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may 2012
LISTINGS NSW / ACT
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Issue 90 May 2012 trouble is an independent monthly mag for promotion of arts and culture Published by Newstead Press Pty Ltd, ISSN 1449-3926 STAFF: administration Vanessa Boyack - admin@troublemag.com | editorial Steve Proposch - art@troublemag.com | listings - listings@troublemag.com CONTRIBUTORS: Mandy Ord, Ive Sorocuk, Courtney Symes, Neil Boyack, Inga Walton, Robyn Gibson, Darby Hudson, JeanFranรงois Vernay, Ben Laycock, Matt Bissett-Johnson, Matt Emery. Find us on Facebook - www.facebook.com/ Troublemag Subscribe to our website - www.troublemag.com DIS IS DE DISCLAIMER! The views and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the publisher. To the best of our knowledge all details in this magazine were correct at the time of publication. The publisher does not accept responsibility for errors or omissions. All content in this publication is copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without prior permission of the publisher. Trouble is distributed online from the first of every month of publication but accepts no responsibility for any inconvenience or financial loss in the event of delays. Phew!
FEATURES (4) (16)
trouble
may 2012
COMICS FACE
Ive Sorocuk
DANIE MELLOR’S QUEST FOR CONSISTENT EXCELLENCE
Courtney Symes
(24) LET THERE BE TOTE
(42) MAY SALON
(30) SHANE JONES: FIGMENTS OF HIS IMAGINATION
(60) STRALIAN BOOKS
Neil Boyack
Inga Walton
(34) MELBURNIN’
Courtney Symes
‘mazing
Jean-François Vernay
(62) GREETINGS FROM DARKEST PERU PART II Ben Laycock
[38] GREENWISH #6 Robyn Gibson
[41]
ADSFORMUM
Darby Hudson
COVER: Brian DUFFY (Great Britain 1933–2010), David Bowie: Aladdin Sane – 1973, digital print, printed 2011, 38.2 x 38.2 cm. Cour tesy Duffy Archive, London. Notorious: Duffy’s celebrity portraits, Monash Gallery of Art, 800 Ferntree Gully road Wheelers Hill (VIC), until 13 May - www.mga.org.au READER ADVICE: Trouble magazine contains artistic content that may include nudity, adult concepts, coarse language, and the names, images or artworks of deceased Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. Treat Trouble intelligently, as you expect to be treated by others. Collect or dispose of thoughtfully.
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Bendigo Bendigo Art Art Gallery Gallery 11 11 March March -- 17 17 June June Actress, Actress, Bride, Bride, Princess Princess –– witness witness the the evolution evolution of of Grace Grace Kelly’s Kelly’s style style Film Film costumes, costumes, personal personal wardrobe wardrobe and and accessories accessories by by leading leading designers: designers: Balenciaga, Balenciaga, Chanel, Chanel, Dior, Dior, Givenchy, Givenchy, Yves Yves Saint Saint Laurent, Laurent, Helen Helen Rose, Rose, Edith Edith Head, Head, Hermes Hermes and and Cartier Cartier
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See 70 works shortlisted from over 600 submissions in this prize for small drawings.
Until Sun 24 Jun Open 9am - 5pm Admission free
In sponsoring the prize, Amor says “I hope that this prize gives people one more reason to keep drawing on paper… the most direct and intimate expression of an artist’s sensibility”.
