The Australian National University and Geoscience Australia present the symposium, Art of the Collection.

In conjunction with the exhibition Geo: Art of the Collection, participating artists and scholars will discuss themes of creative research fostered by the newly established collaboration between Geoscience Australia and ANU School of Art & Design.

Symposium Program:

9.30- 11am, Sir Roland Wilson Building ANU, Lecture Theatre 2.02

• 9.30am: Ruth Waller- Welcome and introduction
• 9.45am: Steven Petkovski, Curator, National Mineral & Fossil Collection, Geoscience Australia
• 10.00am: Keynote: The beauty of the life-denying inorganic: A crystalline history of abstract art - Professor Chris McAuliffe, Sir William Dobell Chair, ANU School of Art & Design
• 10.30am: Dr Ella Whateley: Peripheral Vision
• 10.45am: Dr Tiffany Cole: Iridescence and play of colour: Investigations into portraying mobile optical effects in painting

11.00-11.30am, Morning Tea. ANU School of Art & Design Gallery

11.30-1pm, Lecture Theatre, Level 1, ANU School of Art & Design

• 11.30am A series of "petcha kutcha" style 5 minute presentations from 8 of the exhibiting artists, broken into 2 sessions followed by panel discussion.
• Sesssion 1: Julie Brooke, Harijs Pielkans, Patsy Hely and Anna Madeline Raupach
• Session 2: Pie Bolton, Annika Romeyn, Thomas O'Hara and Liz Coats.

KEYNOTE: The beauty of the life-denying inorganic: A crystalline history of abstract art

Professor Chris McAuliffe

Sir William Dobell Chair, ANU School of Art & Design

The rigid, lifeless module of the crystal lattice was the enabling metaphor of Robert Smithson’s practice in the 1960s. Combining the inertia of minimalist sculpture, the mirrored surfaces of the skyscraper and the camp décor of B-grade Sci-Fi movies, Smithson imagined sculptures like ‘a giant crystal from another planet.’ His childhood fascination with crystals and his adult rockhounding activities were developed into visions of crystal lattices extending across the globe. Arguing for a new ‘alien and distant’ abstraction, Smithson returned to the early 20th century theories of Wörringer and Riegl, who argued that ‘abstraction finds its beauty in the life-denying inorganic, in the crystalline.’ Smithson’s fascination reveals the hidden history of an alternate version of modernist aesthetics which sought ‘the material individuality and closed unity’ of things in crystalline forms.

Iridescence and play of colour: Investigations into portraying mobile optical effects in painting

Dr Tiffany Cole

The optical experience of iridescence and the process and effects of portraying it in painting has become a source of fascination in my practice and my recent PhD research. Slippery and metamorphosing, iridescence captures our attention. Upon encountering an object with such a surface quality, we find ourselves pausing to shift our view or turning the item over in our hands to better understand its form. Portrayed in painting, the mobile quality of iridescence is made static, highlighting its perceptual ambiguity. In this brief talk I will discuss my exploration of this ambiguous optical effect in my practice and doctoral research, and my investigations of the play of colour in opal specimens from the Geoscience Australia collection.

Peripheral Vision

Dr Ella Whateley

What does it feel like to touch the core of a dead planet, and how can that material thrill be communicated? Making rubbings is one ancient way to engage with the physicality of an object. Drawing on her recent research into Chinese ink traditions with paper, Ella Whateley seeks to bring the thrilling tactile experience of the Henbury meteorite to life.

Free | All welcome

For more information about the exhibition Geo: Art of the Collection, please see here.