ARTS GUIDE

Exhibitions to see this month

Words by Wylie Caird

Between the Details

Humour is a healing art, as George Carlin said. A celebration of ACMI’s commissioning program, Between the Details is a showcase of six moving images by Australian artists Kaylene Whiskey, Jason Phu, Deborah Kelly, Zanny Begg, David Rosetzky and Christian Thompson. By working in video, the artists are able to use editing as their primary technique, allowing them to build their own rhythm as they explore deep themes with the gentle touch of humour.

Back to Back Theatre – Portrait

Facilitated by Tamara Searle and photographer Gemma-Rose Turnbull, along with students from Geelong’s Nelson Park and Barwon Valley schools, Back to Back Theatre – Portrait is a participatory exhibition allowing for freely expressed diverse personalities. Seventeen portraits will be on display for this long-term project in which photographic representations of disability, age, gender and sexuality were challenged to create a powerful representation of teenage women living with a disability.

Back to Back Theatre – Portrait will be hosted by Geelong Gallery from March 18 - July 16

Between the Details will be hosted by The Wag, Warrnambool from March 11 - June 11

The Karaaf

Award-winner Róża Marciniak has called the Surf Coast home for more than two decades. She lives on the edge of the Karaaf Wetlands, an area historically dismissed as “swampland” that is under threat from the effects of development – an area the Surf Coast Shire has launched a project to redress. The intention of Róża’s lens-based exhibition is to raise community awareness by showcasing it from two perspectives: the land, and the air.

The Karaaf is on display now at Hoop Gallery, Torquay until March 26

Castlemaine Festival Group Show: Connections

There has always been a need for connection, a point driven home with brutality in recent times. For this Castlemaine State Festival exhibition, 21 local and regional artists explore the idea of connection – connections with family and friends, through to relationships with the environment, or reflection on the past or an eye on the future. Mediums include painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, ceramics and textiles. Artists include Greg Somerville, Lee Shelden, Helen Fraser and Margaret Cromb.

Castlemaine Festival Group Show: Connections will be hosted by Fawkner Gallery, Castlemaine from March 24

If It Falls, It Falls

Phoebe Thompson graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT. A recent finalist in the My Brother Jack Awards, Phoebe is concerned with ecology and sustainability, personal identity and the built and existing environment. Interestingly, they create art that is almost entirely foraged, scavenged from discarded materials that catch the eye. In doing this, they ask you to pay attention to the destruction that we have created, while also paying attention to the beautiful world we inhabit.

If It Falls, It Falls will be hosted by Platform Arts, Geelong from March 18 - April 11

Peter Swaddle: Always Blue

Blue is the colour of trust, responsibility and relaxation. It’s a popular colour for use in movie and song titles and band names. We can feel blue, or there can be blue skies ahead. It is also the colour chosen by abstract artist Peter Swaddle. Always Blue is an exhibition of original paintings and prints, from bold abstracts to figurative to a sprinkle of still life – all in beautiful shades of blue.

Always Blue is on display now at Webster’s Market and Café, Ballarat until March 28

Australiana: Designing a Nation

From expressions of culture and connections to Country of First Nations artists, to the exploration of national identity, Australiana: Designing a Nation is a celebration of who we are. Curated and presented exclusively at the Bendigo Art Gallery, the exhibition showcases more than 200 artists and designers, including photography, illustration, furniture, jewellery, moving images and fashion. It includes works from The Australiana Fund and the Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive.

Australiana: Designing a Nation will be hosted by Bendigo Art Gallery from March 18 - June 25

Chris Tuttle – Digital Works on Paper

Imagination does not have to die with our childhood. It is a great gift for all ages. The place between what might have been and what is to be is a space for imagination. And it is this wondrous space that Chris Tuttle’s art lives. Working principally with digital image-making techniques, Chris presents a collection of digital collages that represent moments of time plucked from the cinema of his imagination.

Chris Tuttle – Digital Works on Paper takes place at Arts Inc Gallery, Apollo Bay from March 11-13