Biography 2008
Dr. Irmina van Niele
Born in 1949, I grew up in Amsterdam. I spent my adolescence in
Paris and London and in 1973 came to Australia. After bringing up
three children I obtained a first class honours degree in visual art,
and in 2006 successfully completed my Doctoral Thesis Ambivalent
Belonging.
I am currently lecturing in textiles and tutoring in art history and theory
at the S. A. School of Art, University of South Australia.
My art practice includes gallery and public work in sculpture, installation
and textiles. The broad focus of my research is on the human experience
of belonging, in relation to geographical, linguistic and cultural dislocation.
There is a strong autobiographical aspect to my work, that deals with the
meanings attached to the experience of being in and out of place, and
memories of city spaces, traversed in the past, re-imagined in the present.
Transience versus attachment, and loss as presence, continue to be
central questions in my work.
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Irmina van Niele
Artist statement
Carrying Loss
This work references loss, as the unknown.
Not an uncharted, undiscovered realm, but in the sense of what
has been forgotten, ignored, misunderstood, gone unnoticed, been
hidden, repressed. That which is lost and yet carried across,
brought along, perhaps unconsciously even. It is a peculiar kind
of baggage, of nothing, of loss.
Loss is odd: an absence that is something
nonetheless. Something that was once present and now is not,
but experienced all the same, as lack. Loss may carry memories;
it may not. It may be a forgetting, or forgotten experience.
So loss remains present in the world for a while and is carried
as a gap, an emptiness, a hiatus.
Memories lead to stories, telling yarns.
Yarn: thread, story, tale
Knitting carries associations with story
telling: the rhythmic back and forth of knitting rows is like
an ongoing saga, without words, of things lost, found and attached.
Knitting forms part of the sense of narrative present in the
fabric of domestic continuity. Knitting, as process, links to
memories of domestic interiors, where garments were largely homemade
and worn jumpers re-knitted. Now lost. I remember knitting taking
place, articulating necessity, familiarity and continuity; that
which was presently worn out or lacking was about to be provided
anew. And the new, as repetition, continually fastened to the
previous, is reassuring.
Knitting belongs to the in-between: it
can be picked up and continued or left any time, between things.
Slowing down within the process of knitting produces a sense
of connection to a history of things. And in knitting is included
both the process and the fabric that results, but how to knit
absence? How to knit loss?
I knit bags. Bags belong to the everyday
ways of being in the world, to journeys, movements to and fro.
They allude to an elsewhere, somewhere left behind, or a destination
not yet reached. But these bags are not in use, they are still,
suspended, perhaps waiting, hanging at the ready they too may
have been left behind, lost in the world
Bags are for holding, and for carrying
across. Their emptiness may indicate loss, yet offers potential
for plenitude too: receptive, open towards the future (who knows
what may be found or need to be brought, or bought) while carrying
the past, as absence. So that past, present and future intertwine,
are knitted together.
Then there is a sense of stillness between
movements, where loss as experience is held, suspended between
losing and finding, arriving and leaving, a transient trace of
belonging.
Irmina van Niele
2008
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Premises 1: Straight and Narrow, 2008
found plastic shopping bags, cut and knitted
176 cm long
Photo: Michal Kluvanek
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Premises 1: detail
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Premises 2: Housebound, 2008
artist book
10 x 10 cm and 32 pages (aprrox 3.2 metres long in total)
Photo: Michal Kluvanek
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'It is not that I cannot remember', Transient Traces, 2005
found plastic shopping bags, cut and knitted
Photo: Michal Kluvanek
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Premises 2: Housebound, 2008
artist book
10 x 10 cm and 32 pages (aprrox 3.2 metres long in total)
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Dr.Irmina van Niele
Date of birth: 1949, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (arrived Australia 1973)
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Qualifications
2006
2000
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PhD, University of South Australia
Bachelor of Visual Art (First Class Honours), University of South Australia
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Awards
1999
1998
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1997
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Chancellor's Letters of Commendation, University of South Australia
Chancellor's Letters of Commendation, University of South Australia
Dean's Merit List, University of South Australia
Chancellor's Letters of Commendation, University of South Australia
Dean's Merit List, University of South Australia
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Professional Experience
within the University
2008
2006 -2008
2007
2004 - 2007
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Tutor, Honours Degree candidates, University of South Australia
Lecturer Textiles, South Australian School of Art, University of South Australia
Mentor, Research Degree candidates, University of South Australia
Tutor, Art History and Theory, South Australian School of Art, University of South Australia
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Education outside
the University
1998
1997
1995
1988
1972
1968-1970
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SHIFT Symposium Workshop with Ruth Hadlow, Canberra School of Art,
Australian National University
Textiles Bush Camp with Ruth Hadlow and Kay Lawrence, Talisker Conservation Park, SA
Weaving Culture: Workshop on Indigenous Craft Practice, Camp Koorong, SA
Certificate in Women's Studies, Douglas Mawson College of TAFE, SA
Certificate in Clothing, Douglas Mawson College of TAFE, SA
Diplôme de Langue Française, Alliance Française, Paris
Diplôme D' éducateurs Spécialisés, École D'éducateurs Spécialisés, Paris
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Professioal Experience
outside the University
2007
2002
2001
1999
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SALA Workshops, It's not Waste till you Waste it, Festival Centre, Adelaide
Artist in Residence, Spirit of the West Public Art Project, SA
Artist in Residence, Gepps Cross Girls High School, Come-Out 2001, S.A.
