A gallery of the finished art works – created by artists after attending a variety of paper art workshops run by the City of Rockingham can be viewed here.

And some more information on the opening of the new arts centre was covered in the Sound Telegraph, our local paper:

A group of 35 writers, from Rockingham and further afield, praised the “ambiance” of the new Kent Street venue, after taking part in Canberra-based author Kaaron Warren’s Through Splintered Walls workshop.

…

The workshop coincided with a community art project of the same name, which resulted in a selection of creative paper creations going on display at the centre’s gallery.

Works of art were created from copies of Warren’s book, which had been printed erroneously.

The award-winning author said seeing her book turned into “amazing” works of art was the “highlight” of her career. City co-ordinator of cultural development and the arts Lee Battersby the Kent Street centre was established to respond to the needs of the community. “We hope that, down the line, we will have a self-driven artistic community who will guide and support one another,” he said.

In a future world of extreme climate change, Perth, Western Australia’s capital city, has been abandoned. Most people were evacuated to the East by the late ’30s and organised infrastructure and services have gone.

A few thousand obstinate and independent souls cling to the city and to the southern towns. Living mostly by night to endure the fierce temperatures, they are creating a new culture in defiance of official expectations. A teenage girl stolen from her family as a child; a troupe of street actors who affect their new culture with memories of the old; a boy born into the wrong body; and a teacher who is pushed into the role of guide tell the story of The Nightside.

KAARON WARREN: WRITING LANDSCAPE

Rockingham Arts Centre

11 Kent Street, Rockingham

Saturday 4 May

10am-1pm

Cost: Free

There’s only one week left to book for the Kaaron Warren writing workshop to be held at the new Rockingham Art Centre, 11 Kent Street, next Saturday 4 May, from 10am – 1pm.

Kaaron will be joining us from NSW, and her collection ‘Through Splintered Walls’, upon which the community art exhibition and paper workshops recently conducted by the City are based, was last week awarded the Australian Shadows Award for Best Collection. Kaaron will be joining us after attending this weekend’s 52^nd Australian Science Fiction Convention as special guest, where her story ‘Sky’ has been nominated in the ‘Best Novella or Novelette’ category of the Australian SF ‘Ditmar’ Awards, and where ‘Through Splintered Walls’ has been nominated in the ‘Best Collected Works’ category. Anyone who attends this workshop will be in the presence of an Australian writer very much at the top of both her game and her genre.

Kaaron will be focusing on the importance of the landscape in establishing your setting, and how to use where you live and what you see to build believable, layered worlds that will help inform both your character and your plot.

To register, please provide your name, address, phone number and email to lee.battersby@rockingham.wa.gov.au or 9528 0386

Through Splintered Walls Recycled Book Exhibition

It’s less than a week until we open the doors of the new Rockingham Arts Centre and start filling the gallery with works for the ‘Through Splintered Walls’ recycled book exhibition.

We’re looking forward to opening the exhibition at 4pm, Saturday 4 May, in the presence of Mayor Barry Sammels, with a light catered afternoon tea.

Through Splintered Walls Art Show

The City of Rockingham invited participants to join in staging a community art exhibition, giving the chance to display the results of the hard work of ‘Through Splintered Walls’ paper art workshop series with  guest artists: Tusif Ahmad; Pam Langdon; Minaxi May and Julie Hein.

Participants are invited to contribute a piece to the exhibition, and to join us at the exhibition opening to be held from 4-5pm on Saturday 4 May 2013 at the Rockingham Art Centre, Kent Street Rockingham.

The City will host the exhibition of recycled book artworks from 4 May to 19 May to coincide with the Castaways Sculpture Awards, to emphasise the practical nature of the recycling/reuse message of the two exhibitions.

To register your artwork for the exhibition, please email or ring Donna Cochrane, Community Development Officer (Arts & Culture) on 9528 0385 or donna.cochrane@rockingham.wa.gov.au by Friday 26 April and provide the following details: your name, title of the work (or ‘untitled’ if you don’t have one), price (if you are offering your work for sale) and tell us which workshop(s) you drew your inspiration from— we have included the workshop tutors in this email and invite them to include a piece or two of their own work to exhibit. The information you provide will be displayed on an informational panel with your work. Exhibition installation will take place 9am-3pm, Thursday 2 –Friday 3 May 2013, before the exhibition opening Saturday 4 May.

Exhibitors are free to list works as saleable or not for sale, and to enter more than one work if you wish. If you are offering your work for sale, this will be included on your panel. All sales will be conducted through the City of Rockingham, and any contributor who sells a work will receive proceeds from sale of their artworks, minus a 20% gallery fee, upon completion of the exhibition.

There are a number of copies of Through Splintered Walls  still available for use. Should you wish to use further copies for your work, please contact Lee Battersby on 9528 0386 or lee.battersby@rockingham.wa.gov.au to organise delivery.

She says: “Setting, character and plot are the three vital elements to any story. This workshop will focus on the importance of the landscape in establishing your setting, and how to use where you live and what you see to build believable, layered worlds that will help inform both your character and your plot.”

