"New Garden" exibited at Queensland Gallery

[arthra]

http://news.bahai.org/multimedia/video.php?storyid=754

Prestigious exhibition presents “New Garden”

2 February 2010
BRISBANE, Australia —

Traditional Pacific island bark cloth stenciled with designs depicting a vision of a "New Garden" was one of the artworks commissioned for a prestigious exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery.

The sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art – APT6 – is now well into its four-month run and features works by some of the best-known artists of the Pacific region.

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  Tapa artists Bale Jione and Robin White work on the intricate patterning for the bark cloth. The third artist, Leba Toki, was out of camera range here. (All… »
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  Fijian artists Leba Toki and Bale Jione flank Robin White as the trio poses during a break from their work on the exquisite bark-cloth art commissioned for the… »
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  The tapa artists recruited a specialist to sew the pieces for the border section of one of the works.
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  Bale Jione paints the pattern onto the bark cloth using the stencils that she and her collaborators made.
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  The "New Garden" artwork is on display through early April at the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia.
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  A wedding of cultures was the theme for the design of the bark-cloth art created by three Baha'i artists.
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  This year's Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art for the first time includes pieces by artists from Iran, North Korea, Turkey, Tibet, Cambodia, and Myanmar.… »
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  In August 2009, painter Robin White was among a group of her compatriots who were invested as dames and knights of the British Empire by virtue of having received… »

Prominent New Zealand artist Robin White was invited to participate, with organizers mentioning a possible collaboration with a tapa artist from Fiji. Eventually Mrs. White proposed that she work with two Fijians, Leba Toki and Bale Jione.
All three artists are Baha'is and used their vision of a future society to inspire their work.
"What we wanted to do was to present our vision of what Fiji could be – and what it will be," said Mrs. White.
In Fiji, she explained, almost all of the world's great religions are represented by a significant portion of the population – Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, and a small but growing Baha'i community