Textiles Bush Camp and exhibition

Every two years, the Textiles Studio offers the Textiles Field Trip as an elective requiring no previous textiles experience.

About the Bush Camp
Bush Camp, Oratunga Station, Flinders Ranges

About the Bush Camp

The 4.5 unit course is taught by Ruth Hadlow and Kay Lawrence. Ruth has an international reputation as a textile artist, most recently for her textile-based environmental installations.

The camp is held over eight days at historic Oratunga station in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia in the July mid-year break. Oratunga Station, near Glass Gorge in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, offers simple, self-catered, share-room accommodation, camping amenities or swags in the shearing shed, so that the participants will be living and working in a bush environment. Prior to the camp, cooking teams are organised to bring food and prepare shared meals, so the camp, while intense, is great fun

During the camp participants critically examine the idea of 'landscape' and discuss how such ideas have shaped our understanding of this particular part of South Australia. Prior to the camp participants visit the Art Gallery of South Australia and the South Australian Museum to consider how the same landscape has been represented in Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures.

Participants also explore the relationship between textile practice and the bush, working with materials found on site using a range of simple processes, including plant dying, basketry, installation, journal writing, and drawing. After the camp, participants present work-in-progress for critique at small group and individual tutorials. A one-day exhibition of work made during the field trip concludes the course.