Miriam Williamson
Miriam Williamson is an freelance curator and artist based in the Blue Mountains. Her creative practice originated in post-punk and electronic music, before expanding to visual art where she has exhibited work in solo and group shows. Her collaboration with Itch-ee and Scratch-ee on the track Sweetness and Light won the inaugural Aria Award for Best Dance Track.
Originally from Central Western NSW, Williamson has participated in regional arts festivals Cementa in Kandos and The End in Hill End drawing on her family’s history in the region. Along with artist Brad Allen-Waters, Williamson currently co-directs the artist run initiative, The SLAB, based in Hazelbrook, in the Blue Mountains, and she has had a long association with critically acclaimed Modern Art Projects Blue Mountains (MAPBM).
Curatorial projects include the design and co-curation of The Altitude Project, a multi-artform contemporary art event referencing astronomy and aviation; curating the exhibition program at the NSW National Parks Blue Mountains Heritage Centre in Blackheath; and more recently ‘What’s that Skip?’ at WAYOUT Artspace in Kandos and ‘Underground’ a major exhibition at the Blue Mountains City Art Gallery.
https://cementa.com.au/artist/miriam-williamson
Image: Bag Hut, Cementa17, Photo Ian Hobbs
Bag Hut explores shifts in memory, time and place. While memory fogs individual perception, the landscape embraces all. The family tree, burdened by its own weight, drops a branch here and there. The work references the temporary depression-era hut built by my grandfather in Kandos in 1923. He moved across from Hill End, seeking work in the local mines and eventually the cement works. Bag Hut is a site-specific installation sourcing local materials similar to those my grandfather used. The site shares the same aspect as the original structure, looking out to Cherry Tree Hill with Mount Rocky behind.
Bag Hut The End Festival, 2017
Seeds of Empire, Explorers: narratives of site, Woodford Academy