Beth George & Emerald Wise (AUS)
‘Solstice’
Beth George is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Western Australia, and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle. She has taught for more than 15 years across UWA, Curtin, UoN, and Notre Dame’s architecture schools, in urbanism, design, and drawing. George holds a PhD from RMIT focused on urban curation and cartography, and has undertaken research through book chapters, journal articles, papers, competitions, and exhibitions. George’s work is concerned with extending useful fictions from a close study of contexts. George is a registered architect who has directed diverse practices in architecture and urban activation.
Solstice was designed by Beth George and Emerald Wise online from Naarm and Boorloo. Compositionally, the design reflects the commingling of independent parts, with separation and union, and with the passage of time. It echoes the ever sharper need to consider ecology and connectedness in the Anthropocene, and with the spatial and emotional tensions entailed by the pandemic: we weathered it together, as together as you could be, and since have been separate. Bright gold thread defines the edge of the circular landform, illuminating its rim like a lunar eclipse. Inside this form, detail and richness amass. The perimeter is dark and velvety-rich, producing a deep surface both tactile and reflected. Azure thread marks each swim: each river, pool, bath and bay. Bright, metallic thread connects these locales.
At Solstice,
Halves meet,
From different edges of the country,
Country crossed many times, fast
and slowly.
Time shared by reflective streams and shimmering pools
is held in our bodies,
Water clear and water dark.
Our threads weave together
now and then.
Emerald Wise is a doctoral candidate in architecture, her research explores the cultivation of an enactive practice engaging with perceptual life-worlds. Emerald has taught studios and elective programmes across many Australian universities, including UWA, Curtin, University of Melbourne and UoN. She is an architect, artist and maker with works spanning residential design, alterations and additions, small projects, installations, furniture, sculpture, and visual art.
