Participants documented their interactions in sites and environs unique to each community, ranging from the undulating woodlands and intensive cropping of Cootamundra, to the alpine and riverside areas of Tumut. Like Dean’s own series, also called The Edge, this project documents the informal rites of passage that young people, many on the cusp of adulthood, create for themselves in nature.

The Edge has been created and facilitated by The Wired Lab with assistance from state and federal government funding partners. The Lab’s curated programs and projects involve artists working from a regional context while producing outcomes of local relevance and rigor in the global sphere. 

“The Edge provides us with the opportunity to value the insight and talent of our young people. We trust this resonates with local people, particularly young people, based in regional and rural localities of the Eastern Riverina area,” The Wired Lab Artistic Director Sarah Last said. 

****

Walking Matters: Antonia Aitken, Rebecca Mayo, Kirstie Rea brings together these artists for the first time. They use walking to build knowledge and embodied experience of places and sites. The repetitive, meditative rhythm of walking extends into each artist’s methods which include drawing, printmaking, photography, glass, textiles and video.

The walks connect to local sites, revisited over time. Rea’s glass works arose from a residency in Cataract Gorge in Tasmania’s north, Aitken’s from her daily walks in and around Hobart, and Mayo’s from a seven-day walk down Merri Creek in Melbourne’s north.

The local, quotidian nature of walking situates their practices within a place, facilitating each artist to work in ways that stretch beyond a purely representational approach to focus instead more closely on materials, movement and performativity.