Crafty Art
BENDIGO’S residential Strategy will be reviewed because of greater than expected growth.
The State Government has announced a grant of $50,000 to carry out the review.
The review is needed because, according to the State Government, 40 per cent of the forecast growth between 2006 and 2031 had already been realised.
Regional Development Parliamentary Secretary Damian Drum made the announcement this morning.
Mr Drum said the Bendigo Residential Strategy Review would deliver greater community and investor certainty, helping the region grow.
“The Bendigo Residential Development Strategy was adopted in 2004 and is currently being audited because of the faster than anticipated growth that has occurred in Bendigo in recent years,” he said.
“Strong residential growth has many flow-on economic benefits and having a clear framework for future development will position Greater Bendigo City Council to undertake more detailed, place-based planning in the future.”
Deputy Premier Peter Ryan said about 40 per cent of the forecast growth between 2006 and 2031 had already been realised.
The Residential Strategy impacts directly on where and how property developments use “infill” parcels of land, range of housing styles and also on housing affordability.
“This project will review the strategy, assess current and estimated land supply and demand and consider various legislative and policy changes,” Mr Ryan said,
“It will also consider the latest demographic data and establish a new strategic framework to guide the long-term residential growth of Greater Bendigo.
“The project will result in a revised residential strategy that will give developers, the community and service providers greater surety and confidence about where land can be developed for residential purposes, and that sufficient land is available to accommodate the City of Greater Bendigo’s future growth.”
Mr Ryan said a contemporary strategic planning framework was essential to the economic development of a large regional centre like Bendigo.
“Clearly identifying future growth options and supporting infrastructure needs will enable the Greater Bendigo City Council and other infrastructure providers to plan their capital works programs well in advance,” he said.
“Identifying long-term growth areas will enable the council and other service authorities to start planning for the delivery of services, thereby minimising the lag time between when residential development occurs and when the services need to be in place.”
Bendigo Weekly | Bendigo Weekly | 29-Sep-2011 3.10pm
By Megan Spencer
HANGING By a Thread occupies a curious space between craft and art; the work isn’t quite practical or functional enough to qualify as craft, and certainly isn’t overtly didactic, political or formal enough to be pegged easily as art.
It’s smack dab in the middle.
The exhibition is also in the middle of town in Rosalind Park, among plants and (literally) hanging from the rafters inside Bendigo’s famed Conservatory.
It’s part of a trilogy of shows instigated by the City of Greater Bendigo council to make best use of the behemoth that is the White Wedding Dress – 27,000 people through the doors of BAG and counting…
They are All Dressed Up: A Baker’s Dozen of Bridal Frocks by local ceramicist Suzie O’Shea; Raw and Funky: Fine Art Fashions In Fibre, a collection of primarily felted fashion pieces in the living art space at Bendigo Information Centre; and now Hanging By A Thread, a showcase of local textile artists, part of the council’s Temporary Public Art Program.
Dare I say it, the latter is the most eclectic and interesting, rich with personal stories and local heritage. The creators and artists – five individuals and two local textile groups – taking the opportunity to express a range of ideas through fibre, fabrics and twine.
Immediately I was drawn to Lella Cariddi’s striking trilogy: Once Upon A Dinner Party, Do You Understand the Sadness of Geography and Mementoes of a 1959 Wedding.
A “curator of contemporary art and an installation artist” she seizes the opportunity to initiate a counter-conservative conversation around the traditional idea of needle and thread being somehow exclusively feminine and passive.
Her pieces elevate the mundane and unnoticed.
Billowing from the ceiling, the first is a large white tablecloth on which Cariddi invites dinner party guests to draw their stories in texta.
Next is another large white sheet upon which are sewn square panels of orange tulle, covered with more panels of finely-embroidered words and images. Delicate and emphemeral, it evokes the past – a kind of fabric mural homage to the needlework of our grandmothers.
The third is a superbly-sewn, translucent, wee white wedding dress, set against a bright orange background. A statement perhaps?
About marriage, weddings and the icon of the white wedding dress, dragged kicking and screaming from its current public podium down to a far more intimate and personal platform?
The installation was beautiful and intriguing.
I found out from curator Maree Tonkin that Cariddi had spent three days literally sewing her work into the venue.
K’Flat maker Jane Maxwell also presented an engaging piece. Sourcing her materials from op shops – doilies, an old bodice, cotton reels and ribbons – Jane’s dress made a bold statement about the white wedding dress, here more resembling the punk frock worn by the model in Billy Idol’s White Wedding music video than any of the more majestic dresses on show at BAG.
The great marriage of art and craft however, came courtesy of the Karen Weavers Group, refugees from Burma who have found their way to Bendigo.
Using traditional back-strap looms the women created a series of floor-to-ceiling pieces which took my breath away.
At least 4.5 metres long each, the great coloured tapestries shimmer in rows as the light filters through the white glass walls of the plant house.
Deceptively crafty, these too act as metaphors.
Made by a community which has had to re-group in another country, the threads within the painstakingly hand-made pieces represent the binding together of individuals, “to re-build a feeling of community and support of each other”.
Crafty art indeed.
BENDIGO’S residential Strategy will be reviewed because of greater than expected growth.
The State Government has announced a grant of $50,000 to carry out the review.
The review is needed because, according to the State Government, 40 per cent of the forecast growth between 2006 and 2031 had already been realised.
Regional Development Parliamentary Secretary Damian Drum made the announcement this morning.
Mr Drum said the Bendigo Residential Strategy Review would deliver greater community and investor certainty, helping the region grow.
“The Bendigo Residential Development Strategy was adopted in 2004 and is currently being audited because of the faster than anticipated growth that has occurred in Bendigo in recent years,” he said.
“Strong residential growth has many flow-on economic benefits and having a clear framework for future development will position Greater Bendigo City Council to undertake more detailed, place-based planning in the future.”
Deputy Premier Peter Ryan said about 40 per cent of the forecast growth between 2006 and 2031 had already been realised.
The Residential Strategy impacts directly on where and how property developments use “infill” parcels of land, range of housing styles and also on housing affordability.
“This project will review the strategy, assess current and estimated land supply and demand and consider various legislative and policy changes,” Mr Ryan said,
“It will also consider the latest demographic data and establish a new strategic framework to guide the long-term residential growth of Greater Bendigo.
“The project will result in a revised residential strategy that will give developers, the community and service providers greater surety and confidence about where land can be developed for residential purposes, and that sufficient land is available to accommodate the City of Greater Bendigo’s future growth.”
Mr Ryan said a contemporary strategic planning framework was essential to the economic development of a large regional centre like Bendigo.
“Clearly identifying future growth options and supporting infrastructure needs will enable the Greater Bendigo City Council and other infrastructure providers to plan their capital works programs well in advance,” he said.
“Identifying long-term growth areas will enable the council and other service authorities to start planning for the delivery of services, thereby minimising the lag time between when residential development occurs and when the services need to be in place.”
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