Joan Grounds
{{Short description|American-born artist}}
{{use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Joan Grounds (Dickson)
| image =
| caption = Joan Grounds at gallery opening
| birth_date = 31 August 1939
| death_date =
| field = Sculpture, ceramics, performance art, film
| training = Bachelor of Arts (Tulane University)
Master of Arts (University of California)
| movement = Multi disciplinary
| awards =
| website =
| birth_place = Atlanta, USA
}}
Joan Grounds (born 31 August 1939){{Cite web |date=24 July 2022 |title=Australian Prints + Printmaking: Joan Grounds |url=https://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/artists/11255/ |access-date=10 December 2024 |website=Australian Prints + Printmaking}} is an American-born artist. She has been exhibiting in Australia and internationally from 1967. Her solo and collaborative artwork is held in the National Gallery of Australia (ceramics), the National Gallery of Victoria (both film and ceramics) and in the Powerhouse Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences (ceramics). Her hybrid practice incorporated ceramics, sculpture, sound art, film and performance art.
Early life and education
Grounds was born in Atlanta, United States, in 1939. She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tulane University in 1962 and a Master of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley in 1964.{{Cite web|author=APT|date=2002|title=APT: Joan Grounds |url=http://www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/content/apt2002_standard.asp?name=APT_Artists_Joan_Grounds_Bio| website=Visualarts.qld.gov.au}}{{cite interview| first=Marr| last=Grounds| title=Interview with Marr Grounds| date=30 March 2015| interviewer-first=Deborah| interviewer-last=Edwards| url=https://www.datocms-assets.com/42890/1614405141-groundsmarrinterviewv2018-12-11.pdf| format=transcript| series=Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive: Balnaves Foundation Australian Sculpture Archive Project| others=Balnaves Foundation| publisher=Art Gallery of NSW| quote=This is an edited transcript of a recorded interview.| access-date=31 January 2023| archive-date=31 January 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131031532/https://www.datocms-assets.com/42890/1614405141-groundsmarrinterviewv2018-12-11.pdf| url-status=dead}}
After meeting and marrying American/Australian artist Marr Grounds, she lived in Ghana for two years while he lectured in architecture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi.
She exhibited in Ghana and the US before coming to Australia{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} in 1968.
Career
Grounds's first major installation work was a fire sculpture on a beach in Ghana in 1968, later repeated on deserted beaches in New South Wales. She would continue to engage with nature in later site-specific installation work, including the "Four Quartets" in 1987-1988.
Grounds was the director of the Tin Sheds at Sydney University from 1976 to 1979, after co-founding the art workshop with her husband and Donald Brook. Grounds fostered the Tin Sheds as a vibrant hub for a diversity of politically active artists, students and the broader community and it supported many sub-groups.{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/hindsight/the-hothouse-art-and-politics-at-the-tin-sheds/3241670|format= audio (55 mins) + text|first=Lorena| last=Allam |title=The Hothouse: art and politics at the Tin Sheds |series= Hindsight |website= ABC Radio National| publisher= Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=24 June 2007 |access-date=28 January 2023|others=Guests include Donald Brook, Bert Flugelman, Guy Warren, Joan Grounds, Michael Callaghan, Chips Mackinolty, Marie McMahon, Jan Fieldsend, Roger Butler.}}{{cite web | title=Mixed media artist, Tin Sheds artist-in-residence and Director, 1968 - 1979, Joan Grounds | website=ABC Radio National | date=14 February 2020 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/hindsight/mixed-media-artist-tin-sheds-artist-in-residence/3241704 | access-date=31 January 2023}}
She taught at East Sydney Technical College (later the National Art School) at that time, and later taught at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}
Art practice
The Watter Gallery in Sydney has represented her work.
= Collaborations =
Grounds collaborated with Aleks Danko on several performance and film projects and had a ten-year collaboration with Sherre Delys, producing sound sculpture and public art installation. Other collaborators were N.S. Harsha, Rik Rue, Margaret Dodd, Stevie Wishhart, and Jane Finlay.{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}}
= Themes =
"Joan Grounds' work...engages with nature, with the placement of women, with the body of women, with memory and with ways of exploring all of these." (Julie Ewington, 2001){{Cite book|last=Ewington|first=Julie|date=2001|chapter=In The Wild: Nature, Culture, Gender In Installation Art|title=What is Installation? An Anthology of Writings on Australian Installation Art|editor1=Geczy,A.|editor2=Gennochio, B.|pages=38–39|publisher= Power Publications|isbn=978-1864874303}}
"The installations are as formal and elusive as music. And you are the music while the music lasts." (George Alexander, 1989){{Cite journal|last=Alexander|first=George|date=1989|title=The Dancer Snared: The Poetics of Joan Grounds|journal=Eyeline|volume=09|pages=20–21|url=https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=570702034702870;res=IELHSS}}
Recognition
- 2002 ASIALINK Residency, Chiang Mai, Thailand
- 1996 ASIALINK Visual Arts and Crafts residency exchange between India and Australia
- 1995 Australia Council residency, Tokyo, Japan
- 1981 Australia Council residency, Greene Street, New York
Selected exhibitions
= Solo exhibitions =
- 1985 'Four Quartets', The Performance Space, Cleveland Street, Sydney
- 1997 (with N.S. Harsha) Art Gallery of NSW
- 1995 solo show, Annandale Galleries, Sydney
= Others =
- Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 2002 (APT 2002|APT4), Brisbane, Australia{{cite web |title=Joan GROUNDS [Artist profile] |url=http://www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/content/apt2002_standard.asp?name=APT_Artists_Joan_Grounds |website=Visual Arts Queensland |publisher=Queensland Art Gallery |access-date=21 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090525100447/http://www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/content/apt2002_standard.asp?name=APT_Artists_Joan_Grounds |archive-date=25 May 2009 |url-status=dead}}
Collections
- National Gallery of Australia (10 works, including Red-green duration: from the portfolio "Rare birds with sticky wings"){{Cite web|last=Grounds|first=Joan|title=Red-green duration: from the portfolio|url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=105616|access-date=2020-08-28|website=Item held by National Gallery of Australia}}
- National Gallery of Victoria (4 works, including We should call it a living room and Package){{Cite web|title=Joan GROUNDS {{!}} Artists {{!}} NGV|url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/12398/|access-date=2020-08-28|website=www.ngv.vic.gov.au}}
- Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (several, including Ceramic parcel){{Cite web|title='Ceramic Parcel' sculptural form by Joan Grounds|url=https://collection.maas.museum/object/121909|access-date=2020-08-28|website=collection.maas.museum|language=en}}
References
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Category:20th-century Australian women artists
Category:20th-century Australian artists
Category:Tulane University alumni
Category:University of California alumni
Category:Women's Art Register artists