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The proppaNOW Collective A Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts & NETS Victoria touring exhibition Until 14 June Warrnambool Art Gallery netsvictoria.org.au
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2012 NORTHERN EXPOSURE VISUAL ARTS FESTIVAL. High Views – Art in Windows and Small Works Small Spaces are installation based projects of site specific artworks that engage with the High Street precinct and aim to provoke, surprise and delight the viewer. Opening on the 15th June and running until 2nd July, the Festival is an exciting feature on the Northcote, High Street calendar of events – it’s a little bit different All selected artists have the opportunity to win a range of fabulous prizes
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in April 2009, two weeks short of his nineteenth birthday Toowoomba teenager Kristjan Terauds died due to complicaitons from illicit drug use. April’s Fool is a thought-provoking and ultimately optimistic reflection on how we all live our lives
APRIL’S FOOL by David Burton an Empire Theatres Pty Ltd production
Helen Macpherson Smith Theatre University of Ballarat Arts Academy Camp Street Ballarat
Thursday 24 May, 7pm Friday 25 May, 11am
2012
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Post Your Art! 2012 Opens April 16th • Closes June 25th Winning image is printed onto 5000 postcards
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CALL FOR PROPOSALS The Counihan Gallery In Brunswick invites exhibition proposals from artists and curators for the 2013 Program. Information packs: www.moreland.vic.gov.au/gallery Applications close 27 July 2012
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Danie Mellor’s Quest for Consistent Excellence by Courtney Symes
It was an accident on a prawn trawler that prompted Danie Mellor to reconsider his career options. When asked how he became an artist, he recounts, “What pushed me onto the right path eventually was an accident on the back deck of a prawn trawler in the Gulf of Carpentaria when I was working as a deckhand. We had trawled through a reef and damaged the nets, so hauled them up for repair, and two large rocks fell from the nets twenty feet above me, landing on my back while I was underneath them working. That left me a bit winded, shall we say, and I spent the next three months in bed recuperating and wondering what I should really be doing.” Mellor explains that whilst he had “always ‘done art’ from a young age,” there was no ‘light-bulb’ moment when art became his career. It was “more like a like light bulb gradually getting brighter.” Art eventually found him, and although he considered a few other options “in the end it was a choice that wasn’t really a choice – it’s something you do because that’s what you do … going to art school felt the natural choice, and the only one really”. Bursting with awards, an assortment of exhibitions and a few stints overseas, Mellor’s CV is impressive. Obvious highlights have included winning awards such as the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing 2010, the 26th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards 2010, the Indigenous Ceramics Award 2009, and the Tallis Foundation National Works on Paper Award 2008. In addition to these awards, Mellor’s work is represented in numerous permanent Australian and international collections, as well as private collections. (continued next page)
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Danie Mellor’s Quest for Consistent Excellence / Courtney Symes
Mellor’s work predominantly explores the connection between Indigenous and Western cultures, particularly in relation to his indigenous heritage. He explains that quite early on in his career (after he completed his undergraduate studies), “I realised there was something missing in my work, which actually was the incorporation of the experience and narrative about Indigeneity, Western culture and history.” Discovering the missing element in his work was a gradual process: “I couldn’t quite define what needed to be there, and after what must have been many clumsy attempts to introduce a visual language into my practice that I felt reflected both heritage and history, my work gradually began to make sense (at least to me!).” As for many artists, the process of identifying the missing element in their work often occurs through experimentation, as well as trial and error. “Developing a way of working, or a habit of working, and deciding on what your focus will be as an artist takes time, and it inevitably changes and evolves as well,” explains Mellor.
Mellor is a multi-faceted guy. In addition to his art practice, he also teaches and is well travelled, having completed his MA in Fine Art in the UK. Teaching and travel have both had a positive influence on his art practice. Mellor explains that the UK trip came about because of his desire to research and learn about engraving and mezzotint products, “they were techniques I was quite keen to pursue as an early-career artist at the time,” he says. “It was ironic that it was only after I came back from England that I began to explore it with a greater focus, and then only for a short period.”
