The Mill is excited to present In Reflection: In Response, a new group exhibition curated by Stella Martino, featuring the work of five South Australian artists; Shani Engelbrecht (textiles), Calamity Tash (textiles), Carman Skeehan (glass), Lotte Schwerdtfeger (ceramics) and Yana Lehey (sculpture). In Reflection: In Response has been developed through a collaborative, community-driven component led by Stella, who sites Ursula Le Guin’s essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction in the conceptual underpinning of the exhibition.

For each of the artists, this exhibition has been an opportunity to come together, share ideas, collaborate, form communal bonds and develop their work. We’re excited to see the artists’ process, both in their individual practices and in creating collaborative work, showcased together in the gallery.

Stella writes 'Ursula Le Guin wrote an essay called The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction that challenges the idea of stories that centre one individual. Instead, Le Guin offers the viewpoint that stories are a collection of things and moments gathered over time. Le Guin uses the term ‘carrier bag’ as a figurative and literal image of how we collect things and put them in a vessel to save for a time when those things are shared amongst others. In Reflection: In Response brings five artists into a three-month residency guided by me at The Mill, where the group will cultivate and share ideas, collaborate, form communal bonds and develop their work for the exhibition. The residency will culminate in one communal piece of work, and individual or collaborative pieces from the artists in response using their chosen medium/s. The communal piece will be a take on patchwork quilting, with each artist hand-sewing a piece of recycled, locally sourced fabric, which will be sewn together at the end of the residency. The outcome of the residency and the artists’ interactions with form will become a physical manifestation of the time we spend together, sharing our thoughts, knowledge, practice and stories: our carrier bag.'