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Background to Sophie Munns’ Project : Homage to the Seed
Exploring the seeds and pods of Rainforest species was a childhood preoccupation for Sophie growing up on the Clarence River in Northern NSW, East Coast Australia in the 60‘s and 70‘s where sub-tropical plant species were dominant. Yet it was an introduced species, the Jacaranda tree, that was celebrated in an annual ‘Jacaranda Festival’ in this town of 17,000 people. Native pods hinted at submerged, overlooked histories around then local indigenous presence and relationship to land and culture. In the absence of pertinent education on these first Australians, childhood interest in Aboriginal people, some of whom were classmates, lingered. A culturally unacknowledged people at that time, they were pushed to the edge of towns all across the continent. Childhood’s un-answered questions were not so easily forgotten though!
Graduating with a Bachelor of Education (Fine Arts) in 1980 from Newcastle University, NSW led to teaching in Secondary schools in several regions of eastern NSW between 1981-86, establishing a fascination for encountering new geographical and cultural landscapes, informing the artist’s Art Practice through more than 30 relocations during the decades following her rural childhood. Teaching posts were juxtaposed with informal Art-making in free-time, wherever possible, with each new environment encountered bringing fresh visual and cultural material into focus for contemplation.
A move to London,1986-88, offered far broader opportunities for cultural and intellectual engagement, a major stimulus for redefining notions of Australia, past and future, whilst simultaneously shaping deeper directions for practicing Art. Yet, on closer reflection, the four months spent in Greece during summer travels in 1987 perhaps succeeded in awakening the deepest roots of Sophie’s perennial artistic preoccupations and later focus. 1988 London was also a heady time for dialogue on the environment... James Lovelock’s ‘Gaia’ was being discussed constantly and Sophie returned to Australia with this issue well in mind!
Melbourne, Australia became home in late 1988 ... ushering in a period of dedicated research, painting and writing, processing the dense northern hemisphere experiences. Teaching Music for a year was followed by a serious undertaking of two-years studio time to investigate what might arise from post-travel experience. A trip to Central Australia with its brief immersion in Aboriginal Culture and landscapes had a lasting effect during this exploratory period... a contrast to the European flavour of Melbourne’s cultural hub. Extensive dialogue and informal community collaborations in this southern city, in particular a 4.5 year solo stint in an Artist-run-space Themata Studio in the CBD proved a strong catalyst for career developments in later years. Bio-cultural diversity, though an unfamiliar concept at the time, nevertheless was an already present interest.
A formative work/travel experience in 1992 took Sophie, as cook, on a tour of NSW key Aboriginal Rock Art sites. In the company of a small group of mostly international Rock Art academics/enthusiasts ideas were shared around universal symbolic languages and ancient cultural legacies which curiously tapped back into themes explored during Mediterranean travels and subsequent early days in the Melbourne Studio.
During the 12 year Melbourne stint Sophie gravitated to producing artwork for commercial application, the Themata Studio era established in 1993, offered courses and workshops, stocked bookshops and gallery stores with a range of contemporary Artist Cards, provided artwork by commission, and brought freelancing work with a Textile Corporation supplying boutique stores across Australasia. All this whilst continuing to explore community cultural engagement, writing and journaling.
Major relocation from Melbourne to Newcastle mid 2000 led to further painting study initially, then a return to Teaching in Secondary Schools. Initiating a monthly dialogue group to meet other local creatives fostered vital connections in the early phase, prompting a rethink for practicing Art, entering Art Competitions as well as a new commitment to teaching across disciplines in schools which engendered immensely productive insights into English, History, Geography, Marine Biology and Science ... essentially opening a window on possibilities for involvement in Art-Science ventures which later came to fruition.
A successful extra-curricular Artistic collaboration arose in 2006 with a Primary School keen to combine Art and Ecology in a cross-curriculum project, subsequently documented and published in the NSW Education Journal and a University Education Research Bulletin. During this Newcastle era, intense studio application led to exhibiting frequently, Art Awards, and commencement of a MFA in 2007 exploring ”the role of the Artist in a time of increased velocity and complexity of change”.
