Fran Callen ‘Just Add Water’
SALA exhibition August 1- September 30, 2021
Exhibition launch August 14 at 3pm
with guest opening speaker Emma Fey, Chief Executive Officer - Guildhouse
‘Just Add Water’ is a response to my Country Arts residency to Grindell's Hut in Adnyamathanha Country 2019. Observations of the effects of four years without rain. Of the jewels of living things that manage to survive still. Of learning from local Adnyamathanha Elders and Rangers about the flora and fauna, and from a scientist from Deakin University about the incredible adaptability of Idthi, the Zebra Finch, who sing to their eggs a different song in hot arid conditions so the chicks develop differently and better adapt to drought. Learning from my dad about the geology of the area and the fascinating connections between drawing and geology. And the generous gift of ochre from Yalmarralpana Ochre Pit from Uncle Cliff Coulthard. Ochre that's now been smeared, scraped, splattered and crushed across every artwork I made, almost all of which is created on recycled surfaces including food packaging from our time there. The spectacular powerful timeless beauty of it all. Waiting for rain. Hoping it doesn’t come too late.
Fran Callen Work in progress, Grindell’s Hut, Adnyamathanha Country, 2019
Fran Callen, Higher Living, Gesso, watercolour, wine, coffee, tea, ochre, dirt, salt-lake salt, smoke, acrylic on recycled tea packet, 25cmx20cm, 2019
(ochre from Yalmarralpana Ochre Pit, Adnyamathanha Country, gifted by Uncle Cliff Coulthard)
Fran Callen, Higher Living, Gesso, watercolour, wine, coffee, tea, ochre, dirt, salt-lake salt, smoke, acrylic on recycled tea sachets and packet, 150xmx25cm, 2019
(ochre from Yalmarralpana Ochre Pit, Adnyamathanha Country, gifted by Uncle Cliff Coulthard)
Fran Callen Artist Bio
Fran’s current drawing-based work documents her family’s relationship with domestic spaces and their impact on the natural world. Motherhood provides an ambient background. After her first solo exhibition at Greenhill Galleries in 2000 Fran won the 2003 Ruth Tuck Scholarship to Santa Repararta International School of Art, Florence, returning to complete Honours in Visual Arts at SASA in 2005, with live drawings of social interaction, and performance. Her portrait of Chrissy Amphlett was shortlisted in the 2012 Portia Geach Memorial Art Prize. After 2012 the kitchen tabletop became, out of motherhood-necessity, her studio, domestic routines marking evolving palimpsests across unstretched canvas ‘tablecloths’. ‘Tabletop 1’ won the Fleurieu Food & Wine Art Prize 2016. Fran’s Limber Up mentorship with Christopher Orchard led to representation with BMG, with solo exhibitions in 2017 and - supported by the Ed Tweddell Studio Residency at Central Studios - in SALA 2018. Her botanical inspired ‘Collections Project’ work in 2017 was exhibited in SALA and FRANFest. She was curated by Gabi Lane into ‘Good Mother’ at Central School of Art, SALA 2018, this artwork shortlisted in STILL National Still Life Award 2019, and the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing 2020. Recent work responds to her 2019 Country Arts residency to Grindell’s Hut in Adnyamathanha country, exhibited at Yarta Purtli Cultural Centre, Port Augusta 2020, Collective Haunt in SALA 2020, and to be exhibited at Light Square Gallery in SALA 2021. Fran’s work was recently shortlisted in The Paul Guest Prize for Drawing 2019, Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize 2019, and Adelaide Parklands Art Prize 2020. Fran has been teaching drawing and painting for fourteen years, including at the South Australian School of Art, Tauondi Aboriginal College and currently at Adelaide College of the Arts.