As many people who have embarked on a trip overseas can relate, it was actually the freedom of travel that had a profound impact on Mellor. “I found when I was in the UK that driving to and staying in as many places as I could in Wales, Scotland and England to soak up the country became my priority. Probably not my most shining couple of years as a diligent student – or an absent one, come to think of it – but I did take a lot of photographs and Modest about his career highlights, Mellor says fell in love with a great many villages, vistas, that as exciting and satisfying as awards are, they lochs, mountains, moors, narrow country lanes are not the only thing he strives for in his career. and full English breakfasts in quirky B&Bs.” “Having work included in exhibitions and winning Mellor recalls that one of his most memorable prizes – although it’s fantastic and professionally experiences was being stranded on the remote rewarding – are not the only things that make Scottish island of Iona “for several days due to a successful career.” The key, he explains, is storms interrupting the ferry service back to ‘consistency’. “Consistency is what people will the Isle of Mull. That was just magic.” remember, more so than highs or lows. (An Teaching and lecturing at both high schools and addendum to that is to make sure you are universities has also had a positive influence on pushing for ‘consistent excellence’…!)”. Focusing Mellor’s practice. “I have found over the years on consistently outstanding work has allowed that teaching and my practice has been osmotic, Mellor to take a step back and observe the in that both have tended to feed one another bigger picture in his career. By keeping his work in very productive ways,” Mellor explains. There and career in perspective, Mellor has been able is certainly a synergy between Mellor’s teaching to ride the highs and lows experienced by most and his creative process. “I think the breadth of artists. “It’s difficult to accept the inevitable lows research, reading and knowledge that is needed and disappointments unless you have a longfor a role in education has supplemented my term view, and it also means that any success studio research and making,” he says. >> and accomplishment is put into perspective.” (continued next page)
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Danie Mellor’s Quest for Consistent Excellence / Courtney Symes
There is no doubt that Mellor’s quest for consistency has kept him busy over the last few years, and it doesn’t look like this will change anytime soon. He is one of twenty Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists featured in the National Gallery of Australia’s forthcoming exhibition, unDisclosed, running from 11 May – 22 July and curated by Carly Lane. Mellor explains that the exhibition will “explore country and landscape, life and mortality. The pictures reflect a fairly broad engagement with ideas about colonisation, settlement, nature, transformation and our presence in all of that … It will be opening soon, so it’s best to go see the show”.
I am intrigued by Mellor’s creative process and, more importantly, how he juggles his busy schedule between teaching and creating. I ask what a typical day looks like for him, and how he works effectively. “Do artists have typical days?” he questions, before elaborating: “My workdays are very long, as the pictures I am doing are laborious and I need to be focused for around 14 hours each day or more for quite a few months to finish a series for an exhibition. I usually start the day mid-morning, as I prefer working into the early morning hours. The world seems to quieten down a lot.” It’s evident that Mellor has identified when and how he works best. “I have realised that to work as an artist There is also a major survey exhibition of needs a very blue-collar approach.You need Mellor’s work in the pipeline for the beginning to set a pattern and habit for working”. He is of 2014 at the University of Queensland Art Museum in Brisbane. Mellor says that they hope inspired by the wise words of American artist Chuck Close, who said “not to wait around for the show will tour to other venues in addition inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest to the UQ Art Museum. “It’s still early planning days, so no particular focus has been decided on of us just show up and get to work.” Mellor also just yet, or how it will look; I think it will be quite thrives on the diversity of his work: “Some days interesting being around work that I haven’t seen I will spend researching, others sitting around and trying to work through ideas or figuring for years. I’m looking forward to it.” What type out how to resolve something in the work.” The of works can we expect to see included in the tranquil location of Mellor’s home in Bowral in exhibition? “I expect the selection of pieces for the show would identify key areas of production