Water emerged as the theme running through considerable artworks during the Newcastle era, 2000 - 2007. Living by the coast, frequenting harbour, jetty, rock platforms, stretches of beach and expansive ocean baths built during the depression, the ocean was an all consuming passion for people living in this environment, an old Industrial city of Steelworks and the world’s major Coal Port! Being at the water was truly revered here, a community salve. Constant subject of water-colours and journal work over summers was imagery absorbed from underwater swimming at ocean baths, the observation of light streaming through moving water. Readings on water and fluidity abstracted into meditations on flux, change and the to and fro of conversation. Curiously, an abstracted seedpod motif had entered the artist’s ‘fluidity’ artwork around 2005. This un-bidden motif was an interloper, unsettling... yet a silent augur of things to come.
A 2008 re-location to sub-tropical Brisbane in North Eastern Australia, although prompted by illness, ushered in a potent time for re-imagining working life as a contemporary artist. The shock of the rich sub-tropical environment, trees laden with large seedpods, everywhere such verdant growth, was catalyst for re-awakening a rather sub-merged but long-held interest in seeds plus fascination with ethno-botany and biological diversity. Rather than pick-up the MFA in an unknown University during recovery from illness an idea collected around Seeds, seeing potential in this subject for aesthetic exploration and the means to address a longing to respond to critical pressures on natural eco-systems arising from a world in flux.
Adapting aims of the MFA to a revised research/freelancing direction ushered in an intensely rewarding, mature phase for Sophie’s Art Practice where past preoccupations, skills and experiences have been woven into a multi-dimensional project of local, regional and international relevance over 5 years. Residencies in Botanic Gardens, Seed Research Facilities, a National Park and an Urban Ag operation have presented the artist with infinite material for visual exploration and interpretation. Engagement with leading Seed projects, scientists, global and local initiatives flow into communications which disperse content. Residencies, collaborations across sectors, commissions, speaking events and teaching engagements expand and deepen as the project evolves.
The earlier preoccupation with symbolic languages of ancient cultures brought to the fore during 1987 travel in Greece has been carried through to current artwork celebrating the seed heritage of the planet. The Australian continent where the relationship between first peoples and white settlers had for so long been one of estrangement is now developing significantly through increasing education and engagement with indigenous knowledge of flora, fauna, sacred places, cultural forms and land management... curiosity, excitement and education are replacing fear and lack of awareness.
Symbolic forms and patterns found in bio-culturally diverse material from around the globe fascinated Sophie from school days on. Decades later she keenly recalls the afternoon in 2010, when in the Seed Lab at the Botanic Gardens investigating seed capsule cross-sections of tropical fruits, the critical moment of seeing the connection between the scientific visual information before her that day and the memory bank of plant and seed forms applied in cultural motifs and symbols across history. This ‘aha’ moment seemed to amplify, certainly echo, the profound human connection with seeds and plants throughout millennia... inter-relationships so finely woven in culture and language were curiously observable through these abstracted motifs based on cross-sections of seed capsules. Struck by the sense of universality in each motif’s visual representation Sophie saw they offered scientists, horticulturalists, gardeners, anyone familiar with these forms a unique artistic interpretation... yet, at the same time, one didn’t have to know the species they represented to be able to appreciate the aesthetics of pattern and structure.
‘Homage to the Seed’ began as a Botanic Gardens residency project, chosen by a panel for its timely exploration of seeds coinciding with the 2010 UN International Year of Biodiversity. The project continues to find only more relevance, attracting further interest, associations and opportunities to collaborate. November 2013 Sophie launched SEED.ART.LAB. Studio & Art Space, recalling perhaps elements of the Melbourne Artist-run-Space, Themata Studio. However, this time ‘Homage to the Seed’ is central to the creative vision.
