As a collective of artists in the region of Geelong we’ve embarked on art adventures in nature, underwater, among animals and people, finding localities, and recording their ‘signals’. These signals as mixtures of moving images, performances, and objects are then inscribed in a new location or in an art space in city environment.

Our ‘creative occupations’ are both subtle and interventionist – wanting to reveal something new through a lens onto what’s going on around us in the city. We want to ‘occupy’ by bringing life and blending this energy into the urban fabric. During our lived experience at the Third Space Gallery + Digital, we have gained a special connection to the life of city and to the creative community in Geelong, that has allowed us to contemplate their curious flows and stories.

Fabulations as a concept is derived from Donna Haraway, a leading thinker in feminist studies, science & technology, and ecofeminism, who uses ‘speculative fabulation’ (SF) by referring to the practices of story tellers, makers of fables and impossible worlds, usually full of “creatures of the imagination.” A fabulator herself, Haraway claims that “we need to talk about speculative fabulation and the science fact in the same SF figure.” [1] Therefore, SF is an effective world-making and perceiving methodology for life’s continuation. 
In Fabulations series, we make stories through connections in collaboration and between locations as well as between the past, present, and future work. In the Third Space Gallery + Digital we use sculpture and ongoing performance to tell a story in five chapters:

 

1. Helmet

2. Artefact

3. Mapping

4. Shipwreck

5. Lifeboat shed

 

Closing performance Imprint Fabulations Ritual – Fri 13 January 2023 at 18:00.

 

- Marita Batna, curator

 

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1atjLfbNxE

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Artists

Michael Morgan (sculpture), Jennifer McElwee (sculpture), Ingrid Petterson (ongoing performance), Jessica Laraine Williams (ongoing performance, forthcoming speculative fiction), Marita Batna (curating).

With contributions from: Beverly Excell (artefact receptacle), Rosemary Thompson (collaborative making of sea creatures), Mathew Berg (photography).

 

Program and updates

 

www.creativeoccupation.com.au

 

@maritabatna

@michaelmorganart

@jennifer_mcelwee_artist

@yesterdays_foundling

@jess_laraine_art