the NSW Southern Highlands also plays a key and research from the last fifteen years, so there role in his productivity. He says that his home will be plenty to choose from. I can predict with “has a very natural environment, so I have nice views (inspiring even … sorry Chuck) when I some safety though there will be lots of blue, do work. It’s ideal, and I usually create my best white and gold …” hints Mellor. work at home”. When asked what advice he If you can’t wait until 2014, Mellor’s next solo would offer to emerging artists, Mellor’s words exhibition, Paradise Garden will run from 1 – 30 resonate with his own philosophy of consistent June at Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay and Manly excellence - “Just. Keep. Working.” And we hope Art Gallery & Museum. Melburnians can also he does just that. check out Mellor’s work at Sophie Gannon IMAGES (in order of appearance): The Reality of Myth 2011, pencil, Gallery, Richmond. Mellor hopes that his work pastel, glitter, Swarovski crystal and wash on Saunders Waterford will help viewers recognise: “A sense of beauty paper 195 x 137 cm. Piccaninny Paradise (detail) 2010, pastel, in nature and its inherent spirituality, perhaps pencil, glitter, Swarovski crystal and wash on Saunders Waterford the realization that dual and multiple histories paper. Materially Cultured (an allegorical scene of a bastard history) (detail) 2008, earthenware with mixed media and taxidermy with in Australia and the world are very real and light display 90 x 120 x 95 cm. (Winner, Indigenous Ceramic Art tangible, even that there is cultural knowledge Award, Collection Shepparton Art Museum.) Paradise Garden embedded within the simple act of depicting and (Different Country, Same Story) 2012, pastel, pencil, glitter, Swarovski crystal and wash on Saunders Waterford paper 153 x 206 cm. looking at country and landscape”.
Let There Be Tote Patrons, Politicians and the Devil: a speculation on crucifixions in culture Neil Boyack
John Wren (1871-1953) was born in Collingwood, went to school in Collingwood, got his first job in Collingwood in a boot factory when he was just twelve. He initiated his famous totalisator (1895-1903) on Johnston Street (originally positioned at number 136) near the current site of The Tote hotel. The Tote wrote its own headlines a couple of years back when it was strangled by new liquor laws introduced by John Brumby’s Labor government (2010). These laws were a response to the common Melbourne occurrence of alcohol-fuelled violence on the streets, which was (and is) literally killing people. With the stroke of a pen, the laws categorised The Tote hotel as a high risk venue, meaning that the already tenuous financial nature of running a venue that had a few full houses, but also sought to nurse a lot of young bands that had not yet built a following, was rendered economically suicidal. >>
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If Wren was still alive at the time of The Tote’s troubles he may well have put significant coin into the fighting fund, or possibly put the finger on someone in the Labor Party. He may well have been looking down from a tenth floor balcony overlooking Parliament house, watching the well wishers and protestors who became the representative group SLAM (Save Live Australian Music) gathered there, plotting to further influence things for his community. James Griffin’s biographical piece (http://adb.anu.edu.au/ biography/wren-john-9198 ) states of Wren’s tote, “it was popular for its unique defences and scrupulous dealing in a suburb mistrustful of police and enthusiastic about betting”. Wren may have argued that his tote was for his people; to gamble, to fraternise, and to socialise, and that a part of his motivation was to subvert the dominant paradigm, which he enjoyed doing at every opportunity. Racecourse entrance fees for working class gamblers were around 10 shillings (a week’s wages), so a tote was convenient and excellent business. In truth Wren had found a way to make a lot of money out of people who didn’t have much, but nevertheless he enjoyed the respect of his community by being both openly and anonymously generous to the needy. He ended up giving much of his fortune away to charity, the Catholic Church, and to the Collingwood Football Club, as the Club’s prime patron for an extended period. Lou Richards (Collingwood rover of the 1940s and 50s) will tell you the story of winning the 1953 Grand Final against Geelong, where after the game John Wren came into the clubrooms and slapped down a thousand pounds in cash to be divided up amongst the players, by the players. Over one hundred years after Wren’s tote, The Tote hotel’s standing needs to be revised. The Tote needs to be acknowledged for its tireless service and significant input into creating and maintaining Melbourne’s immense music culture base. Over the last thirty years or so, many iconic bands have played The Tote – Beasts of Bourbon, Cosmic Psychos, Bored, Cruel Sea, The Onyas, The Drones, Spiderbait, the list goes on – but the lesser lights tell the real story of this beloved venue. Bands like Denial (2 x bass players and a drum machine), Box the Jesuit (on tour from Sydney - a dirty old Tuesday night at 11pm), Thou Gideon (a bloke who wore a real pig’s head on his head), I Spit on Your Gravy (where I witnessed Fred Negro put his dick into a souvlaki) all have history there. >>
