BEGIN:VCALENDAR METHOD:PUBLISH VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:-//NONSGML Sandhills Development\, LLC//NONSGML Sugar Calendar Fe eds v3.8.2//EN X-WR-CALNAME:Tales from The Trees of Old X-WR-CALDESC:Salamanca Arts Centre X-WR-TIMEZONE:Australia/Hobart BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Australia/Hobart BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+1000 TZOFFSETTO:+1100 DTSTART:20251004T160000 TZNAME:AEDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Australia/Hobart BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+1000 TZOFFSETTO:+1100 DTSTART:20251004T160000 TZNAME:AEDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Tales from The Trees of Old DESCRIPTION:Presented by the Cindy Watkins + Fiona Francois + Joy Kachin a\n\n\n\nExhibition Dates : Thursday 5 - Sunday 15 February 20269:00am - 5:00pm daily\n\n\n\nOpening Event : Friday 6 February 2025\, 6:00pm - 8 :00pm\n\n\n\nAn exhibition by three artists exploring the mystique\, fra gility\, and endurance of Tasmania’s ancient trees.There are places in Tasmania where time slows\, where the air hangs heavy with memory\, and where the trees seem to whisper the stories of the land. These forestsâ €”Gondwanan remnants\, old-growth sentinels\, and endangered giants—ho ld millennia within their rings. Tales from the Trees of Old brings toge ther three artists\, each working in a distinct medium\, to honour these extraordinary beings and to invite viewers into the quiet\, myth-laden language of the forest.Though their practices differ\, the artists share a deep respect for the living elders of Tasmania’s landscapes. Their works do more than depict trees\; they interpret them\, listen to them\, and speak in their stead. Through charcoal\, textile\, and photography\ , the exhibition becomes a collective act of witnessing—an echo of the forest rendered in pigment\, fibre\, and light.Joy Kachina’s photogra phic works present the forest as both document and dreamscape. She captu res what often goes unseen: the sheen of rain on ancient bark\, the slow twist of branches shaped by centuries of wind\, and the hollowed interi ors of trees that feel like sacred chambers. Shot during long solitary t reks into remote terrain\, the images sit at the intersection of realism and reverie. Even the most literal compositions seem touched by myth\, as though taken just after the forest revealed a long-guarded secret.The lens lingers on subtleties—the glow of moss\, the darkness beneath bu ttressed roots\, the marks left by fire and regrowth. Each print becomes a meditation on endurance and fragility\, honouring species that have s urvived ice ages\, colonisation\, and catastrophe\, yet now face modern pressures of climate change and habitat loss.In dialogue with these imag es Fiona Francois’ charcoal drawings—hyper-realistic yet carrying an otherworldly energy. Charcoal\, a material born of fire\, becomes a fit ting medium for capturing trees that have known both creation and destru ction. The artist often shapes driftwood\, branches\, or trunks into fem inine forms\, merging the human and arboreal in a way that suggests kins hip rather than metaphor. These figures appear carved from shadow\, echo ing the lines of wind-sculpted wood and holding the quiet wisdom of some thing older than human time.Fiona works with ceremonial precision\, laye ring\, erasing\, and revealing until the form seems to rise of its own w ill from the paper. The result is both haunting and tender. These works invite viewers to consider our emotional connections to trees and the an cient\, often overlooked relationship between human imagination and the natural world.Completing the triad are the textile artworks—small in s cale yet astonishing in detail. Using only a sewing machine and thread\, Cindy Watkins creates hyper-realistic treescapes that feel intimate and meticulously observed. Each piece is built through dense\, layered embr oidery\, with thousands of carefully guided stitches mimicking the textu res of bark\, foliage\, and the forest floor. The moss that clings to tr unks and stones appears uncannily lifelike\, achieved through subtle var iations in stitch direction\, speed\, and tension.She “paints” with thread\, guiding the machine with a level of control that borders on cal ligraphic. The surfaces come alive with detail: tiny knots that resemble lichen\, smooth stitched passages that echo sunlit bark\, and tonal shi fts that capture the soft green hush of shaded moss. The works invite vi ewers to lean in\, discovering new elements with every glance—much lik e studying the base of a living tree.These embroidered pieces act almost like botanical specimens\, preserving fleeting textures through a slow\ , deliberate process. Their delicacy stands in gentle contrast to the mo numental subjects they depict\, reminding us that the vastness of a fore st is built from countless small wonders. Through her threadwork\, Cindy honours the forest through patient observation and astonishing fidelity .As these three practices intertwine\, Tales from the Trees of Old becom es both sensory experience and environmental reflection. Each piece invi tes viewers to slow down and enter the rhythm of the trees—a rhythm me asured not in hours or seasons but in centuries. Though rooted in conser vationist intent\, the works never slip into didacticism. Instead\, they cultivate space for reverence\, wonder\, and grief.This exhibition hono urs the trees not as scenery or resource but as living beings with agenc y\, history\, and vulnerability. It asks us to look closely\, feel deepl y\, and recognise the responsibility we share in protecting these irrepl aceable ecosystems. In the meeting of fibre\, charcoal\, and light\, a c ollective voice emerges: a call to listen to the stories the trees have always been telling—and to ensure they are not silenced.\n\n\n\n\n\nAc cessibility\n\n\n\nAccessible Toilet (on Level 1 and in the Courtyard)Re gistered Assistance Animals welcomeWheelchair Accessible (via the Lift i n the Courtyard) URL;VALUE=URI:https://www.sac.org.au/events/tales-from-the-trees-of-old/ UID:urn:uuid:a7d2b4dd-d5e8-4fff-9cb6-cd9cbe2ce64d STATUS:CONFIRMED ORGANIZER: DTSTAMP:20260512T145459Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260205 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260215 LOCATION:Salamanca Arts Centre END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR