Erub Arts innovates through challenging times with huge wave of support

For the Erub Arts team, the COVID-19 lockdown has presented many challenges and a rethink to the way we work. Importantly, it has made us realise how much our community needs our collaborators and wider network of supporters for continued success.

In December last year, unbeknown to all of us what lay ahead, Erub artists along with their long-term collaborators, installed their first large-scale ghost net installation at QAGOMA alongside the WATER exhibition. The opening was a success and thousands of adults and children came to see the exhibition to learn about and interact with ghost nets. It was scheduled to be on display until May 2020.

However, by March, as the COVID-19 crisis took hold, the plan had changed and the whole exhibition came down and was shipped back to Cairns. In fact, all of the work that we had in various exhibitions came back in the space of a week. Our Cairns storage facility was piled floor to ceiling with boxes. While there was not a huge amount we could do, in the rush to go digital, QAGOMA did thankfully put some of the activities that were developed online.

We missed everyone, our friends, our relatives and our supporters. This is how the idea for At Home Together was developed, taking cue from previous collaborative projects that Lynnette Griffiths had worked with us on. We decided to make 100 ghost net kits and sell them through Facebook, asking people to stitch, make and mail something back to us. We had no idea that everyone was feeling as isolated as us. We released the first notice at 10am, and within two hours we had over 200 people contact us. By 4pm we had over 300 people and the orders kept coming in! As a result, we’ve enjoyed a huge wave of support and massive database of people who are now returning little creatures to us in the spirit of collaboration.

As Nancy Naawi says of her time working remotely from home, “It was nice to be at home but I missed being together as a group and especially missed being able to hug people.” Emma Gela says, “I found the time at home quite flexible.” Everyone agrees they spent more time chatting on the phone during their time at home!

The Art Centre has since reopened with strict social distancing measures, so the ghost net kits can continue to be made. We are looking forward to making a COVID-19 response artwork from what our social media friends and collaborators send back to us. Our work will be stitched with theirs. Amongst the challenges, COVID-19 has made us reach out to collaborate in new and exciting ways.