India Flint :: gardener, forest wanderer & tumbleweed, stargazer & stitcher, botanical alchemist & string twiner, working traveller, dreamer, writer and the original discoverer of the eucalyptus ecoprint, dyeing for a living in the deep south
my practice conflates the visual and written poetics of place and memory, using ecologically sustainable contact print processes from plants and found objects together with walking, drawing, assemblage, mending, stitch and text as a means of mapping country, recoding and recording responses to landscape - working with cloth, paper, stone, windfall biological material, water, minerals, bones, the discarded artefacts and hard detritus of human inhabitation, the local weed burden. the work has been described as using “ the earth as the printing plate and time as the press” *
I negotiate a path between installation, printing, painting, drawing, writing and sculpture - gathering thought and experience, imagery and marks, as well as harvesting materials for making. the work of each day, philosophically rooted in topophilia [the love of place] invariably begins with a walk.
cv
born
Wurundjeri Country, Australia 1958
lives
Peramangk Country, South Australia
contact
P.O. Box 209, Mount Pleasant 5235, Peramangk Country, South Australia
education
2001 Master of Visual Arts, University of South Australia
1981 Garment Design & Construction, Panorama College
1979-80 studies at South Australian Institute of Technology (Architecture)
1977-78 studies at University of Adelaide (Architecture)
collections
Art Gallery of South Australia
Deutsches Textilmuseum, Krefeld, Germany
Museum of Decorative & Applied Arts, Riga, Latvia
Zvartava Castle Collection, Latvia
Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe
The de Boer Costume Collection, Brisbane, Australia
The West Australian Museum
The Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
Cowra Regional Art Gallery
The National Wool Museum, Geelong, Australia
Orange Regional Gallery, Orange, NSW, Australia
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts
Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, South Australia
Tamworth Regional Gallery
Community Collection, Woollen Mill, Lobethal, South Australia
Ellen Noël Art Museum of the Permian Basin, Odessa, Texas
artist residencies
2023 King Island Artist Residency, Tasmania
2022 Fair Isle Studio Residency, Fair Isle, Shetland
2022 Lighthouse Arts Residency, Newcastle, NSW
2018 Inverewe Garden, Scotland
2018 Richard de Bas Papermill, Ambert, France
2014 Foundation Obras, Portugal
2013 Oregon College of Art + Craft
2013 Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans
2013 Big Cat Textiles, Newburgh, Scotland
2012 New Orleans Center for Creative Arts
2011 NSCAD, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
2011 Leafy Sea Dragon Festival, Yankalilla, South Australia
2006 Edith Cowan University, Perth, West Australia
2003 Mount Lofty Botanic Garden, South Australia
curatorial
2024 ‘present’ Fabrik, Lobethal, South Australia
2021 ‘quiet conversations :: in place’ , Fabrik, Lobethal, South Australia
2019 ‘gardens of the heart’ , Fabrik, Lobethal, South Australia
2015 ‘in situ’, Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, South Australia
costume commissions
2013 Costumes for 'Gu:t', Company Miji
2011 Costumes for 'Breathe', Leigh Warren & Dancers
2009 costumes for 'Reliquary', Company Miji
2008 Costumes for 'Seven', Leigh Warren & Dancers
2007 Costumes for 'Debris' West Australian Ballet (Perth Festival Production at Quarry)
2006 Costumes for 'Wanderlust', Leigh Warren & Dancers with Yamaguchi Centre for Arts & Media, Japan
2005 Costumes for 'Petroglyphs', Leigh Warren & Dancers
individual exhibitions
2020
‘travelling blind’, Hahndorf Academy, Hahndorf, South Australia
2019
‘anthology’, Ken Kirschmann Gallery, New Orleans, USA
‘leafpoems :: treeclooties from here and (t)here’, Sawyer Gallery, Inverewe, Scotland
‘incomplete journeys’, Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, UK
2017
'refuge', Hahndorf Academy, Hahndorf, South Australia
'shibusa', Woollen Mill Artspace, Lobethal, South Australia
2016
‘disquiet’, Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, South Australia
