Muwinina Country by Luana Towney

“For ngayapi niyakara, I have written a travelling book about the First Nations people of nipaluna (Hobart).
The story is a child friendly history lesson about first contact in nipaluna in both Palawa kani and English”  - Luana Towney

Muwinina Country is a travelling book that takes people on a journey along the South Hobart Rivulet Track during NAIDOC Week 2020, that will stay in place until January 2021. Luana Towney has created this new temporary public art project in collaboration with her daughter Jamaya Summers who has done the illustrations for the story. 

Luana is a Palawa Wiradjuri woman based in nipaluna. Drawing inspiration from her people, her culture and her Country, Luana is a painter, basket weaver, shell stringer, poet and photographer.  She has most recently represented her people at the Darwin Aboriginal Arts Fair, selling echidna quill jewellery and paintings. She has also self-published a culturally appropriate children's book about breastfeeding and motherhood and was the winner of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Emerging Writer award in 2020.

Listen to the audio book below:

ngayapi      niyakara (born to dream) is a partnership between the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC) and CONSTANCE that provides a paid opportunity for an emerging Aboriginal artist based in lutruwita (Tasmania) to present a new temporary artwork in an outdoor public space of their choice in nipaluna (Hobart). This project is supported by the City of Hobart. With thanks to Blackspace Creative, Xanderware & Chris Bury

Exhibition dates: Open daily between 6th November 2020 - Feburary 2021
Getting there: Walk or ride, or parking is available on Wynyard or Macquarie St, South Hobart or catch the bus to Stop 9 on Macquarie St.
Accessibility: The walking trail is a 10 minute walk on a concrete and then compact gravel surface, sturdy shoes are recommended.  Wheel chair accessible. 

CONSTANCE acknowledges and respects the Palawa people as the traditional and ongoing owners and custodians of lutruwita. We pay our respects to elders past, present and future, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded.

CONSTANCE ARI program is assisted through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts._.

Elemental Systems | India Kenning  

Elemental Systems, a solo exhibition by emerging artist India Kenning, explores the agency and vulnerability of the nonhuman. Working sensitively with natural elements from significant sites in Tasmania, the artist forms symbiotic relationships with her work through performative gestures of care and protection. Housed beneath Battery Point in the subterranean corridors of the historical site Princes Park Magazine, Elemental Systems presents ‘assembled landscapes’ of stone, ice and living matter. These fragments or micro-ecologies of Tasmania are a response to the artist’s connection to place and also prompt us to consider the fragility and ephemerality of the nonhuman.


Opening Event: Saturday 14th of March from 5.00pm, with activation of the artworks throughout the night
Exhibition continues: Saturday 14th - Wednesday 17th of March 11-3
Artist in conversation: Tuesday 16th of March 11.30am
Location: Princes Park Magazine, Battery Point.

CONSTANCE acknowledges and respects the palawa people as the traditional and ongoing owners and custodians of lutruwita. We pay our respects to elders past, present and future, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded.

CONSTANCE ARI 2019 program is assisted through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts._.

Gestures of Care  

Gestures of Care peers into the choreographic structures and bodily gestures that emerge from, contain, and imprint women’s bodies while they perform their everyday work in the industries of care. It is an ongoing research project of dance artist Sofie Burgoyne. For the purpose of this event at Salamanca Arts Centre, Sofie would like to work from these questions: In a time when it would seem that care for the self, care for another and / or care for the environment is clouded with complexity, can we learn how to care from these female care-giving bodies? Are there temporal, spatial and corporeal tools that we can practice in order to manifest care giving into our daily lives? The event will include three short films, each of a Tasmanian woman whose daily work is in care-giving, participatory performative practices and live dance performance. Contained in the films, practices and performance are gestures of care decontextualised, re arranged and expanded upon, inviting the receiver to share a proximity to embodied care giving. 

Sofie Burgoyne Gestures of Care 2019.mp4 from Constance ARI on Vimeo.

CONSTANCE acknowledges and respects the palawa people as the traditional and ongoing owners and custodians of lutruwita. We pay our respects to elders past, present and future, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded.

CONSTANCE ARI 2019 program is assisted through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts._.

Shadows on the Hill |  Dan McCabe

As housing prices in our major cities continue to climb, the Australian Dream of owning a suburban home becomes an even bigger mountain to conquer. But is it worth the hike?

Constance have taken up residence in Kelly’s Garden. We have invited Perth artist Dan McCabe to present his performative-installation 'Shadows on the Hill' within the walled colonial garden.

Dan McCabe will pitch a tent he has designed and made to look like a 1980s Mitsubishi Magna wagon. Inhabiting the tent for a few hours each day, McCabe will host conversations with the public about their experience of housing instability in Australian cities.

The work is a tongue-in-cheek, though critical comment on housing instability in Australia. The artist inhabits sought-after waterfront real estate for free in a city where the stressors of tourism, rental instability and the rise of air bnb have left many homeless or insecure. Many young people are increasingly finding themselves locked out of the housing market, and are forced to seek alternative modes of living in the world.

Situating this work in Hobart is particularly resonant at this point in time.

Alongside the installation we have invited Hobart comedian Brittany Szlezak and writer James Dryburgh to reflect on the themes of the work in a critical discussion on Saturday 19th October, as part of the closing event. 
Shadows on the Hill: Conversations with the Artist
Tuesday 15th October — Saturday 19th October 10am-3pm

Shadows on the Hill: Panel Discussion and Closing event
Saturday 19th October 4pm - 8pm
The panel discussion will be chaired by Alexandra Grieve-Johnson, with a Welcome to Country and introduction from Kartanya Maynard.