The Disquiet 

The Disquiet was presented at Flinders University Museum of Art in collaboration with Guildhouse as part of their collections project. Five artists were given access to the political poster collection at FUMA, which features screen prints produced by the Progressive Art Movement in the 1970s and 80s in South Australia. These artists were Truc Truong, Bin Bai, Olga Sankey, Sue Kneebone and myself. Each artist selected posters to respond to while also considering complex social and political issues of our time. 

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I responded to Mandy Martin's 1975 A lovely house in Springfield and a chauffeur driven Jag screen printed poster which highlights the socio-economic divide by featuring mothers pushing trolleys in a supermarket juxtaposed with an image of a mansion in Springfield. Reflecting on the current cost of living crisis, I considered how families today are experiencing food insecurity while the supermarket duopoly are returning record profits and are accused of price gouging. 

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My series of works in this exhibition suggest food gardening as a way to build resilience, connect to community, find alternatives to the supermarket duopoly and unsustainable agricultural food production.  The works feature domestic craft and home grown food to highlight the home as a unit of production rather than consumption. The trolley is a reoccuring motif, to reflect housing insecurity, and also provide a hint at a potential vessel to grow a garden. Seed packets, screen printed with the trolley motif, were given away in the gallery. 

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The work also acknowledges the current toll both the cost of living crisis and climate crisis can take on wellbeing and provides viewers with a sense that the garden can be a place of solace in urgent times.