TIDELAND: Works from the SECCA Collection
14 Feb – 26 Apr 2025 (dates extended from 12 April)
TIDELAND includes a curated selection of artworks drawn from the SECCA Collection exploring the aesthetics and symbolism of waterbodies, perspectives on regional identities, and contested views on landscapes.
Artists: Tony Albert, Heather Burness, Tamara Dean, Colleen Dixon, Ken Done, Caren Florance, Gunybi Ganambarr, Harold A. Hanke, Julian Meagher, Idris Murphy, Anneke Paijmans, Andrew Sayers, James Taylor, and G. K. Townshend.
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This exhibition at SECCA is also the foundation for the ‘Tideland: Art + Word’ project. This project is a new collaboration between the South East Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA), the Bega Valley Shire Library, and the South Coast Writers Centre, that aims to explore a multidisciplinary interpretation of works from the SECCA public art collection. The project will encourage regional writers through the practice of ‘Ekphrasis’ writing (poetry inspired by art) to creatively respond to 10 artworks in the planned ‘Tideland’ exhibition at SECCA. This poetry opportunity is a first for the Bega Valley and recognises the strong connection between visual art forms and the written word.
Tideland: Art + Word project
Friday 28 February, 5.30 – 7.30pm
SECCA galleries
The project launch event announced the 11 selected Ekphrasis poems from the Ekphrasis Poetry open call. The selected Ekphrasis poems from 11 poets are displayed alongside the artworks they reference in the TIDELAND exhibition exploring a cross-artform conversation of meaning, allusion and shared interpretation.
Selected poets: Ronald Arana Atilano, Erica Chester, Eileen Chong, Mark Friend, Pamela Goddard, Julie-Ann Henninger, Siân Lim, Brittany Riley, Paris Rosemont, Nathan mudyi Sentance, and Roger Vickery.
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The project also engaged text-based artist and poet, Caren Florance, to create new work in response to artwork from the collection. SECCA are thrilled to present Nor any drop to drink as part of the TIDELAND exhibition.
Caren Florance is a queer-identifying artist and writer who lives and works in Bega, NSW, within the Yuin-Monaro Nations. Her typo-bibliographic practice, often produced within the imprint Ampersand Duck, is deeply material, using handset letterpress and other processes to explore overlaps of visual poetry and text art via artist books, zines and other print formats. She likes to collaborate with poets and artists and aims to present text in ways that extends gallery boundaries to intrigue and provoke the public into unsolicited reading and participation. Her artwork is collected by national and international institutions, mostly libraries. In 2019 she published a commercial visual poetry volume called Lost in Case with Cordite Books.
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For the project launch event three performance/ spoken word poems were also commissioned by poets Gabe Journey Jones, Rae Kennedy and Nick Whittock.
Gabrielle Journey Jones is an award-winning performance poet born on sovereign Gadigal Land, Sydney, Australia. She is from Maori and African American bloodlines and has lived in Bega Valley on Djiringanj Country since 2018. Gabrielle has shared her poetry at local, national and international events for 30 years.
Rae Kennedy is a poet, storyteller and visual artist. Originally from Canada, Rae has been making home and community in the village of Candelo, NSW since 2013. Her creative practice and work are deeply informed by the ordinary stories of the people, objects and land she resides amongst and within.
Nick Whittock is a Brogo based poet and raconteur whose published books include hows its (inken publisch, 2014), Watto Era (Crater Press, 2016) and an AUSTRALIA calendar (stale objects depress, 2016). Whittock’s cricket poetry and experimental approaches to performance poetry has gained him an almost cult status within the Australian Poetry scene. Whittock is one of the convenors of the annual Brogo Poetry symposium.
The TIDELAND: Art + Word project launch was held on Friday 28 February 2025.
The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government initiative that supports sustainable cultural development in regional, remote and very remote Australia.
This project was made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, provided through Regional Arts Australia and Regional Arts NSW.
