Wind signalling Instrument no. 3

Image: Judith Klavins, Windsignalling Instrument no. 3 detail, 2023, image 1. Image courtesy the artist.

Wind signalling Instrument no. 3 

Judith Klavins
18 August – 30 November 2023

Much has been written about the therapeutic benefits of spending time with nature.  I hope this work provides a little space and time for viewers to become immersed and re-connected. 

-Judith Klavins, 2023 

Judith Klavins works in the field of contemporary installation, which includes sculpture, video, photography, and printmaking.  From researching colonial archives and family history, Klavins learnt that her maternal ancestors, a sealer and a Tasmanian First Nations woman, raised a family on King Island, Lutruwita/Tasmania in the middle of Bass Strait in the 1820- 40’s.  Such relationships were often coercive.  In her video ‘Wind signalling Instrument no. 3’, Klavins speculates upon her ancestors practice of ‘making a smoke and raising the whiff (flag)’ to signal to passing ships to trade their wallaby skins.   

Using a practice led methodology which focusses on the use of minimal materials and ‘careful handling’, Klavins works in co-production with her materials.  In her video installation, silk and fishing line, poetically respond to the flux and unpredictability of nature, of forces both seen and unseen.    

In 2023, Klavins was awarded 3rd Prize in the Royal South Australian Society of Arts ‘Abstract Art Prize: Essence of Place’, having recently graduated in 2022 with a Bachelor of Visual Art from the Adelaide Central School of Art, where she also received the BVA Board of Governor’s and Guildhouse Award for Excellence.   In 2019, the University of Tasmania collected five of her works.