From the Atta Gallery website:
Poetics of Place ll by Australian Artists, Curated by Melinda Young
May 15, 2025 – July 13, 2025
The Poetics of Place brings together the work of 16 makers across contemporary craft, object-based and textile practices whose work explores, expands and troubles the concept of ‘place’ in post-colonial Australia and Aotearoa. The work engages with literal and (sub)liminal geographies via the intimate relationality of the body. The artists have nuanced, poetic making practices, taking the body as a compass to navigate autobiographical and community narratives, interrogate materiality and technique, and examine the broader considerations of cultural, environmental and historical tensions experienced by settler makers on un-ceded lands.
Participating Artists
Roseanne Bartley, Zoe Brand, Sue Buchanan, Anna Davern, Melissa Cameron, Cara Johnson, Claire McArdle, Kelly McDonald, Lindy McSwan, Nellie Peoples, Lauren Simeoni, Gabbee Stolp, Bic Tieu, Zoë Veness, Sera Waters & Melinda Young.
Heat to Atta Gallery online for the price list and Exhibition View – they fully document the works in situ for their shows – which is a wonderful thing for those who can’t make it. It’s also a handy reminder for those people like me have a a strong spatially oriented memory. I can sometimes recall where an object is in space faster than I can recall the object. (A natural trait honed through design education and the need for accurate recall across mutliple interior architecture jobs) It helps me to recall the pieces I love when I see everything laid out in the order I first encountered it. Atta Gallery documents their shows so well, it’s an intricate and caring service they provide to their artists and clients alike, and I thank them for it!
Information (and actual) architecture aside, it’s wonderful to be in the second iteration of this exhibition. I was living in Seattle so wasn’t involved the first time around but remember being very envious of the wonderful artists included and the amazing show produced. The second time around has met all expectations from the first, and then bettered them. From the images I’ve seen it’s an immaculate showing of a really special group of works.
Thus, this time around I have FOMO about the artists who did get to go to Thailand to install and open the show, with the Australian Ambassador in attendance! I had a great trip to Thailand last year so know about some of what is going on (though the fabric and ribbon shopping that this year’s crew has been able to indulge in… Next time!) but to feel similarly jealous and overwhelmed I suggest you head over to our fearless leaders Mel Young’s and director of Atta Gallery, Atty Tantivit’s as well as the Atta Gallery’s Instagram images and see what we’re all missing out on!