Kambah People’s Map
Interactive Workshops: Contribute to Kambah People’s Map
WHEN: Saturdays 4 February – 4 March, 1-4pm
What do you know about Kambah that you think is important to share with others? Join this workshop to make an artwork or share your Kambah story on the Kambah Peoples’ Map. No experience needed, children welcome with their adults. We will use polaroid photography, cyanotypes and pinhole photography or you can share your Kambah story with me over a cuppa.
Detailed program:
Saturday 11 February
Louise Curham will be in the gallery, 1-4pm with her pinhole camera images and cyanotype prints. At 2pm join her in the gallery for the “Kambah Community Noticeboard F2F meet-up”. It’s a time to meet new people and chat about issues of common interest to residents and friends of Kambah. At 4pm, drop in for afternoon tea at the Diversity hub in Kambah, then at 5pm, join Louise and local history knowledge holder, Glen Schwinghamer for a tour around Springbett Street.
Saturday 18 February
Artist Louise Curham says, “Kambah turns 50 in 2024: let’s talk about Kambah 2050 and Kambah 2074. What do we hope for ourselves, what we want for the future?”
Louise will be in the gallery from 1-4pm and will be joined by local identity Geoff Pryor for a “kitchen table discussion” at 2pm. Come and have your say, share your memories of Kambah and make some new friends.
Saturday 25 February
Louise is in the gallery from 1 to 4pm with her evolving “Kambah Peoples Map”, the Bennett Family home movie and her intriguing pinhole camera images and ethereal cyanotype prints. Join her for a chat about Kambah or bring a plate for the 2pm Artists of Kambah/Artists of the South afternoon meet-up. Don’t miss this special opportunity to meet other like-minded creatives based in the local area.
Closing Event: Saturday 4 March
Artist Louise Curham’s exhibition Kambah will close with a special event on the last Saturday of the show! Join her in the gallery at 2pm to enjoy light refreshments and a delightful choral selection from the LDK Greenway Choir led by Sarah Louise Owens. Established in 2021, members of the choir have sung together for several years and performed for aged care facilities all over Canberra. Their ‘playlist of life’ repertoire embraces: hits from the 50s, 60s, 70s, favourite show tunes, International folk songs and some popular classical pieces. The choir won the ACT Positive Aging Award in 2019 as “Seasoned Voices” and they happily welcome any members of the Seniors’ community to join.
Exhibition:
Exhibition Showing: 20 January – 4 March 2023
Kambah is a suburb of Canberra that began in 1974. Kambah Station was subdivided and Village Creek went underground. Houses were built with a commons running through the middle. This exhibition explores Kambah through the eyes of those of us who live here. It investigates how a suburb that set out with utopian ambitions in the 1970s evolved to become famous as one of Australia’s biggest bogan suburbs. What does that mean in 2023, just before Kambah turns 50? What effect does it have on us as we prepare for challenges for communities from climate change?
The exhibition shares a digital map built from the community’s answers to the question ‘what do you know about Kambah that you think is important to share with others?’ Along side the map is a series of images of Kambah made using pinhole photography and cyanotypes. These are processes that take time and sunlight to record an image, very literal portraits of Kambah. Visitors to the exhibition can add to the digital map or join in a photography workshop. The aim is to show up what is valuable to those of us who live here and along the way, the diversity of who calls this place home (not just people, but everything/one else too) and what we might build together in the future.
Exhibition acknowledgements:
Originally funded by an ArtsACT Homefront grant; supported by Louise Curham’s role as a lecturer in the Charles Sturt University School of Information and Communication Studies
About Louise Curham:
Louise’s practice crosses archives and art. She started out in film and along the way has worked across most media and in many collaborations. She focuses on old media and the lessons we can learn from it . Her work has often involved building communities. This project draws directly on her work in the archival art of ‘appraisal’, selecting what should be kept as archives. Instead Kambah residents, alumni and visitors are selecting the archive and the archive is not just old stuff, but also current stuff. Louise’s work has been shown in numerous venues across Australia and the region. Most recently she was part of the Canberra Art Biennial, Canberra’s SoundOut festival and the University of Canberra’s exhibition Upending Mending.