South Australian visual artist Sera Waters has just been announced as the 2020 Guildhouse Fellow.
The Guildhouse Fellowship was inaugurated in 2019 with the generous support of The James & Diana Ramsay Foundation, to recognise and elevate South Australian artistic ambition.
Sera Waters’ practice is driven by an investigation of truth-telling, informed by her own settler colonial inheritances, made manifest in home-craft, hand-based folk ingenuity, décor, pattern and textiles. Arcing from the historical evidence to contemporary manifestations, Waters casts light on these seemingly innocuous and unofficial objects as potent reminders of normalised traditions and hierarchies of gender and colonisation.
Waters explains, “Led by a feminist ethics of care and literally taking matter into my hands, I transform matter to present alternative pathways into a more survivable future.”
Waters is incredibly grateful for this fellowship and excited about the work that will come out of it.
“This opportunity, which comes rarely, if at all, in an artist’s life, is one I have dreamed of for my art practice. The invaluable fellowship enables me to go forward for the next year knowing I am supported to make the best work I can. I am so looking forward to undistracted studio time, accumulating momentum, and pushing my art in expansive directions.”
The selection panel for the 2020 Guildhouse Fellowship comprised Art Gallery of South Australia Director Rhana Devenport ONZM, Guildhouse Chief Executive Officer Emma Fey, and Sebastian Goldspink, recently announced curator of the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art.
The panel were unanimous in their decision, and said they were impressed by the calibre and diversity of applicants.
“Covid-19 is having an unprecedented impact on the arts sector”, says Fey. “This Fellowship comes at a time where more than ever, we, as a community, need to recognise and continue to support artistic ambition.”
To read more about Sera Waters click here.
For more information about Guildhouse click here.
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