Let There Be Tote / Neil Boyack
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> Such active encouragement of diversity with and loss that was experienced by the bands, staff, owners, punters, and the community. a unique-at-the-time inclusive band-booking policy is the major innovation that the Tote So, who is the judge of what lives and what hotel symbolises in Australian music culture. dies? Who is the cultural censor? Who decides what is worth something and what is not? My rule of thumb in these matters is that 90% A current example of what we are musing of culture is rubbish. Poetry, for example, is all upon exists further north, where the new I’ve been reading for the past three years. The Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman, has vast majority of it is drivel. The good material recently axed the Premier’s Literary Awards. soars above, inspiring, affecting, influencing and creating energy. But the crap creates energy too. Newman currently enjoys a large mandate and social circle, but the question remains: Who Reading crap poems has inspired other poets in Newman’s government will decide cultural to break rules, and to get angry about what significance? The Arts Minister, the Honourable gets published, about what gets funded, and Ros Bates, didn’t, or couldn’t, comment on who is in charge of these decisions. This anger the axing of the Award, because she was not energises evolution, thinking, aesthetic, meaning, informed by her new leader, and knew nothing and technique, often leading to the birth of of his plans at the time, yet it comes as no someone’s voice. In the end the artist decides if surprise to those who have followed his career. she will create a market for her work, or create work for a market. This rule applies to anything As Lord Mayor of Brisbane he subscribed artistic in my view, the market being a significant to the same philosophy of squeezing the factor in the broader meaning of the work. While arts, and literature in particular. Newman’s inexperienced parliamentary team is already there is little doubt that a lot of rubbish bands showing that commercial ideologies are their went on stage at the Tote, and because of the guiding philosophies. Many in his new team are Tote, throughout Persecution Blues: The Battle for business owners and mini-magnates, and are The Tote (released on DVD through Madman bunnies in Newman’s classic Tory headlights. this month), we see some of the highlights. The best part of Persecution Blues is the exceptional The Campbell Newman technique is to run it historical footage of some stellar performances down, make it look shit, then sell it or eradicate and songs, like My Pal performed by The Drones, it, maintaining the ‘market forces’ argument at all which has its lineage in the late legendary local times. Imagine, if you will, a voiceover by Robert rocker Tim Hemmensley and his band God. Stack for the next question: Is Newman the anointed one to set a new philistine tone in the The community rallies to The Tote’s cause in name of National cost cuts? Will Newman be set numbers, those numbers morph into protest up as the new fall guy for cultural cost cutting? action, and the group takes their message to Federal Opposition leader Tony Abbot almost the steps of Parliament. This was certainly an fetishises the slashing of budgets the moment he impressive organisational feat, showing initiative has a microphone in front of him, which is too and zeal, but it was too little too late for Bruce bloody often for me. And because every State Milne, who was the manager of The Tote at the time, and is also founder of Au Go Go Records. government at the moment bar one (South Milne is a Melbourne music stalwart and starter Australia, on shaky ground) is conservative, the Federal government is handing their tenure to of a thousand music careers, but even he could not save his pub. Also visible in this documentary Abbot’s cost-cutting-machine on a silver platter, propped up by a clumsy waiter. is the dynamic resignation, disappointment, grief
Let There Be Tote / Neil Boyack