'shibusa', Ellen Noel Art Museum, Odessa, Texas, USA
2015
'back country' The Barn, Rosny for Tasmanian International Arts Festival
2014
'back country' Tamworth Regional Gallery, NSW, Australia
'back country' Barossa Regional Gallery, Tanunda, South Australia
'fieldnotes', Quarter Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
'fieldnotes', Ken Kirschman Gallery, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, USA
2013
'muddy waters', Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, Murray Bridge, South Australia
2012
'muddy waters' Riverside Gallery, NOCCA, New Orleans
2011
'mapping country', Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada
'the windFallMaps', Katherine Nash Gallery, Minneapolis MN, USA
'the windFallMaps', Orange Regional Gallery, Orange, NSW
2009
'nine patch', Schoolhouse Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania
2008
'watermarks' Nob Hill Masonic Centre, San Francisco, USA
'watermarks', Artspace, Adelaide Festival Centre, South Australia
'watermarks', Planet, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
2006
'wanderlust', Yamaguchi Centre for Arts & Media, Japan
'spellbound', spectrum project space, Perth, West Australia
'enfoldments', JamFactory, Adelaide, South Australia
2005
'benedictus eXdress', 45downstairs, Flinders lane, Melbourne, Victoria
2004
'Subverted Gothik', Rose Chong, Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Victoria
2002
'Shades of Eucalyptus', Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, Australia
2001-2002
'Arcadian Alchemy', Museum of Economic Botany, Adelaide Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium, South Australia
1999
'Woolmark', coastal installation, Jurmala, Latvia
1998
'Fragmenti', Gallery Alliance Francaise de Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
'Songs from an Inland Sea', Red Ochre Grill, Adelaide, South Australia
1997
'Twisted Tangled and Matted', North Adelaide School of Art Gallery, Adelaide, South Australia
1990
'Forest of Dreams', Textile Gallery, Aldgate, South Australia
joint exhibitions
2014
Sete Filhas, Sete Irmãs [Seven Daughters, Seven Sisters] exhibition with Sally Stafford at Castelo de Evoramonte, Portugal
2012
'marking time and mapping the spirit', Judson Gallery, Cleveland
2010
'planeta' Møstings Hus, Copenhagen, Denmark [with Anette Blaesberg Ørom]
2009
'planeta' , Ararat Regional Art Gallery, Ararat, Victoria, Australia [Anette Blaesberg Ørom]
2005
'benedictus & ascendance', St Mark's church, Woodside
2002
'The Immigrant Garden', site specific installation, Art Gallery of South Australia [with Stephanie Radok]
'The Immigrant's Garden', Artspace, Adelaide Festival Centre [with Stephanie Radok]
selected group exhibitions
2024
TIME SPACE PLACE , King Island Gallery, King Island, Tasmania 2024
2022
‘retelling’, Fabrik Arts+Heritage, Lobethal, South Australia
2020
LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19, Art Gallery of South Australia
2019
‘borderline’, Fabrik Arts+Heritage, Lobethal, South Australia
‘petrichor’ , Barossa Regional Gallery, Tanunda, South Australia
2018
‘Heysen Landscape Prize’, Hahndorf Academy, South Australia
EARTH MATTERS //au confluence de la nature et de la créativité, Oloron-Sainte-Marie, France
Local Colour :: experiments in nature, UNSW Galleries, Sydney, Australia
'Alice Prize' , Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Australia
2017
'earth matters' Nederlands Textielmuseum, Tilburg, Netherlands
2016
Palmer Sculpture Biennial, Palmer, South Australia
'raw', Poet's Ode, Main Street, Hahndorf, South Australia
'unearthed', Barossa Regional Gallery, South Australia
''cut', Backspace Gallery, Ballarat, Victoria
'threads of industry', Woollen Mill Artspace, Lobethal, South Australia
2015
'flight patterns' Welch School Gallery, Georgia State University
'Earth Matters', Artipelag, Sweden
'metaphyta' 5Press Gallery, New Orleans, Lousiana
'Bursa Design' Istanbul, Turkey
2014
'Latitude', Barossa Regional Gallery, South Australia
'well made', Guildhouse Members Exhibition, Light Square Gallery, Adelaide SA
'Sculpture Festival', Arid Lands Botanic Garden, Port Augusta, SA
'How does your garden grow?', Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, Murray Bridge, South Australia
