Heartlines
Artist Statement
Anna Dowling and Laura Wills 2018 SALA Residency at Wardliparingga, SAHMRI
Heartlines was a community drawing project investigating health issues and connection to country for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Laura Wills and Anna Dowling are visual artists based in Adelaide with drawing at the centre of their practices. During SALA 2018 they were artists in resident at the Wardliparingga Research Unit at SAHMRI. The artists facilitated a large-scale floor based collaborative drawing with the Wardliparingga staff and public. They used 4 hospital bed sheets sewn together to represent health and community. There is an invitation to contribute to the drawing making it collaborative and inclusive.
Underpinning the artists research is the knowledge and understanding that the health and wellness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is supported by maintaining a connectedness and balance with family, community, culture and Country. The artists have explored how Wardliparingga harnesses this traditional knowledge about health and wellness to improve health outcomes for the community. Heartlines hasused drawing and painting as an investigative tool to decipher and translate these ideas. Laura and Anna have created new solo and collaborative works.
Laura was very interested in the perception of a wellbeing framework being a holistic approach to health. Meaning that maintaining wellness is not just a physical approach it is also a psychological one that involves a connected lifestyle and is about our relationships to the environment, our family and ourselves. You can't measure the spirit. Laura has used the depiction of a shield to represent the strength of the land as a strong protector for both aboriginal and non aboriginal people. She has also explored the ideas of histories being held in the landscapes and celebrated the diversity of peoples who live in South Australia.
