The Re-Create Collective’s exhibition From Where I Sit: Stories From Within combined personal histories with concerns including climate change, food poverty and support for the arts.
Presented at Albury Library Museum in 2022, the mixed-media exhibition included work by Donna Caffrey, Jenni Munday, Leanne O’Toole, Bärbel Ullrich and Gael Fairhurst.
Different lives expressed through reused materials
The artists worked with photography, drawing, textiles and handmade books. Their collective had formed in 2019 after members met through art workshops and developed a shared interest in repurposing materials and sustainable making.
Individual works remained closely linked with personal experience. Fairhurst reflected on family history, while O’Toole created a collage connected with her work as a seamstress.
The group’s monthly meetings at Creators Artspace in Wodonga provided a setting for discussion, practical exercises and mutual support.
A dining table confronting food inequality
Caffrey’s installation Fine Dining arranged a high-tea setting beside a hanging tablecloth embroidered with the statement that 14 per cent of Australians lived in food poverty.
The contrast between decorative abundance and the statistic redirected an inviting domestic scene toward food waste and unequal access.
The collective wanted the exhibition to entertain while also encouraging viewers to examine political and environmental concerns. The local museum considered that combination important because it gave regional artists a public platform and audiences access to varied cultural experiences.
From Where I Sit showed how a group exhibition could remain personal without becoming private. Family, work and memory became points of entry into wider questions about resources and sustainability.