This hypothetical conservative “full house” in terms of State and Federal governments may not be far away. Can you smell it? Ahh, yes, there it is, the coarse hack of burning brown coal in the nostrils. Who will decide cultural worth in such an environment? Market forces? The cultural significance of the Tote is an argument that might still be used to secure the future for the past, or maybe in The Tote’s case to secure the present for the present. We all know the concept extends from architecture to rock art, from bridges to biscuit tins, from paintings to trams, but controversial creations and creators of the present are often difficult to include, because time is the key ingredient and there needs to be debate, discussion and reflection for the work to be absorbed, before it can be understood. Nevertheless, there are criteria for valuing cultural significance, and they are aesthetic, historical, social, and scientific. The Tote could fill all of these categories if its thirty-year-old beer sodden carpets were put to examination to provide the scientific part; or the punishing effects of rock and roll noise on human eardrums through Marhsall amps were studied at Melbourne Uni, while the Zoo looked at animal reactions to claustrophobiarock-trance-hysteria set within a seething crowd in the pit below the Tote’s stage on a hot summer night in 1998. It may be smaller in stature than the great theatres and venues of Melbourne: The Athenaeum (built by Wren), Her Majesty’s Theatre, The Palais, etc, but in my view it is up there amongst them. Blessed is the offensive, for it makes us think and talk, makes us clearly articulate our position under pressure, giving our mental facilities and public speaking skills much needed practice. It allows our society to define the baselines of acceptability through the sands of time. Consider the following titles in no particular order: Piss Christ, Cunts and Other Conversations, Blue Poles, The Yellow Peril, The Satanic Verses,
American Psycho. While all public works are open to critique, investigation, and possibly rejection, these perhaps received more than their fair share. But whether you like them or not, or whether you agree with them or not, they have all stirred the pot enough to help improve our way of thinking overall. They have kept art evolving. The Tote, in the same vein, with its diversity and commitment to young bands, diverse music styles, and new starts, has created a long-term hub and provided tactile Aussie-rock folklore. Who, then will save it now? Arts practitioners especially need to take stock of their jobs right now. They should be asking themselves what they are doing and why they are doing it, and clearly communicating their view that culture matters to all and sundry. Don’t name your work untitled, and prepare the dykes for a flood of blue ribbon conservatism that will redefine cultural significance in Australia.
Neil Boyack is a writer and social worker. His great Uncle, Alf Boyack, played for Collingwood in 1901/2, and may well have laid a bet at Wren’s tote. Neil’s new collection of poems and pieces Self Help and Other Works will be out this year. Check www.neilboyack.com.
shane jones: figments of his imagination by inga walton Shane Jones is an illusionist, a conjuror of paint and perceptions. It is not a description he is overly satisfied with, however. “It might seem that a painted illusion demands a lot of skill, but that is not necessarily so. A good way to clarify this is to compare a magician to an artist. A magician’s sleight of hand can weave magical deceptions, but they can also be revealed as tricks. The magic of trompe l’œil is not the same thing because the thoughts and feelings that make art cannot be explained in a similar way”. Trompe l’œil (deceive the eye) is a term that has its origin in the Baroque period. As a style, which employs a heightened realism to suggest that depicted objects appear in three dimensions, examples can be traced back to Greek and Roman antiquity, where it was often used in decorative murals. “Trompe l’œil paintings may represent the world we think we know, but it’s not all about what the eye sees. What has been concealed by a cloth, what is behind a door, what was once on a display board are images that can only exist in the viewer’s imagination”, Jones believes. An accomplished painter, print-maker and sculptor, Jones was dismissive of the genre for many years. “For most of my life I didn’t think much of trompe l’œil painting, regarding it more as restaurant decoration, until one day my partner, [artist] Deborah Klein, gave me a book with amazing trompe l’oeil paintings. It was as if scales fell from my eyes and I was shown what could be done in that genre”, he admits. “It’s probably the first time in many years that I’ve referenced other artists’ ideas so closely”. This exacting style complements a number of other aesthetic preoccupations which resonate within Jones’ œuvre, such as still life, conceptual portraiture and the figurative. He prefers to focus on the interpretive, or expressive, weight of individual components within the frame.There is little ‘distraction’ or clutter present, as Jones seems to have long preferred a meditative starkness, or perhaps a faithful rendering of absence.
