about the artists.
Laura Wills.
Laura Wills’s Tarntanya/ Adelaide based visual arts practice is centered around collaboration, participation and local ecologies. Her expanded approach is site responsive, often connecting people together and to nature primarily working across the discipline of drawing. Wills’s shifting and responsive methodology of practice emerges from her background studying buddhism in Nepal and joining forest activist rides around Australia. Wills is interested in creating artworks that are social, inclusive, communicative in nature and connect us to the environment. Laura interweaves art practice with studies in Queer permaculture, seasonal rituals and outdoor living. Themes Laura explores in her work include investigations of mapping, shelter, mycelial and symbiotic relationships and food security issues.
Recent collaborations include Understory 2022, Post Office Projects, Port Adelaide, Weeds Weeding 2023, Heysen Sculpture Biennial, Parting Clouds, 2022, The University of Adelaide and Earthwormacultre 2023, National Permaculture Convergence. Current projects include fabrication of permanent public art for Beach Road, City of Onkaparinga, drawings for a future food project with University of NSW and Rivertime collaborative residency with Jackie Saunders at Sauerbier Art House, Port Noarlunga. Laura is half of Wills Projects with Will Cheesman and currently works from Central Studios in Kent Town.
@laurafranceswills
Louise Flaherty.
Louise Flaherty is an artist and arts worker based on Kaurna land in Adelaide. Founding Director of Downtown Arts Space, she has worked at the South Australian School of Art, was Arts Program Manager at Barkly Regional Arts in the Northern Territory and most recently worked on the Centenarian Portrait Project. Louise studied Visual Arts at the South Australian School of Art.
She has exhibited widely and in 2019 was the winner of the Tatiara Art Prize at Walkway Gallery. During a residency at The Mill in Adelaide CBD she created work based upon research of local native plants which was expanded upon in a later residency at Sauerbier House Cultural Exchange, Port Noarlunga. In 2018 she was recipient of a Guildhouse LimberUp mentorship with artist Laura Wills, focusing on community engagement and participatory practice. In 2019 she was Artist in Residence at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
In 2021, projects included presenting a new collaborative work for OSCA’s Parklands Project, participating in Vitalstatistix’s Adhocracy program, and creating a collaborative audio-led workshop for Nature Festival. In 2021 Louise worked with Laura Wills to undertake a Guildhouse Collections Project with Adelaide Botanic Gardens, developed an installation in the Museum of Economic Botany, developed an audio tour/workshop, community workshops, finishing with an ephemeral mural at the gates of the gardens. In 2022 Louise presented new drawings at the RAH with the Centre of Creative Health and created a new site specific work with Tanya Voges and Belinda Gehlert for Lobethal Bushland Park with Fabrik Arts. Louise was a resident at POP studio from 2020 - 2023. In 2023 Louise presented a major solo exhibition called Plant Carers at POP Gallery and in 2024 Louise worked with the Festival Centre’s Children’s Artspace to create the Young Plant Carers exhibition with three primary schools.
@louise.flaherty