How does one tell the fantastic story of a large, disparate group of people, dedicated to collaboration; a group of people charged with the single aim of producing mixed-disciplinary art works of meaningful narrative? And how does one participate in, and, at the same time, help create such a story?
Today we start profiling the individuals involved in The White Bluff Project and first up is visual artist Sarah Mufford who is not only one of the group artists but also a key coordinator of the project since its inception.
Sarah’s 25-year professional arts practice is informed by mathematical and scientific analysis of pattern. It includes recent research projects and residencies in Italy, Iran, India and Spain. Working predominantly in 2D, her labour-intensive, geometric abstractions are informed by Eastern and Western pattern systems, juxtaposing intuitive processes of staining and mark making with hard edge geometry.
Throughout the White Bluff Project Sarah’s role has not only been one of participating artist but also as joint coordinator, alongside Ray Rixon who initiated the White Bluff Project concept. Sarah's coordinating role has been to facilitate deeper connection and ongoing dialogue between artists and partnering organisations. She has organised workshops, written grant applications, and helped maintain momentum for the project through several difficult challenges. At the same time, Sarah has been researching, developing and creating collaborative art works with many team members.
“Wearing two hats as both a creative artist and a coordinator has been challenging throughout the White Bluff Project. It’s been a fine balance for Ray and I.”
And it is the creative side of things that Sarah is happiest talking about.
“In my creative work I want the viewer to reference the scale of the site so I am making big paintings in response to White Bluff. It’s a site that has been slow to reveal itself but the most exciting aspect for me has been collaborating with scientists.” Sarah said.
“It’s been a risky organic process of collaboration. Natural creative relationships developed with lovely crossovers between disciplines and between artists and scientists. We’ve been nourished by dipping in and out of each others’ discoveries. The journey through discussions and the sharing of information has highlighted for me how collaboration is a very valid research tool. Participants have been drawn into the project through workshops and interactions. It has taken us all out of our comfort zones.”
For the final works of The White Bluff Project Sarah has collaborated artistically with our poet Chris Armstrong, fellow artists Tori Donnelly and Terri Butterworth and ceramicist Phil Greed as well sharing and gaining ideas, information, research and learning with ecologist Greg Elks and marine biologist Karina Hall.
Sarah recalls an early White Bluff Project event where team members took to the water with Jetty Dive to view the site from the sea. On board, ecologist Greg Elks gave a dynamic talk about the geological formation of the bluff.
"At White Bluff, from the water we see a 300 million year old formation - where one plate moved westward and smashed against another (subduction) so there’s this verticality (imbrication) that exists where you would expect horizontal rock formation. This is also evident out at Split Solitary Island. This division and meeting of significant geological forms is represented conceptually with the poetry of Chris Armstrong, mapping notations and observational pattern sourced from the site."
This offshore inspiration was combined with onsite explorations and time spent exploring the littoral and rock pools of White Bluff.
"Nestled in rock cleaves at the waters edge in rockpools are tiny ovoid, white Nerite snail eggs all jostling for protective positions in a fold or scar in the rock. It is this micro detail coupled with the expansive view of White Bluff as the site where the Great Divide comes down into the ocean, where major water currents meet and pass, that interests me most."
To see some of Sarah’s works in progress, her processes (and challenges along the way) flick through her Instagram or Facebook feed.
Born in Bellingen, NSW, Sarah returned to the North Coast after 20 years in Sydney working as a visual artist and art educator. Outside of the White Bluff Project, Sarah has been a finalist in the Hazlehurst Art on Paper (commended), Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award and winner of the commendation prize at the Banyule Works on Paper Award in Melbourne. Sarah originally trained at the Australian National University, Canberra School of Art, with postgraduate studies at the University of Technology Sydney. she has been exhibiting nationally for three decades, with solo exhibitions at Liverpool St Gallery Project Space and AirSpace Projects in Sydney and as a part of group shows at project Space Byron School of Art and Glasshouse Regional Gallery in Port Macquarie.
You can view her work on her website at www.sarahmufford.com.