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“I think that sums it up perfectly. For me, the meditative means entering a world of thought and stillness, especially stillness. I’ve never been interested in telling stories, but rather, engaging with the unknown, or the air, eternity, or mystery and uncertainty, or whatever you like to call it”, he explains. “I’ve always liked [Baruch] Spinoza’s idea of reality where he says that the body and soul are the same thing expressed in two different ways. It means reality is dualistic, which is why absence attracts me. It is the other part of the physical. Although some of my trompe l’œil paintings are ‘busier’ than a lot of the work I did before this, they do have a reflective quality about them. But I think this happens when the viewer realises what they are looking at is not what they first thought it was. Where there is illusion there is doubt, and where there is doubt, there is reflection. A lot of my work asks questions, rather than relays a message”.
Portrait of Diane 2009, oil on linen, 36 x 36 cm. Photography: Tim Gresham
For Jones, trompe l’œil is something which resonates with deeper philosophical questions about our collective nature: self-presentation, concealment, and the strategies we employ to control or obscure certain aspects of ourselves. It gives clues as to how we as individuals might perceive and seek to navigate various social and cultural mores. “If a person is deceived by a trompe l’œil image, it means the viewer has misread what is in front of their eyes. When we observe the upheaval of contemporary events, question our relationship with the environment, or reflect how much society has changed in a generation, it must cast doubt on how we look at the world”, he contends. “We’ve all heard Darwin’s theories regarding physical evolution, but we are not just evolving genetically. There has been little discussion about the spiritual evolution of human beings. I’m referring to those perennial questions: Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going? When reflecting on these issues, one would soon begin to doubt one’s ability to answer them. I think that in the past people had beliefs that sustained them, whether they be based in religion or superstition. But science has dispelled many superstitions and has shaken many >>
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> religious beliefs, yet nothing has taken its place. The mystery, this condition, still remains. Trompe l’œil realism may connect art with these personal and social conditions when it portrays something that is not what it appears to be.” The myriad distractions, relentless media bombardment, and endless technological intrusions into our daily lives are present in Jones’ interpretations of everyday objects: plasma TVs, computer screens, CD cases and DVD boxes. Jones questions our inability to ‘see’ things in an environment where seemingly everything is mediated by technology; uploaded, downloaded, filtered through websites, and contained within the narrow parameters of screens and devices. Is the ability to discern the difference between the ‘real’ and the ‘fake’ being trained out of us by circumstance? “I feel we have gained much information without experiencing what we have been informed about. Much of what we know about most things comes from some form of media rather than direct experience. This is the idea behind the computer and TV screens, but it’s the illusion that’s the most important thing”, he stresses. “I think true perception is seeing that which is not physical, as well as that which is. I remember reading the letters of [Sir] Hans Heysen [1877-1968], where he referred to ‘seeing what is behind the eye’. That’s a great point, as it highlights the difference between observation and perception. We live in a world where it’s all eyes and no mind”. Jones’ forthcoming exhibition, Figments, will run concurrently as part of his second residency at The Art Vault, Mildura. “For me, working in a different environment is part of what it means to be an artist. There is more to the art world than the main urban centres, but you can’t know this until you experience the value of regional areas. It’s also good to get out of Melbourne from time to time.