More information can be found through: http://about.me/sophie_munns
'Perennial symbols from the Botanical Realm I', acrylic and pigmented ink on linen, 120 cm x 60 cm, 2013
Exploring the seeds and pods of Rainforest species was a childhood preoccupation for Sophie growing up on the Clarence River in Northern NSW, East Coast Australia in the 60‘s and 70‘s where sub-tropical plant species were dominant. Yet it was an introduced species, the Jacaranda tree, that was celebrated in an annual ‘Jacaranda Festival’ in this town of 17,000 people. Native pods hinted at submerged, overlooked histories around then local indigenous presence and relationship to land and culture. In the absence of pertinent education on these first Australians, childhood interest in Aboriginal people, some of whom were classmates, lingered. A culturally unacknowledged people at that time, they were pushed to the edge of towns all across the continent. Childhood’s un-answered questions were not so easily forgotten though!
Graduating with a Bachelor of Education (Fine Arts) in 1980 from Newcastle University, NSW led to teaching in Secondary schools in several regions of eastern NSW between 1981-86, establishing a fascination for encountering new geographical and cultural landscapes, informing the artist’s Art Practice through more than 30 relocations during the decades following her rural childhood. Teaching posts were juxtaposed with informal Art-making in free-time, wherever possible, with each new environment encountered bringing fresh visual and cultural material into focus for contemplation.
A move to London,1986-88, offered far broader opportunities for cultural and intellectual engagement, a major stimulus for redefining notions of Australia, past and future, whilst simultaneously shaping deeper directions for practicing Art. Yet, on closer reflection, the four months spent in Greece during summer travels in 1987 perhaps succeeded in awakening the deepest roots of Sophie’s perennial artistic preoccupations and later focus. 1988 London was also a heady time for dialogue on the environment... James Lovelock’s ‘Gaia’ was being discussed constantly and Sophie returned to Australia with this issue well in mind!
Melbourne, Australia became home in late 1988 ... ushering in a period of dedicated research, painting and writing, processing the dense northern hemisphere experiences. Teaching Music for a year was followed by a serious undertaking of two-years studio time to investigate what might arise from post-travel experience. A trip to Central Australia with its brief immersion in Aboriginal Culture and landscapes had a lasting effect during this exploratory period... a contrast to the European flavour of Melbourne’s cultural hub. Extensive dialogue and informal community collaborations in this southern city, in particular a 4.5 year solo stint in an Artist-run-space Themata Studio in the CBD proved a strong catalyst for career developments in later years. Bio-cultural diversity, though an unfamiliar concept at the time, nevertheless was an already present interest.
A formative work/travel experience in 1992 took Sophie, as cook, on a tour of NSW key Aboriginal Rock Art sites. In the company of a small group of mostly international Rock Art academics/enthusiasts ideas were shared around universal symbolic languages and ancient cultural legacies which curiously tapped back into themes explored during Mediterranean travels and subsequent early days in the Melbourne Studio.
During the 12 year Melbourne stint Sophie gravitated to producing artwork for commercial application, the Themata Studio era established in 1993, offered courses and workshops, stocked bookshops and gallery stores with a range of contemporary Artist Cards, provided artwork by commission, and brought freelancing work with a Textile Corporation supplying boutique stores across Australasia. All this whilst continuing to explore community cultural engagement, writing and journaling.
Major relocation from Melbourne to Newcastle mid 2000 led to further painting study initially, then a return to Teaching in Secondary Schools. Initiating a monthly dialogue group to meet other local creatives fostered vital connections in the early phase, prompting a rethink for practicing Art, entering Art Competitions as well as a new commitment to teaching across disciplines in schools which engendered immensely productive insights into English, History, Geography, Marine Biology and Science ... essentially opening a window on possibilities for involvement in Art-Science ventures which later came to fruition.
A successful extra-curricular Artistic collaboration arose in 2006 with a Primary School keen to combine Art and Ecology in a cross-curriculum project, subsequently documented and published in the NSW Education Journal and a University Education Research Bulletin. During this Newcastle era, intense studio application led to exhibiting frequently, Art Awards, and commencement of a MFA in 2007 exploring ”the role of the Artist in a time of increased velocity and complexity of change”.
