A flotilla of real boats which have been reimagined by regional artists will dock at Lismore Regional Gallery this week.

The boats are part of the Partnershipping Project - an exhibition travelling across regional Australia which includes twenty installations, twenty regional artists and connects four regional galleries. 

Each artist on the journey is given a vintage dinghy salvaged in Tasmania to re-purpose as a work of art. 

A number of re-purposed boats move on to each new destination, but the majority arrive empty, to be re-filled with the work of local artists, just as ships arriving at a port unload and refill their holds with local goods.

At Lismore Regional Gallery, the exhibition will feature eight boats.

Four of them have been re-imagined by local Northern Rivers artists Penny Evans, Hiromi Tango, Karla Dickens (with contributor Leigh Arnold) and Aris Prabawa.

Read more about Karla Dickens and her work this Sunday on The Lismore App in the Sunday Profile section: Sunday Profile

Two of the boats joined the armada in Townsville, Queensland and were created by Gail Mabo (the daughter of famous land rights campaigner, Eddie Mabo) and Anthony Vanghoua Vue.

Another two boats by Selena de Carvalho and David mangenner Gough have travelled from their original destination in Burnie, Tasmania. 

The exhibition will return to Tasmania next year having circumnavigated thousands of miles across regional Australia gathering new works as it goes. 

The ambitious project conceived by curator Pat Hoffie with associate curator Rosemary Miller links regional artists and galleries and poses the question ‘Does Place Matter’? 

The artists come from a broad range of cultural backgrounds and experiences and their works challenge stereotypes about what living in regional Australia might mean. 

They draw from their global experiences to make changes in their local communities, and to offer new insights. 

Local artists in The Partnershipping Project:

Penny Evans is a visual artist whose practice is based in ceramics, mixed media works on paper and sculptural installation. Penny’s work for the exhibition focuses on the disappearance of water from her ancestors traditional Gamilaroi homelands to the north west of Bundjalung country in and around Garah, Mungindi, Boomi and Boggabilla.

Hiromi Tango is a Japanese-Australian artist working across sculpture, photography, installation and performance. Hiromi’s practice is often collaborative, performative and site-specific and generates healing conversations through arts engagement. In Partnershipping she uses photography and sculpture to imagine being a seed, putting down roots in a new and fertile place.

Karla Dickens is a Wiradjuri painter whose practice freely moves across mixed media collage and sculpture, recycling everyday items to explore both gritty current and historical concerns. Her work for the exhibition, created with contributor Leigh Arnold, explores both colonial and indigenous influences on being ‘Lost at Sea’.

Aris Prabawa is a multidisciplinary artist from central Java, living in Lismore and maintaining a career in both Indonesia and Australia. His work for the exhibition explores the importance of connections with people and place.

The Partnershipping Project runs from December 7 until February 2. 

The official opening is Friday, December 6 at 6pm at Lismore Regional Gallery at 11 Rural Street, Lismore (next to the Quad).

The exhibition will be opened by national curator Pat Hoffie.

An Artists in Conversation event will be held at 11am on Saturday, December 7 with artists from the Partnershipping Project exhibition and curator Pat Hoffie.

Kids Events at the gallery include Friday Fundays throughout January with Learning Officer Claudie Frock, based on the ideas and artworks from The Partnershipping Project. From 10.30am – 12:30pm Friday 3, 10, 17, 24 January 2020. The cost is $5 per child. 

Admission to Lismore Regional Gallery is a suggested $5 donation.

Gallery opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday 10am to 4pm (Thursdays to 6pm)