'flight patterns' Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia
2012
'landscape of the mind', Katherine Nash Gallery, Minneapolis, USA
Heysen Sculpture Biennial, 'The Cedars', Hahndorf, South Australia
'bloom, une vision vegetale', Fondation pour l'art contemporain, Toulouse, France
2011
exhibition for 'Pasarela Fashion Festival', French Cultural Institute, Bucharest, Romania
'Art & Fashion' exhibition, ISEND, La Rochelle, France
2010
'natural pigments', Trend Union, Paris, France
'earthwaulks' with the Aotearoa Feltsisters, Blenheim, Tauranga, Porirua NZ
'faculty exhibition', Shakerag, St Andrews-Sewannee, TN, USA
2009
'following threads' , Artspace, Adelaide Festival Centre, Australia
'neofelt' , Churro Gallery, Creamery Arts Centre, Hotchkiss, CO, USA
'sculpted packages - reshaped' , Von Haus, Melbourne, Australia
2008
'sculpted packages', World Shibori Symposium, Paris, France
'perspectives' Bunbury Regional Gallery, WA
'Expressions Wool Quilts', National Wool Museum, Geelong, Australia
'botanicals' Object Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2007
'Pattern' Lumina, Melbourne, Victoria
2006
'Blurring the Boundaries', Fairfield City Gallery & Museum, NSW
2005
'Wishlist' Craftsouth Members exhibition
'After Fashion', National Wool Museum, Geelong, Victoria
2004
'A Matter of Time', Tamworth Regional Gallery [toured nationally]
'Tyranny of Distance', U.K., Korea, Japan
'Seven Sisters', Central TAFE Art Gallery, Perth, WA [toured WA]
2003
'Haven't a thing to Wear', Gallery 159, Brisbane, Queensland
'Built! Ephemeral art project', Adelaide Festival Centre
'Friends of Iceland' touring exhibition, Iceland
2002
Staff Exhibition for SALA Festival, J111 Gallery, Underdale Campus, UniSA
'Europäische Filzkunst', Craft Museum of Finland
'Crossings', Academy Gallery, University of Tasmania, Launceston
2001-2002
'Friends of Iceland' touring exhibition in ten Icelandic Museums
2001
'Europäische Filzkunst', Hirtenmuseum, Germany
'Europäische Filzkunst', Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Dresden, Germany
'Leaf', 220 Hindley Street, for SALA Festival, Adelaide, South Australia
'Tradition & Innovation', Arsenals Muzejs, Riga, Latvia
'Tradition & Innovation', Zvartava Castle, Zvartava, Latvia
'Europäische Filzkunst', Deutches Textilmuseum, Krefeld, Germany
'Winterbodies - 7 installations at the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds', Adelaide
'Masters Project', Shop@rt, Leigh Street, Adelaide
2000
'Europäische Filzkunst', Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, Germany
'10th Exhibition of Natural Dyeing Craft Arts' Taegu Textile Festival, Korea
'Mildura 'Palimpsest#3', Mildura Arts Centre, Victoria, Australia
1999
'Textile 21', Voirrey Embroidery Centre, U.K.
'Alice Craft Acquisition', Araluen Arts Centre, Northern Territory, Australia
'Pantheist', New Land Gallery, Adelaide
1998
'Ways with Wool', National Textile Museum of Australia, Adelaide, South Australia
1995
'Dame Nancy Buttfield Embroidery Award Exhibition', Carrick Hill, South Australia
1994
'Knitterarti', Kensington Galleries, Kensington, South Australia
1993
'Dame Nancy Buttfield Embroidery Award Exhibition', Carrick Hill, South Australia
'Sanctum', North Adelaide School of Art Gallery, Adelaide, South Australia
'On the Other Hand', S.H. Ervin Gallery, New South Wales
1992
Mornington Peninsula Craft Event, Victoria
1991
'Dame Nancy Buttfield Embroidery Award Exhibition', Carrick Hill, South Australia
1984
'Artgarb', Women's Art Movement
1982
Designer's Collective Performance, Adelaide, South Australia
awards and grants
2016 'unearthed', Barossa Regional Gallery, South Australia
2003 M Recht Travel Scholarship
2001 Helpmann Academy Grant
2001 UniSA Student Association Grant
2000 Travel Grant ArtsSA
2000 Craftsouth Grant
1999 Helpmann Academy Grant
1999 Allport Writing Award
1999 University of South Australia Travel Grant
1999 S.A.C.A.T. Arts Access Grant
1998 'Artists in Schools' Mount Pleasant Primary School
1973 Commonwealth Scholarship
* Assoc Prof Chris Orchard during his opening address at ‘muddy waters’, Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, South Australia, March 2013