Artist in Residence, Paper Workshop, Kirinari Community School, Unley, SA
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Conference Papers
2007
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2006
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Wandering Words' IN / DIFFERENCE: Current and Historical Perspectives on Cultures in
Contact, Royal Irish Academy, University of Limerick
'Inventive Synergy: Studio-based Research Beyond Reflective Practice' ACUADS 2006,
Faculty of Art & Design, Monash University
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Solo Exhibitions
2008
2005
2004
2003 - 2006
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Gathering Loss, SASA Gallery, Adelaide
Transient Traces, Liverpool Street Gallery, Adelaide
Far From Solid, Liverpool Street Gallery, Adelaide
Words for Wandering, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide
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Selected Group Exhibitions
and Art Performances
2008
2007
2006
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2005
2004
2002
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2001
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2000
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1999
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1998
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Cellar Sweatshop Light Square Gallery, Adelaide
Depth is Present, Lee Marvin Readings, nr 16, Dec. 2007, Adelaide
In the World: head, hand, heart, 17th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial,
Tamworth Regional Gallery, Tamworth NSW
Waxed Linen Thread, S.A. Writer's Centre, Adelaide
Tatsuo Miyajima, Contemporary Art Centre of SA, Parkside SA
Not yet Dead, Liverpool Street Gallery, Adelaide
Shimmer, Upstart Gallery, Port Adelaide
Daily Rounds: a Long Story, Nexus Multicultural Arts Centre, Adelaide
Mobile Homes, Shop@rt, Adelaide
Driveway, Fringe 2002, Cumberland Park SA
Welcome Home, Public Art Performance, Lion Arts Courtyard, Adelaide
2001: an Art Odyssey, Leigh Street, Adelaide
Daily Rounds: Final Round, Public Art Performance, Leigh Street, Adelaide
Hatched 01, National Graduate Show, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, W.A.
Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition 2001, Adelaide
House, J111 Gallery, Underdale, SA
Mapped Between Locations, Nexus Multicultural Arts Centre, Adelaide
Unbound, Nexus Multicultural Arts Centre and Adelaide City Council, Adelaide
Fin, Applied and Visual Arts Honours Exhibition, Uni.of S.A, Adelaide
[Move], Contemporary Art Centre of SA, Parkside, SA
Plain Sailing, Prime Sight, Adelaide
Public Exposure, Hutt Street Public Art Project, Adelaide
Helpmann Academy 1999 Graduate Exhibition, Adelaide
Unfolding, SHIFT Symposium Student exhibition, Australian National University, Canberra
Student Paper Exhibition, 12th IAPMA Congress, Adelaide
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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
/ REVIEWS
Adam Dutkiewicz 'Weaving Together Urban Images' Independent Weekly 18-4-2008
Cath Kenneally broadcast interview, Arts Breakfast Radio Adelaide 12-4=2008
'Depth is Present' broadcast reading, Writers Radio, Radio Adelaide 9-4-2008
Stephanie Radok 'Cellar Sweatshop' Adelaide Review 13=3=2008
Kay Lawrence 'In the world; Head, Hand, Heart' Craft Australia 28.10.2006
John Barbour, 'Exile and the Mixed Meanings of Home', The Australian 9.7.2003
Wendy Walker, 'Moments of Surprise', The Advertiser12.3.2001
Stephanie Radok, 'Wastepalaces', Adelaide Review 206, November 2000, p34
Varga Hosseini, 'The Empire of Abundance', Catalogue Essay, Mapped Between Locations,
Nexus Multicultural Art Centre, Adelaide, 2000
Pam Zeplin, 'TheTrailer as Main Event', Broadsheet 29(1), autumn 2000, pp20-21
Ruth Fazakerley, 'Irmina van Niele: Taking the Air', Broadsheet 28(4) 1999, pp12-13
'Urban Art; Dyed Teatowels', City Messenger, 11.8.1999, p5
Wendy Walker, 'Talent in Diversity', Advertiser, 6.3.1999, p54
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COLLECTIONS
2008
2006
2005
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Tamworth Regional Gallery
Private collections
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