COVET 2, ANU SCHOOL OF ART, speaking notes

I’d like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people who are the traditional custodians of this land on which we are meeting, and pay respect to the Elders of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri both past and present. I extend this respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in attendance today.

As Covet 1 tours Europe, I am honoured to open the next instalment, Covet 2, by the Networks Australia group of mainly Canberra-based professional artists.

The Networks group was developed by Nancy Tingey while making nets in her studio. This concept was then taken up by Valerie Kirk here at the ANU, who collaborated with other staff and artists to create an international project of exchange and interaction. Networks has grown to include many artists who mainly work in textiles, demonstrating the power of a great idea, and the potential of collaborative creative endeavours.

The notion of Covet has provoked responses embodying the potent and the delicate, the challenging and the beautiful. To covet is to desire something that you cannot have because it is beyond your reach, belongs to someone else, is too expensive or simply not available.
In Covet 2, twenty talented artists suggest to us how they dream of lives not their own, how they long for stillness and simplicity, or a secure and healthy environment, or how they remember loved ones and lost but not forgotten opportunities.

Personally, I covet the creative inner and outer world of an artist – their ability to imagine, to interpret, to make. The energy and care they invest to produce unique objects and works of art. And the physical and intellectual effort they apply to explore the infinite possibilities of materials and processes.

In my new role as CEO for Craft ACT, I hope to build on our association’s 40 year history and reputation for excellence and innovation, to expand opportunities for artists and designers – and especially our members - to practice their craft, access new business opportunities, raise their profile, and forge connections with local, regional, national and international communities.

Today’s launch coincides with Textiles Week and to celebrate, we are also presenting a series of textile exhibitions on display in the Craft ACT gallery including the stunning Group Exchange: Tamworth Textiles Tri-ennial and work from our annual Artist-in-Residence program, now in its 10th year. Canberra artists are featured in both of these exhibitions, and our retail outlet, Agency, in Braddon, has many beautiful textile pieces for sale by local and national artists.

I congratulate all the artists involved in Covet 2 and thank the ANU School of Art for hosting the exhibition and inviting me here today. I wish you all a very happy, inspiring and thought-provoking Textiles Week 2016 and I am sure many of you will covet the work you see tonight. Thank you.