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engage<br />
VIVIENNE ROBERTSON<br />
Reclaim the Void<br />
STORY ALLEN NEWTON<br />
Vivienne Robertson has spent the last 10 years as Artistic Director of Denmark Arts but<br />
is temporarily trading her lush southern surrounds for the rugged Northern Goldfields.<br />
She’s following the kernel of an idea that began in 2013 when Vivienne was invited by<br />
Ngalia Aboriginal Elders to talk about art projects with them. That kernel has developed<br />
to the stage where she is pulling together 500 rug weavers from around the world to<br />
create 4000 to 5000 individual rugs to make a 100-meter diameter artwork that will<br />
spread across a disused mine site around Leonora.<br />
Her Reclaim the Void project got started when Ngalia Elders in Leonora expressed their<br />
pain at the gaping holes left in their country by the mining industry.<br />
“I just immediately saw one of those mining holes covered with a huge artwork that<br />
would tell the story of the country,” Vivienne says.<br />
She and Kado Muir who is the cultural custodian discussed the project over the ensuing<br />
years.<br />
“In late 2020 he said ‘it’s time, let’s do it’.”<br />
The project is partly funded by a $100,000 grant from philanthropic community group<br />
Arts Impact WA which opens up for a new range of grants for WA artists in December.<br />
Cultural custodians are being joined by community groups from around the world to<br />
complete the project which Vivienne hopes to unveil in spring next year or more likely<br />
in early 2024.<br />
Vivienne plans to hold an exhibition of example pieces of the rug creations along<br />
with photographs and film some cultural material and other exhibits and stories in<br />
partnership with the WA Museum, Boola Bardip in late 2023 or early 2024.<br />
“It will include a digital version to be able to zoom in on a rug and hear the story of that<br />
rug because so many of the people making rugs have beautiful stories,” Vivienne says.<br />
A ‘rugalogue’, a catalogue of each rug made is being put together with the stories,<br />
poems, images and words that makers may choose to accompany their rug. The final<br />
BELOW: Reclaim the Void Creative Director Vivienne Robertson. PHOTO Nic Duncan<br />
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