Kelly’s Garden Curated Projects #19
An installation by Tristan Stowards
Refuge provides a space free from Electro-magnetic frequencies (EMF).
“The work comprises three one person tents, Momma Bear, Pappa Bear and Baby bear sized (so that each viewer can choose the one that is just right for them).
The tents are made from breathable aluminium, which is normally used as insulation in the construction industry. Inside each tent is a bed of Casurina leaves, for comfort.
The tents are specially designed to provide a haven from WiFi.
The tents also provide a refuge from everyday life, mass media, work, socializing, shopping, and the cultural activity of Salamanca Place.
The tents may also function as tents.
Refuge utilizes lumpenproletariat technology. It may be useful to think of the tents as upscaled booster bags. Booster bags are bags made for shoplifting. An ordinary bag is lined with alfoil, so that whatever is in the bag cannot be detected by security devices that use EMF.
I made Refuge after a steady decline in my health. At first I thought it was middle-age, but I quickly slid into a state of such decrepitude that I began to seriously consider my impending mortality. To cut to the chase, it was WiFi; at home, at work, in the towns. Making me sick as a dog. For six months, now, I have avoided, wherever possible, contact with WiFi, and the improvement in my health is nothing short of remarkable. I have gone from counting the feeble shuffle of every footstep for fear I may stray too far to get back home, to striding out over hill and down dale, the winter sun on my face air sharp in my nostrils, The Sound of Music my ear worm. I am not a scientist, or a lobbyist; I am an artist. So this is how I can share with you my story, and I hope it may be of some benefit. Refuge serves as a warning, offers an antidote, and provides a brief reprieve from the hazards of modernity.”
– Tristan Stowards
EXHIBITION DATES:
Friday 26 September – Friday 31 October 2014
10:00am – 5:00pm weekdays
OFFICIAL OPENING:
Friday 26 September 2014 @ 5:30pm
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Biography: Tristan Stowards
Tristan Stowards works across visual art and performance. His practise originates in the everyday, prompted by a pressing need to be solved. Stowards proposes solutions for a sustainable future, for telecommunications, transport, shelter, and puppets, among other things.
Striving for beauty (Stowards is, unfashionably, interested in making contemporary art that is pleasing to the eye) is pitted against a shedful collection of steel, cardboard, masking tape, a welder and needle and thread.
A recovering actor, Stowards sees the body as a tool for mark-making in space and time.
He is a long-term contributor to ‘the Village of New Performance’ a past board member of various Hobart Artist Run Initiatives, and has exhibited in solo and curated shows in Tasmania and Victoria. He holds lectures on automotive history and produced the much loved radio series ‘Don’t Scratch the Duco’ on Edge Radio, 99.3fm.
He is a graduate of the Tasmanian School of Art.
Kelly’s Garden Curated Projects is an initiative of the Salamanca Arts Centre and made possible through the generosity of Aspect Design and fundraising from SAC’s supporters at Quiz Night. This project was assisted through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts.
Image credits: Tristan Stowards. Plan for Refuge 2014, Pencil on paper, 40 x 11 cm.
Photography Craig Opie.