Kaaron Warren has lived in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Fiji. She is the author of 3 novels (the multi-award-winning ‘Slights’, ‘Walking the Tree’ and ‘Mistification’) and 4 short story collections. Two of her collections have won the ACT Publishers’ and Writers’ Award for fiction, and her most recent collection, ‘Through Splintered Walls’, won a Canberra Critic’s Circle Award for Fiction and is shortlisted for 9 Australian SF awards.  She was shortlisted for a Bram Stoker Award for “All You Can Do is Breathe”, and is Special Guest at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention in Canberra 2013. You can find her at http://kaaronwarren.wordpress.com  and she Tweets @KaaronWarren

To register, contact Lee Battersby, Coordinator Cultural Development & the Arts, on 9528 0386 or lee.battersby@rockingham.wa.gov.au

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Known for her multidisciplinary process driven art practice, Minaxi explores digital and paper collage processes, sculpture and installation. Investigating themes and materials from popular media, consumerist culture, DIY, fashions and her surrounds, she explores beauty, commodity, design and the everyday. She is often influenced by the childlike, humour, the cute and kitsch highlighting aspects of desire and spectacle. Aesthetically, her art is typically identified with an extravagant use of colour, repetition and play, with an emphasis on what already exists. These ‘readymade’ objects, are reused and recontextualised into new compositions, to encourage fresh perceptions of reality, fantasy and inspire spectacle. Her work is a mix of Pop, Readymades and Conceptual art with an emphasis on expression through colour. Minaxi has had extensive experience in arts admin, lecturing, public and community art with diverse organisations. Currently she is the lead artist for AWESOME Arts Creative Challenge ‘Remix’ and PhD candidate at Murdoch University.

The Minaxi May paper art workshop will be held at the Gary Holland Community Centre, cnr Kent St & Flinders Lane, from 1-4pm, Saturday March 9. To book a place contact Donna Cochrane, Community Development Officer (Arts & Culture) on 9528 0385 or donna.cochrane@rockingham.wa.gov.au. Places are limited, so bookings are essential.

Collections:

Showtime by Narrelle M Harris (Book 5, Twelve Planets)
Through Splintered Walls by Kaaron Warren (Book 6, Twelve Planets)
Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan (Book 7, Twelve Planets)

Novellas:

Salvage by Jason Nahrung
“Sky” by Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls)

Short Story and Novelette (depending on the award the categories may vary)

“Stalemate”  by Narrelle M Harris (Showtime) (4800 words)
“Thrall” by Narrelle M Harris (Showtime) (5500 words)
“Showtime” by Narrelle M Harris (Showtime) (8400 words)

“Mountain” by Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls) (3000 words)
“Creek” by Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls) (7400 words)
“Road” by Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls) (2700 words)

“The Duchess Dresser” by Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape) (5500 words)
“The Isles of the Sun” by Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape) (4900 words)
“Bajazzle” by Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape) (6500 words)
“Significant Dust” by Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape) (8400 words)

Other Works:

This is the last year that ASif! – Australian Specfic in Focus – will be eligible for nomination.

The 2012 Snapshot was the biggest one yet, conducted by Kathryn Linge, Alisa Krasnostein, Helen Merrick, David McDonald, Ian Mond, Jason Nahrung, Alex Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Tehani Wessely and Sean Wright.

I’d like to acknowledge the fantastic design work on all our books by Amanda Rainey and Terri Sellen’s cupcake production at Natcon 2012 (she’s been documenting the making of these over at her blog).

And of course, Galactic Suburbia.

I’m getting so excited about these! The first Paper art workshop is this Saturday. The second one was just announced and if you’re in Perth and are interested, I recommend signing up straight away as the first one filled up overnight.

Paper Art Workshop

A passionate collector of found objects, Pam Langdon is inspired by the marine environment and patterns within nature. Her art practice resembles a beach combing expedition encountering strange, sometimes unidentifiable objects which have been washed ashore. Pam’s unique artist’s books are transformed and recontextualized from a discarded unloved existence, giving renewed life. Inspired by the stories and pages within each book the intricate cutting, folding and rolling of their pages forms spirals, symbolising movement and energy and reflecting growth patterns found in nature. The labyrinth of folds and curls entices the reader for closer inspection of their mysterious new life.

Pam will display and demonstrate 2 different forms of books, incorporating origami paper folding and paper cutting techniques. Each participant will also receive copies of Through Splintered Walls to enable them to begin work on their artwork for the combined community exhibition in May.

Due to materials, places are limited. To register, please contact Lee Battersby, Coordinator Cultural Development and Arts, on 08 9528 0386 or email lee.battersby@rockingham.wa.gov.au.

Date: 16 February 2013
Location: Gary Holland Community Centre
Time: 1pm – 3pm

Through Splintered Walls by Kaaron Warren (Book 6 in the Twelve Planets series) is available as a paperbook and ebook.

Tabitha Darling has always had a dab hand for pastry and a knack for getting into trouble. Which was fine when she was a tearaway teen, but not so useful now she’s trying to run a hipster urban cafe, invent the perfect trendy dessert, and stop feeding the many (oh so unfashionable) policemen in her life.

When a dead muso is found in the flat upstairs, Tabitha does her best (honestly) not to interfere with the investigation, despite the cute Scottish blogger who keeps angling for her help. Her superpower is gossip, not solving murder mysteries, and those are totally not the same thing, right?

But as that strange death turns into a string of random crimes across the city of Hobart, Tabitha can’t shake the unsettling feeling that maybe, for once, it really is ALL ABOUT HER.

And maybe she’s figured out the deadly truth a trifle late…

Preorder your copy now.