Illuminated by Fire

In Lakes Entrance, a remarkable collaboration took place between installation artist Catherine Larkins and aboriginal artists Lennie Hayes and Frances Harrison. They produced three cross-cultural art works which explore contemporary and traditional understandings of fire and water.

The permanent camp-FIRE WATER-hole installation and the re-locatable FIRE-place and chimney offer a unique view of the modern-day present and the nation’s ancient past. The FIRE-place is part of a greater lounge room setting that includes a kangaroo skin couch, a TV screening Aboriginal campfire footage, a dog and an electric ’briquette fire’. The surfaces are transformed into a stunning canvas of stories from Gunai/Kurnai country about the timeless cycles of fire.

The project launched Friday November 26 at 6.30pm at Gippsland Lakes Community Health, 18-26 Jemmeson St Lakes Entrance.

FIRE-place was displayed in the BMW Edge at Fed Square for the week of the Melbourne installation, beautifully juxtaposed with the modern architecture. See the program here: Lakes Entrance program

Catherine Larkins is a sculptor and visual designer, arts lecturer and a community cultural development activist. She chooses to work in a specifically regional context addressing issues of cultural and geographical remoteness, racial and socio-economic tension and reconciliation. The work is achieved through major collaborations with communities and specialists in diverse and unexpected fields of expertise.