Strait Across has been a year in the making. It is the outcome of the Inter Island Arts Exchange and brings together a diverse group of 36 resident artists from King Island and Flinders Island in Bass Strait, two of Australia's larger islands.

It is clearly demonstrated through this exhibition that there was a hunger and a need from artists on both islands to connect with each other and to generate a dialogue about the influence of 'islandness' on life and art. The artists' commitment to the development and curatorial process has been evident from the inception through to the completion.

Exhibiting artist range from emerging through to more established practitioners working in a variety of different art forms and mediums, including photography, painting, drawing, sound, sculpture, wood, fabric and ceramic. These artists have shared their individual fervour for their own sense of place, and have come together on both islands to merge and form one clear voice from the Strait.

To connect the islands, the artists relied heavily on communication tools and technology, often stretching us all beyond the known boundaries of the islands and ourselves. At times we all grappled with the tensions of the distances across the Strait as the hunger to communicate and connect with each other grew. However this tension in fact charged the art, illuminating the common thought that evolved between us all.

Initial funding was received from Arts Tasmania, Cradle Coast Authority and King Island Council. Professional artist Lucia Rossi worked tirelessly to maintain the connections and artistic process for both the artists individually and between each other, applying a strong curatorial process to encourage the communities to celebrate 'islandness' and their own sense of place.

The future is unknown. There is a strong volition to continue to share our artistic vision with our own communities, the broader community of Tasmania and beyond.

The door has been opened and a dream has been realised. Let us all keep this door open and continue to explore the endless possibilities of this creative community in the Bass Strait.

Sally Marsden
Project Co-ordinator.

In a place of coasts and edges an islander's life involves either looking into the blue yonder or into the interior, which can become more or less magnified according to the physical size of the place. This inward and outward looking can also translate as the wide or the detailed perspective. Not only do these islands share similar size, they also share similar proximities to mainlands and the 40 degree south parallel. Geographical location is a key to these island's identities. It affects their natural, spiritual, social and psychological being, and their way of looking.

The artists of King and Flinders Islands have looked within themselves as well as directly across the Bass Strait to each other to define their own unique island identities and that which connects them. These exhibitions have grown out of a collective response nourished by a symbiotic energy of love of place.

When looking out these artists do not look to the 'other'. They have a certain faithfulness to themselves, and express this with a rare form of truth and honesty. There is a shared joy in leaving aside the unnecessary clutter of over-stimulation from external sources and in this context there is a definite sense of remoteness being treated as 'remoteness from what?'

Much of this work reflects the presence of water and sky and what it means to be surrounded by it and its constant movement. Some islanders say that the sea and the sky is their landscape. The constant ebb and flow of the tides, and the presence of possible danger and peril that it may bring is a significant part of island life. There is also an amplified sense of light bouncing and refracting from surrounding waters. This is also mirrored in the flashing beacon of the lighthouse.

Sea and sky also introduce a constant parade of things that fly or flow by. This brings with it notions of trace, memory and ephemera. Sometimes the islands act as gentle collectors or collision points for this traffic. There is evidence of this in the spawning Nautilus shell and shipwrecks, sea glass and drift tags, hovering clouds and migratory birds.

The architecture is nature, and in addition to the sea and sky, and specific to each location, Flinders Islanders find inspiration in the rocks and mountains, and King Islanders find inspiration in the layers of the earth and the tapestry of the land.

Coasts and edges can also provide a boundary both physically and psychologically. Works from this exhibition deal with this in terms of isolation and loneliness, and the contrasts between indigenous and introduced natural materials, from Mariner shells to Feral cats and Boxthorn weed. This is also a significant statement, that these artists make with the materials that surround them, and respond to the subject, shapes and forms that lie in their everyday sight.

For each one of us there is a delight in looking into a place, and perhaps revealing things that we always knew, or discovering things that we didn't. For the artist this is part of their process and journey of 'making'. These artists are not dulled to the beauty of their place by familiarity. It is a part of them. They don't just look at their place, they look into it. They reveal and discover their place for themselves, for their own communities and for the rest of the world around them. For an 'away' person this holds a certain exoticness, even quirkiness. This body of work provides a unique island aesthetic, distinct to Flinders and King Islands with an overwhelming sense that these islanders know truly how lucky they are to live in such a special place.

Lucia Rossi
Curator