Emarr the Turtle Side Talk

Fondation Opale invites artists from the Erub Arts Centre – in the Torres Strait Islands archipelago – and other experts at Ocean Space to talk about their life, their relationship with the Ocean, and the ghostnets, an artistic practice which uses reclaimed fishing nets abandoned or lost, to create contemporary works of art and large-scale installations, sending a conservation message to the world.

With Jimmy Thaiday, Lavinia Ketchell, Lynnette Griffiths, Géraldine Le Roux and Franca Tamisari.

• 9 - 9:30am | Welcome breakfast

• 9:30 - 9:40am | Welcome address

• 9:40 - 10:45am | Erub Arts: A Journey in Ghost Net – abandoned fishing net and rope

Torres Strait Islander artists Jimmy Thaiday and Lavinia Ketchell, together with Erub Arts collaborative artist Lynnette Griffiths, will discuss their collaborative approach to making the “circle of makers” which offers a mix of practical and social interaction that is often missed in our modern world, developing ideas collectively, designing and constructing large scale works from Ghost Net. The group have meshed traditional stories, folklore and science with concerns for the environment largely through the depiction of creatures.

• 11 - 11:45am | Géraldine Le Roux : Navigating with Ghost Nets Art – caring for the Ocean and Understanding the Artistic Qualities of Plastic Waste

Géraldine Le Roux, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Western Brittany (France) and Senior Adjunct Research Fellow at James Cook University (Australia), will focus her presentation on marine plastic, weaving together ecological impact and cultural perception, in order to explain the origin and impact of ghostnet art, which she will situate in a more global history of art, while mentioning the specific features of the Australian movement.

• 11:45am - 12:30pm | Franca Tamisari: Singing and Dancing Land Water and Sky Country

Pr. Franca Tamisari, Head of Cultural Anthropology Program at Ca’ Foscari University Department of Humanities, will explore Australian Indigenous songs and dances as ways of maintaining and renewing connections with land, reactivating the meshwork of relations linking all human and more-than-human-beings with one another, affirming sovereignty, transmitting knowledge and rights, as well as ‘performative tactics’ in dealing with non-indigenous people and institutions.

• 2:30 - 4:30pm | Creative workshop

Join us to discover the stories behind the ghostnets art movement. The workshop, open to adults, kids (+6 years old), and families, is structured around the polysensorial and creative approach of a new tactile illustrated book. With the contribution of the Australian artists Jimmy K. Thaiday, Lavinia Ketchell, and Lynnette Griffith.
Organised by OSPAPIK and Les Doigts Qui Rêvent. With the support of Opale Foundation and Museum d'histoire naturelle du Havre

From September 25 to 29, Ocean Space hosts the work “Emarr Totol / Emarr the Turtle” as part of the collaboration with Fondation Opale, TBA21–Academy’s cultural partner.

Find out more here.

Established in 2018 in Lens / Crans-Montana (Switzerland), Fondation Opale is the sole contemporary art center dedicated to the promotion of Indigenous Australian artists in Europe. It promotes dialogue between cultures and peoples through art.