We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the place now called South Australia, and all First Peoples living and working on this land. We celebrate the history and contemporary creativity of the world’s oldest living culture and pay respect to Elders – past, present and future. We acknowledge Kaurna, Peramangk and Ngadjuri peoples on whose lands our events and activities are imagined, planned and held. This always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

Mineral Lines

Artwork
by Jackie Saunders Laura Wills

An exhibition of dynamic and colourful works on paper, inspired by the mineral collection at the South Australian Museum.

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Jackie Saunders, and Laura Wills worked at the South Australian Museum.

They liked the mineral collection.

They made an exhibition of colourful works on paper called Mineral lines.

The artwork showed different shapes and patterns.

Jackie liked the lines and shapes of agate.

Agate are colourful stones with patterns.

This is an example of Jackie’s artwork.

Laura looked at the ways land, ecology, history and humans overlap.

Ecology means relationship between living things and their habitats.

Habitats mean where animals and plants live.

This is an example of Laura’s artwork.

Jackie and Laura worked together on a mural. The mural went across a wall.

The exhibition was part of the South Australian Living Artists Festival.

At the 2022 SALA awards:
Mineral Lines received a Judges’ Commendation

Commendation means praise

Turn off EasyRead by clicking here. Look at the artwork.

Jackie Saunders, a Ngarrindjeri and Wirangu artist, and Laura Wills were drawn to the mineral collection at the South Australian Museum. Inspired by the magic of minerals they created Mineral Lines, an exhibition of dynamic and colourful works on paper.

Jackie was fascinated by the lines and shapes of agate. Laura looked at the ways land, ecology, history and human behaviour intersect.

‘We want to share something beautiful drawn from the often painful place of institutional collections.’

Jackie Saunders and Laura Wills, visual artists
Artists Laura Wills and Jackie Saunders standing in front of their mural Making Minerals, 2022. Photo by Sam Roberts

They also created an impactful collaborative mural which spanned an entire wall. The work, titled Making Minerals, featured different shapes and patterns referencing minerals and constellations.

Mineral Lines received a Judges’ Commendation for the Advertiser Contemporary Art category in the 2022 SALA Awards.

Jackie Saunders and Laura Wills, Mineral Notes (detail), 2022. Photo by Thomas McCammon

Watch the video:

In this video, Jackie Saunders and Laura Willis discuss working side-by-side to create works in response to the mineral sciences collection at the South Australian Museum. (An audio described version is available below.)

A video exploring Mineral Lines (an audio described version is available below)
A video exploring Mineral Lines, with audio descriptions

Explore the exhibition:

An advertising board with a poster for Mineral Lines.

Mineral Lines poster on North Terrace. Photo by Thomas McCammon
A wall covered with a collage of drawings and writing.

Laura Wills, Further Voyages, 2022. Photo by Thomas McCammon
A gallery corner covered in a grid of colourful paintings.

Jackie Saunders and Laura Wills, Mineral Notes (detail), 2022. Photo by Thomas McCammon
A dark gallery full of colourful paintings by Laura Wills and Jackie Saunders.

Mineral Lines exhibition by Jackie Saunders and Laura Wills. Photo by Thomas McCammon
Two of Jackie Saunders’ colourful paintings on a black wall.

Left: Jackie Saunders, Rock River, 2022
Right: Jackie Saunders, Unearth 2022. 
Photo by Thomas McCammon

What the artists say:

Jackie

‘I’ve really enjoyed working with Laura … I think our work will look really good together. I’ve enjoyed going to her studio and her coming in to my – like, the Tutti – studio. And I’ve just enjoyed doing this work. I like the patterns on the rocks and the colours. They inspired me.’

Laura

‘We sit together and paint. So working alongside each other physically is important to us. And Jackie likes to get in the zone and so do I. She plays music and I go there with that music. So we work intuitively. Leave room for our heart[s] and bodies to express themselves. Verbal language is the lesser form of communication when we paint.

As part of the project, we really wanted to do a mural because that’s been one of Jackie’s goals. We wanted to do a mural on the front of the Museum on the glass but the Museum said yes or maybe for a while, then backed away from the idea. Then we wanted to do a mural in this exhibition space but they were funny about us painting onto the walls. So that’s why we put the paper up and did the mural onto it. 

We started by choosing colours. So we had cohesion to start with in that way. 

We didn’t have disagreements but sometimes we would stand up and have a look … to try to make decisions about where things needed to be put. That kind of discussion. So I guess we took our time and worked together in making decisions.’