Taieri Wetlands – Loss and Repair
Caselberg Trust Creative Connections resident 2024 – Katie Breckon
The Caselberg Trust announced today that its Creative Connections Resident 2024 will be artist, educator, and remote community arts worker Katie Breckon. Originally from Pōneke Wellington, Katie will be returning to Aotearoa New Zealand in late 2023, after spending more than ten years supporting arts and heritage projects in northwest Australia.
Whilst on her 3-month Caselberg Trust Creative Connections residency, Katie will be working on a project provisionally titled Taieri Wetlands - Loss and Repair, which will see her focus on using incised drawing and photographic processes to question the decline of wetlands in the Taieri Plain southwest of Dunedin.
Since European settlement, 90 per cent of New Zealand's wetlands and fifty per cent of coastal wetlands have been damaged or destroyed through human impact. River engineering, drainage and flood protection play a significant role in the decline.
Katie says “As a descendant of Scottish migrants who settled and farmed near Outram from the 1850s, I question family narratives about the process and ethics of draining swamplands. What started as a curiosity about family heritage expanded into researching the decline of wetlands and the restorative work currently supporting the revival of fragile ecosystems.”
Katie will engage with the Sinclair Wetlands, and reference archival materials, satellite maps, plants, ecology, and landmarks, as well as draw from the natural environment to develop artworks.
The 3-month long Caselberg Trust Creative Connections residency started in 2012 and is specifically targeted for projects that reach out and make links across a variety of creative media, and professional disciplines, and/or to communities relevant to the planned project. Recent Creative Connections Residents have been Bridget Reweti (2019), Lucy Marinkovich (2021), Sarah Hudson (2022), and Alison Isadora (2023).
The Caselberg Trust purchased the Broad Bay, Dunedin home of the late John and Anna Caselberg in 2006, with the aim of hosting creative residencies in the house. Since inception, the Trust has held a variety of creative projects and events, as well as hosting New Zealand writers and artists at the cottage.
Caselberg Trust contact - Trustee Robert West at info@caselbergtrust.org or mobile 027 608 0641 for further information, or www.caselbergtrust.org.
Contact Katie at email – katie@breckon.co
Biography - Katie Breckon
Katie Breckon is an artist, educator, and remote community arts worker originally from Pōneke Wellington. She has actively supported arts and cultural heritage projects in northwest Australia for over a decade, collaborating with remote communities.
Her artistic practice explores the complex and poetic connections between people and their surroundings, mainly focusing on the concept of place attachment. Place attachment refers to the strong emotional connection individuals form with specific objects and locations, often based on their experiences, memories, and interactions with the environment.
Katie's artistic expression primarily involves drawing, printmaking, and photography. Drawing serves as a foundation for her creative thinking, guiding the materiality and outcome of her artmaking. Her drawings vary from ethereal thread installations in space to expressive incised marks into pigment.
Printmaking offers a means to delve deeper into challenging community stories, where she utilises techniques such as etching and monoprint to create meaningful and thought-provoking works of art. In her photographic practice, Katie embraces both digital and analogue processes. She experiments with cameraless and wet plate photography, showcasing her versatility and innovative approach to capturing images.
Katie Breckon's educational background includes a Bachelor of Fine Arts from New Zealand and a Postgraduate Diploma in Visual Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne.
Throughout her artistic journey, Katie has received recognition for her work, being a recipient of various awards, such as the CCP Salon, Deakin University Photographic Award, and American Aperture Awards Best Still Life Award. Additionally, she has been a finalist in the Bowness Photography Prize.
Her artwork has found a place in private and public collections, including the University of Western Australia, Janet Holmes a Court Collection, Artbank, Shire of Broome, and the Shire of Derby West Kimberley.
Overall, Katie Breckon's art practice offers poetic insight into human connection with their environment, and she uses her diverse artistic skills to create compelling and meaningful works of art that resonate with communities and viewers alike.
Links to further information about Katie and her work
Website - www.breckon.co
Instagram - @katie.breckon