experimentation and research to develop prototypes and partnerships for innovative new art works.
The Australia Council New Art initiative was launched in 2011 as part for the Creative Australia funding program for artists. New Art grants are for artists wishing to explore ambitious ideas, collaborations and to take creative risks to make major new art work.
a brief overview of the project funded fro creative development below.
PARRANORMAL
Craig Walsh is developing this site-specific projection artwork driven by data and responsive to public waterways. The project will be developed in collaboration with the Australian Museum and software engineer/3D animator Steven Thomasson, to premier in the Parramatta River for ISEA2013.
PARRANORMAL interprets data collected from the river to present an algorithmic animated 3D river creature. Craig and collaborators will be researching data specific to the Parramatta River (such as salinity, temperature, oxygen, mercury, PH levels, water current flow), and develop 3D animations based on evolutionary processes of fish species. They will also explore approaches for community participation and contribution to the artwork.  This projection will initially appear as an embryonic organism in the river, with physical and behavioral characteristics evolving into a complex life-form, based on data collected during the exhibition. (NSW)

Artist Craig Walsh has been commissioned to produce a body of new work through a Cultural Project in the Pilbara, western Australia.
Working in consultation with The Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and local Aboriginal communities, councils and art centres, Rio Tinto staff and others of the Pilbara,the artist is developing a new body of artwork, highlighting the magnificent and unique rock art of the Burrup and it cultural heritage and significance to the local aboriginal community.
A five week residency took place in the Pilbara and a series of new contemporary art works based on this significant site, its surrounding landscape and its people are currently in production.  Exhibitions, publication and website to be announced in 2013

The Art of Engagement: Culture, collaboration, innovation
Elaine Lally, Ien Ang, Kay Anderson

The Art of Engagement: Culture, collaboration, innovation
Elaine Lally, Ien Ang, Kay Anderson

The Art of Engagement investigates contemporary art projects which aim to establish a unique collaborative process by bringing artists together with businesses, other organisations, and communities.

This book documents exemplary collaborations between artists Craig Walsh, Sylvie Blocher, Ash Keating, and Jeanne van Heeswijk, and business partners from Sydney including a Rugby League team, and environmental and waste management companies to demonstrate that the community is everywhere: in the artwork, at the sites of artistic expression and in the reactions to the works produced by C3West.

The Art of Engagement explores the aesthetic, political and economic dimensions of each project and features quality images and documentation of the completed C3West projects.

As a reference for the art world in Australia and internationally, this book will appeal to both visual and performing artists, those who work within the arts, or are engaged in cultural studies.

interview about Digital odyssey in Arts Interview
http://artsinterview.com/2011/11/21/arts-interview-craig-walsh/