Waking up the Stone
Jennifer Baird
West Gallery, Belconnen Arts Centre
Opening: 6pm Friday 4 December 2026
Exhibition: 4 December 2026 – 31 January 2027
Waking up the Stone is a body of work Baird has been creating for almost a decade. At its centre is a 1 metre squared woven plastic bag piece created in 2018. A source of inspiration for multiple CMYK screenprint and lithographs.
The work itself is a grid of woven and stitched plastic bags, disintegrating plastic, thread and lino print. Having its own properties and interactions with light, colour and texture.
The screenprints from the woven plastic bags explore this light, some like stained glass and others with the focus of light directly on the work.
Over years, the work has revealed prophetic messages. ‘I could not believe my eyes when I saw ‘By Voting Yes’ in 2023 before the referendum for an indigenous voice to parliament.’
Very personal works like ‘S14’ from the CMYK workshop Baird attended at Megalo Print Studios and ‘Waking up the Stone’ a CMYK lithograph, emerged. Working across the two studios Press and Screen.
And then there is the stone at the heart of the lithographs, asleep and awake working with Baird as she explored the complex and perplexing medium.
‘This a thoughtful body of work I am immensely proud of and my coming of age as an artist’
About the Artist
Jennifer Baird is a mid career artist, working across printmaking, painting and textile construction. She has called Canberra home for 16 years, inspired by the city’s architecture and its bush location. Widely exhibited in national and international exhibitions, she trained as a textile designer with a Bachelor of Design and combines her love for screen printing with a new passion for lithography, printing at Megalo Print Studios in Canberra.
Baird says, “Lithography has taught me patience and acceptance. It is an immensely slow medium and it doesn’t always work, but when it does there is a kind of magic between the printmaker and the stone.”