Water emerged as the theme running through considerable artworks during the Newcastle era, 2000 - 2007. Living by the coast, frequenting harbour, jetty, rock platforms, stretches of beach and expansive ocean baths built during the depression, the ocean was an all consuming passion for people living in this environment, an old Industrial city of Steelworks and the world’s major Coal Port! Being at the water was truly revered here, a community salve. Constant subject of water-colours and journal work over summers was imagery absorbed from underwater swimming at ocean baths, the observation of light streaming through moving water. Readings on water and fluidity abstracted into meditations on flux, change and the to and fro of conversation. Curiously, an abstracted seedpod motif had entered the artist’s ‘fluidity’ artwork around 2005. This un-bidden motif was an interloper, unsettling... yet a silent augur of things to come.
A 2008 re-location to sub-tropical Brisbane in North Eastern Australia, although prompted by illness, ushered in a potent time for re-imagining working life as a contemporary artist. The shock of the rich sub-tropical environment, trees laden with large seedpods, everywhere such verdant growth, was catalyst for re-awakening a rather sub-merged but long-held interest in seeds plus fascination with ethno-botany and biological diversity. Rather than pick-up the MFA in an unknown University during recovery from illness an idea collected around Seeds, seeing potential in this subject for aesthetic exploration and the means to address a longing to respond to critical pressures on natural eco-systems arising from a world in flux.
Adapting aims of the MFA to a revised research/freelancing direction ushered in an intensely rewarding, mature phase for Sophie’s Art Practice where past preoccupations, skills and experiences have been woven into a multi-dimensional project of local, regional and international relevance over 5 years. Residencies in Botanic Gardens, Seed Research Facilities, a National Park and an Urban Ag operation have presented the artist with infinite material for visual exploration and interpretation. Engagement with leading Seed projects, scientists, global and local initiatives flow into communications which disperse content. Residencies, collaborations across sectors, commissions, speaking events and teaching engagements expand and deepen as the project evolves.
The earlier preoccupation with symbolic languages of ancient cultures brought to the fore during 1987 travel in Greece has been carried through to current artwork celebrating the seed heritage of the planet. The Australian continent where the relationship between first peoples and white settlers had for so long been one of estrangement is now developing significantly through increasing education and engagement with indigenous knowledge of flora, fauna, sacred places, cultural forms and land management... curiosity, excitement and education are replacing fear and lack of awareness.
Symbolic forms and patterns found in bio-culturally diverse material from around the globe fascinated Sophie from school days on. Decades later she keenly recalls the afternoon in 2010, when in the Seed Lab at the Botanic Gardens investigating seed capsule cross-sections of tropical fruits, the critical moment of seeing the connection between the scientific visual information before her that day and the memory bank of plant and seed forms applied in cultural motifs and symbols across history. This ‘aha’ moment seemed to amplify, certainly echo, the profound human connection with seeds and plants throughout millennia... inter-relationships so finely woven in culture and language were curiously observable through these abstracted motifs based on cross-sections of seed capsules. Struck by the sense of universality in each motif’s visual representation Sophie saw they offered scientists, horticulturalists, gardeners, anyone familiar with these forms a unique artistic interpretation... yet, at the same time, one didn’t have to know the species they represented to be able to appreciate the aesthetics of pattern and structure.
‘Homage to the Seed’ began as a Botanic Gardens residency project, chosen by a panel for its timely exploration of seeds coinciding with the 2010 UN International Year of Biodiversity. The project continues to find only more relevance, attracting further interest, associations and opportunities to collaborate. November 2013 Sophie launched SEED.ART.LAB. Studio & Art Space, recalling perhaps elements of the Melbourne Artist-run-Space, Themata Studio. However, this time ‘Homage to the Seed’ is central to the creative vision.
More information can be found through: http://about.me/sophie_munns
'Perennial symbols from the Botanical Realm I', acrylic and pigmented ink on linen, 120 cm x 60 cm, 2013