At PICA we recognise that we are situated within the unceded lands of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation. We pay our respects and offer our gratitude to Elders past and present, and to those emerging leaders in the community. We acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the importance of their care and continued connection to culture, community and Country.

Always was, always will be.

Our foyer is open today 10am–5pm . Our exhibitions are always free.

Spirit of Giving: DIY Potato Print Gift Wrapping

Spirit of Giving: DIY Potato Print Gift Wrapping

Make your own handmade wrapping and cards this festive season with PICA!

Inspired by Elizabeth Willing’s installation Roost, craft your potato printed creation at PICA’s Kids Christmas Market presented by AWESOME Arts. 

Featuring 30 stalls from the next generation of makers, enjoy live entertainment, activities and the giant geometric igloo as part of the Rio Tinto Christmas Light Trail. 

Experience Elizabeth Willing’s potato-printed linen and our final exhibition of the year, The Purple Shall Govern by Roberta Joy Rich.

About the Artist

Elizabeth Willing is a Meanjin (Brisbane)-based visual artist whose works are performative and often participatory explorations of food and hosting.  Working across mediums, Willing explores the role of food in our daily lives, creating works that engage audiences through sight, smell, taste, and touch. Willing is the recipient of PICA’s inaugural Judy Wheeler Commission supported by the Simpson Family. 

In her work at PICA Willing has hand-printed an unstretched linen canvas using kipfler potatoes, a signature material of her practice. Printed in a deep brick red, the organic, jostling forms are suggestive of yeast, bacteria or body cells viewed under a microscope. Linen is a material associated with hosting and domesticity, while the activity of potato printing recalls childhood crafts and the history of the PICA building as a school. Lining the edges of the linen in embroidered text, Willing presents a series of words associated with smells she experienced across Perth, with the artwork’s title, Roost, a specific reference to a scent encountered behind the PICA building. 

Evoking a wide array of experiences, perceptions and reactions, each detail of Roost tells a piece of a larger story, unfolding into a broader consideration of the rituals and experiences of hospitality, the materiality of food and its relationship with our bodies, and the many varied tastes (and smells) of our city. 

Supporters

Image: AWESOME Arts, AWESOME Festival 2024: Mess Hall with Samantha Hughes, 2023, photo: Tristan McKenzie

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Free
10 February - 31 December 2023
Elizabeth Willing

Roost: Judy Wheeler Commission

Roberta Joy Rich_ThePurpleShallGovern_Photo Courtesy of UCT Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives
Free
3 November - 31 December 2023
Roberta Joy Rich

The Purple Shall Govern