Down The Track - August
AMONGST A CHAOTIC YEAR, August in the Centre presents a chance to reflect on time, space and place.
By Zoya Godoroja-Prieckaerts
We dive in on the first with a solely local, makers-focused market, featuring handmade jewellery, ceramics, clothes, specialty foods and more. The Watch This Space Mini Market (which, to be honest, isn’t all that mini anymore!) started off as a lawn sale back in 2016. This year, the grassroots organisation is prioritising those who are slow makers – it’s no longer just about second-hand clothes, but about valuing creatives in the community.
The Arid Lands Environment Centre’s annual desertSMART EcoFair brings Centralians and visitors together to reflect on the here and now, what and who surrounds us, and our place amongst this. With the moto ‘Science, Sustainability, Community’ the fair is an accessible event using creativity to welcome, entertain and inform.
The program includes Costa Georgiadis from Gardening Australia, a movie night featuring a series of films by the illustrious Dave Nixon, live music by adored Jingili musician Stuart Nugget, a plant sale, workshops and more.
There’s also a public talk on climate change. With a stellar panel featuring First Nations speakers from Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, the discussion focuses on the impacts of climate change on First Nations people in Central Australia. A pertinent topic, to say the least. There’s no doubt the Eco Fair will be a stimulating, action-packed couple of days, not to be missed.
On a broader scale, artist Suzi Lyon is thinking about our place on this planet in her solo exhibition, Travels on a Distant Star. Primarily charcoal drawings, each work in the show was created in response to the sense of being in an enormous universe, contemplating time and space. One wall-sized work depicts a stormy landscape, which Lyon started after the bushfires where she witnessed a huge storm filling the sky.
“It felt so poignant at the time, just after these fires had taken over our land and skies… the scale of the drawing is reflective of how massive and overwhelming [climate change] is,” she says.
While some works are monumental in size, others are small and intimate, each one giving an insight into a moment of the artist’s life.
“Narrative is an important part of art-making … I’m just telling a few stories, whilst feeling the greatness of everything around us and knowing that we’re in it”.
With these inspiring events and more this month, the Centre sure feels like a wonderful place to be.
WTS Mini Market
WHEN SAT 1 AUG | 10AM-2PM
AT WATCH THIS SPACE
COST GOLD COIN DONATION
INFO wts.org.au
desertSMART EcoFair
WHEN FRI 7 – SUN 9 AUG
AT VARIOUS LOCATIONS
INFO alec.org.au
Travels on a Distant Star
WHEN FRI 7 – SUN 23 AUG
OPENING FRI 7 AUG, 6PM
AT WATCH THIS SPACE
INFO wts.org.au
Photo: Costa Georgiadis at the 2019 EcoFair
