Adelaide-based visual artist Deborah Prior has been selected from a nationwide pool of applicants for the three-week Grindell’s Hut Artist-in- Residence 2021 program.

The Grindell’s Hut Artist-in-Residence program is a partnership between Country Arts SA, the Department for Environment and Water and the Vulkathunha‐Gammon National Park’s Co-Management Board, National Parks South Australia and Natural Resources SA Arid Lands. The residency will take place in the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park in the Northern Flinders Rangers.

Country Arts SA Chief Executive/Executive Director Anthony Peluso said Grindell’s Hut could be life-changing.
“The Grindell’s Hut residency has become a coveted prize on the Arts calendar. Since 2004 it has provided artists the opportunity to re-vision their practice and explore new ideas while surrounded by the beautiful Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Parks. This unique experience can be a life-changing moment for artists and their practice. We look forward to seeing Deborah Prior’s creations.”
Deb’s art practice is currently split between craft/textile work and body-focused endurance performance (this has previously included chocolate eating performances, punishing hiking challenges, and cycling.)
“This residency will also be an opportunity to regroup and refocus on an ambitious endurance (cycling) project about climate change that I spent most of last year preparing for but then sort of fell at the first hurdle when I got thrown off my bike by the wind early on. Four shoulder surgeries later I’m on the mend…but there’s a bit to unpack there about our human frailties and fragile, ailing natural environments,” Deb said.
She will have the opportunity to meet with local Adnyamathanha community members and will be supported to ensure correct protocols are respected and followed and the Adnyamathanha community feels welcome and able to engage with the project.

Deb added she is looking forward to the remoteness of the residency.
“I’m excited by the prospect of a period of study without noise pollution, light pollution, or a 24-hour news cycle. I’m also really looking forward to experiencing a landscape that is completely unfamiliar to me. I spend a lot of time hiking in the Adelaide Hills so am anticipating a marked contrast to this in the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges,” she said.
The residency takes place in October 2021.

The 2020 Grindell’s Hut resident Edwina Cooper recently exhibited her installation works, relative weakness, at praxis ARTSPACE in Adelaide. Next month Cooper will exhibit an as-yet untitled exhibition at Yarta Purtli in Port Augusta.

Image: Sam Roberts