Thank you friends and family who have keenly visited Words and Pictures at the QAGOMA and given me your feedback.
Thanks for taking pictures of me with the exhibition as well. I am not so good at selfies.
John Perceval’s Angel, Queensland Art Gallery
‘Art is a sign; signs can be art and art can be light.
But the real question is, what will you design in response to loss?’
(Perceval’s Angel)
It adds another layer to reading the poems, if you take the time to meet Perceval’s Angel and head to Yvonne Koolmatrie’s Hot Air Balloon to set out on this adventure.
After that you can read the poems and stories whenever you find that feather – the order doesn’t really matter.
There are ten pieces to find after the two orientation pieces.
Yvonne Koolmatrie’s Hot Air Balloon, Queensland Art Gallery
Climb on board, dreamers and travellers
Whoever you may be, take a journey with me.
Feel the woven textures beneath your feet.
Smell the Murray River in the weave.
Take yourself to the balloon’s edge
Feel the breezes through the sedge.
Touch textures of the air as we fly.
Sense the depth of sky below.
Search the windows that we pass
for the dreamers beyond.
Ask yourself, Am I afraid?
Or am I brave?
Sense the strength of angels
Ignite reconciliation’s flame.
(c) June Perkins
This poem is currently on display at Words and Pictures, Queensland Art Gallery and viewable as a pdf
Quiet: Contemplating the Collection
Embrace the Australian Collection as a place of quiet contemplation through poetry, drop-in drawing and calm living meditation.
Words and Pictures – Drop in Daily
Ongoing | Galleries 10 – 13 | Free Discover a fresh perspective on the Australian Collection with Words & Pictures, an ongoing project that invites local artists and writers to respond to artworks in the Australian Collection. Take inspiration, and use the pencils and paper provided to create your own response through drawing or writing.
SPRING 2018 | This season’s Words & Pictures inspiration comes from poet and children’s author, June Perkins. June has developed an interactive journey through the Australian Collection through poems and micro-stories for visitors of all ages, with particular appeal for children and families.
Carol Libke and June Perkins at the Queensland Art Gallery, September 2018.
It was a delight to catch up with my writing sister (by the bonds of writing and living in the Far North Queensland related), Carol Libke, from Far North Queensland, and to take her on a tour of my writing in ‘Words and Pictures.’
The writers of the Far North are special to me, because they accepted some of my work for an anthology many years ago. The poem, ‘Grumpy Fisherman’ inspired by the theme ripples, was later to become the inspiration for the Magic Fish Dreaming poetry book. Furthermore, they invited me to attend and read at a Cairns Writer’s Festival lead up event, and to be on panels on digital storytelling and blogging. Carol attended a workshop in Mission Beach, and we stayed in touch when I moved to Brisbane.
Mission Beach Workshop after Cyclone Yasi
We had a great yarn up about writing, health, family, the state of Australia and how nobody should be defined by the place they are born or live in in a way that doesn’t enable them to live their dreams. Both of us had spent time in our early life living in areas with a dodgy reputation. Carol told me that she interviewed Ray Crooke many years ago, so she took a photograph of me in front of one of his paintings on display. The photograph of both us features Bannon Falls, and also possibly one of my favourite paintings, by Sydney Long, Spirit of the Plains.
Extract from Woman With Blossoms
For those who can’t see, even in places where touch is forbidden, there are ways to journey into art…
(Perceval’s Angel)
As she stands in the doorway
Feel her face – unwrinkled
Smell the flower in her hair – frangipani
Carry the basket in her hands- useful.
Go through the open door behind her . . .
Image: William Delafield Cook A haystack 1982, Courtesy of the Queensland Art Gallery
Look! Rats and the children run out from
their hiding places in the haystack to
dance in front of us in a merry line?
Who else do you think hides here?
Do you have a memory of haystacks or artist’s haystacks?
(Perceval’s Angel)
Tumble down the Haystack
dreaming columns of Greece.
Tumble down the Haystack
with childhood farming friends.
Tumble down the Haystack
to horses and the cows.
Now,
climb up that artist’s Haystack
and tumble down again.
June Perkins (Brisbane-based poet and children’s author)
John Perceval Sculpture: The Herald Angel 1958 Ray Crooke, Woman with Blossoms
Dr June Perkins, a Brisbane based poet and children’s author, has developed an interactive journey, through the Australian Collection, through poems and micro-stories for visitors of all ages, with particular appeal for children and families: Art Adventures in the Australian Collection.
She invites you to follow the angel, follow the feathers, follow the art.
This adventure is part of Words & Pictures, an ongoing project that invites local artists and writers to respond to artworks in the Australian Collection of the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
Visitors to the gallery are invited to take inspiration, and use the pencils and paper provided at the stations to create their own response through drawing or writing.
There are 12 pieces in all. ‘Haystack,’ was inspired by William Delafield Cook, A Haystack.
Perceval’s Angel is a character who takes the children on an adventure into the art gallery and so is often quoted.
From September – to November, this link will lead you to the poems and the art if you can’t make it there in person to visit the adventure. Words on display from September to November.
Sydney Long, Spirit of the Plains, Queensland Art Gallery
Brolga! Brolga, follow me, dance with me across the plains,
for you are me, and I am you, if only though I had your wings.
Brolga! Brolga, bring your friends; I know you cannot live alone.
Listen, as I play for you, a wetland filling up with food.
Brolga! Brolga, I bless you; may your wetlands always be here.
Let them not be cleared away, let the sedge grow tall and well.
May the people hear our song, then dance with us across the plains.
Brolga! Brolga, I am you, and you are me: let us both grow tall and well.
By June Perkins, Brisbane based, poet and children’s author, This poem is part of Words and Pictures, Spring 2018
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Embrace the Australian Collection as a place of quiet contemplation through poetry, drop-in drawing and calm living meditation.
WORDS & PICTURES: DROP-IN DAILY
Ongoing | Galleries 10 – 13 | Free Discover a fresh perspective on the Australian Collection with Words & Pictures, an ongoing project that invites local artists and writers to respond to artworks in the Australian Collection. Take inspiration, and use the pencils and paper provided to create your own response through drawing or writing.
SPRING 2018 | This season’s Words & Pictures inspiration comes from poet and children’s author, June Perkins. June has developed an interactive journey through the Australian Collection through poems and micro-stories for visitors of all ages, with particular appeal for children and families.
Ripple Poetry 