Community Exhibitions & Involvement
‘Us in Clay’: Community Arts Project @ the 2021 Festival of Wellbeing, St. Helen’s Tasmania
On October 10, 2021, people from all over Break ‘O’ Day Council gathered at the Bendigo Bank Stadium in St Helen’s to celebrate and explore ideas and activities supporting wellbeing. The Festival of Wellbeing emerged from the desire of Wellbeing Certificate participants – Pamela Milnes and Nic Stevens - to inform people from the BODC area of the immense variety of health, arts and cultural activities available that support wellbeing.
As an Arts Practitioner, my contribution at the festival was to host a space where attendees could contribute to a local Community Arts Project through shaping a lump of clay into a form that represented themselves, as part of our community. The sculpture could be symbolic in metaphorical ways; like a surfboard, a jazz shoe or a bunny rabbit, or directly representative in a human-like form.
Clay is a wonderful material to play with. Its’ ‘plasticity’ or flexibility allows it to be pushed, squeezed, pinched, smoothed, poked and pulled into a form the maker desires. And, if it’s not what was hoped for, it can be squished back into a lump and reformed.
The round table was laid, tools set out and ample lumps of clay for everyone. Each seat at the table was taken all day; new people arrived, sat, picked up a lump of clay, and made a sculpture representing themselves. Some people had been playing with clay recently at high school and some hadn’t held clay for decades. One question I had for clay-makers was,
“When was the last time you played with clay, or held clay in your hands?” The responses were delightful, “Ohhhh, not since primary school, and that was *cough, cough* 50 years ago!” …
“Last year in art class!” …
“Goodness, not since high school! And I still have something I made.”
I could see some people were keen yet felt nervous about making something. I often see this response in people, it’s quite natural. To dispel the trepidatious feelings, first we took some deep breaths. I was able to guide people to focus on how the clay feels in the hand, the gritty nature of this type of hand building clay. We discussed the colours we could see. And related the pliability to who we are, what activities we love to do, and what is ‘play’ for each of us. As we chatted, fears subsided. With our hands busy, the sculptures came to life. Stories were shared from across the generations; the 2-year-old squashing blobs of clay together and calling it a kiln, memories of schoolteachers, teens who love to dance and finally our most gorgeous Binalong lady with ‘snow on the roof’ sharing about daily morning swims at Binalong Bay beach!
The purpose of the Stall Facilitators was multifaceted: to engage with the persons who visited our stalls, to invite them into conversation about what was available to them as a wellbeing activity; and to greet people with an open heart, eager to develop a deeper connection with the participants, with the hope that each person left feeling a little better than they had before they arrived.
Art, and in this case specifically clay has the capacity to slow us down; to bring us into the present moment, providing the space to connect with the self, others and the world around us – and this kind of action fosters wellbeing.
Artworks from the Community Arts Project made at the Festival of Wellbeing are on display at the local Library in St Helen’s. If you are one of the makers, thank you for your generosity, kindness, stories and smiles on the day. You all made wonderful and articulate sculptures that capture a part of you, of who you are. We are blessed by you and your artwork. Thank you to the festival for sponsoring the clay for the project.
We encourage everyone to visit the library and explore the many sculptures made by people in our council area, maybe even someone you know! If you are interested in trying clay to nurture your own wellbeing you can visit www.christielange.com.au to see what’s on offer.
Written by Christie Lange for The Coastal Column, February 2022 edition.
Christie lives and works as an artist at Binalong Bay, visit her Instagram to learn more about her arts practice @christie_lange_ceramics.
