Overlapping Collective is so named for the areas of practice and approach that artists Annee Miron and Forest Keegel have in common. When they first sat down in 2019 to map out how they might work together to form a collective they drew a series of circles that overlapped in the form of a venn diagram to find their common purpose.
Annee and Forest first connected in 2011 through the Rudder Exchange Visual Arts Mentoring Partnerships which Forest was facilitating and Annee was a mentor in, they had coincidentally both been selected as finalists in the Lorne Sculpture Biennale that year and have since had a strong alliance and many art adventures together, visiting each other on residencies, supporting each other in the studio, walking, drawing, camping and visiting exhibitions together. Recent projects include Fenns Labroratorium a live studio at Tuganinna Explosives Reserve for the Dear Agnes project.
Forest Keegel lives and works on Dja Dja Wurrung Country and listens deeply to the stories of the Traditional Owners who continue to share their rich cultural heritage with a generosity which astounds her. As a settler she can trace back roots to her Sri Lankan Father and other boat arrivals in the 1860’s. Her work has a strong environmental focus, with more than a decade of creating artworks that evoke a sense of the landscape of Victoria prior to colonisation and the gold rush. Keegel’s practice is carbon neutral and often uses endemic Indigenous plants and waste paper to create ephemeral sculpture in public space. An important aspect of her practice is connecting people with Country and creating actions that communities can do as acts of reparation and caring for Country such as planting endemic plants in the Linton Living Sculptures project. A minimum of 20% of the budget of each of her funded projects is allocated to Traditional Owners.
Annee Miron is a visual artist based on the lands of the Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin nation, Australia. From site-specific drawings and research on the fates of plants, she uses weaving and knotting techniques with found materials to create installations, participatory artworks and performance objects that express a felt sense of that place. Annee enjoys inviting others to share their specialist knowledge of a place. In her 2018 Artist-in-residence at Cradle Mountain, Annee invited the public to her Field Trip with an Ecologist, a Zoologist and a Park Ranger. She has welcomed many creative collaborators.