Shane Jones: Figments of His Imagination / Inga Walton < Missing (detail) 2010, oil on canvas, 83.5 x 60.5 cm. Photography: Tim Gresham
Ideas have to come from somewhere, and a change can allow this to happen ... it freshens the mind. An unfettered block of time can also be a blessing because a total focus on the work is rarely achieved at home, where there are many more obligations than making artwork”. The opportunity also allows Jones to indulge an increasingly important aspect of his practice, “At this stage of my working life I’m feeling drawn to painting and subject matter en plein air. There is nothing more pleasurable than painting the sunlight and air of the outdoors and Mildura is a place for that to happen. Some of the surrounding areas have appeared in my trompe l’oeil TV sets, like the Murray River and Perry Sandhills, which are amazing sites to engage with. I’ve always loved painting from life. It’s strange that many of the artists I admire are landscape artists, the earliest and perhaps the most important artistic influence has been John Constable [1776-1837], even though I’ve done relatively little landscape painting myself ”. Although Jones is committed to precision in the subject matter he depicts, photo-realism holds little interest for him, being a poor substitute for the ‘sense of the natural’ he can draw forth from the viscosity of paint. “Although I’m interested in visual detail, this is not the same thing as recreating reality. Many people think realism in art is best achieved by photography. But machine-made images do not have air; they cannot breathe. A photograph has perspective, but this is not the same thing as air. To make something real, the image needs to have its own inner space or share the same outer space we inhabit. Trompe l’œil images must do this in order to succeed as illusions. For me, photography is more like a haunting. It preserves a memory of something, rather than conjuring a physical presence, which is what I am interested in”.
Jones believes that artwork predicated on a visual conceit, essentially the art of deception, still has the capacity to convey greater truths if the audience is prepared to consider those possibilities. “Perhaps in the past trompe l’œil art was used to entertain, much like virtual reality and filmic special effects do for us today. I see contemporary trompe l’œil still life not as entertainment, but as a means of connecting with uncertainty and inner doubt. I was going to say that the still life illusions are metaphors for the human condition. But I think they are predominantly about directly affecting the viewer’s perception of the real, which is different from the indirectness of a metaphor or symbol”. While we may enjoy Jones’ skill at executing such amusing and atmospheric charades, he manipulates us in other more subtle ways; picking at our casual assumptions as if they were a canker on reality, and disrupting our quiet adherence to prescribed ways of thinking. Within these works Jones deftly entwines narrative suggestion, the psychological impact of portent, and our compulsion to pursue those things that are somehow withheld or conditional. “Mystics say the world isn’t real, that it’s all an illusion. But when a person mistakes an artwork for the actual thing, it must be because illusions are real or that at least they have a connection to reality, which is why there is confusion in the first place. When we look at an illusion, we are confronting ourselves and the world around us.” Figments, The Art Vault, 43 Deakin Avenue, Mildura (VIC), 25 May – 12 June, 2012: Shane Jones is represented by Charles Nodrum Gallery, Richmond (www.charlesnodrumgallery. com.au) and The Art Vault (www.theartvault. com.au) - www.shanejonesart.com
DATELINE: MAY 2012 by Courtney Symes
As the temperature drops in Melbourne, we find ourselves digging out those winter boots and jackets in preparation for the chilly months ahead. We’re over summer salads and start yearning for the comfort of warm winter soups and hearty roasts. It’s also a great time of year to head out to the Yarra Valley for a change of scenery and seasons. Not much surpasses the pleasure of snuggling up in a pub or winery with a nice glass of vino or a warm cappuccino. Even though the Yarra Valley is renowned for its beautiful wineries, it’s also a bit of a cultural hub, as TarraWarra Museum of Art (TWMA) clearly demonstrates this month. >>
< Brian Duffy (Great Britain 1933–2010), David Bowie: Aladdin Sane – 1973, digital print, printed 2011, 38.2 x 38.2 cm. Courtesy Duffy Archive, London.
In addition to the Yarra Valley’s wine and food, indulge in a couple of exhibitions at Healesville’s TWMA. Before the Imperative of Scale consists of twenty-eight paintings from TWMA’s collection from the 1950s and 1960s. It’s interesting to note the smaller, intimate nature of works from this period – possibly related to the artists hoping to sell more pieces to the domestic market. Or perhaps these were the only materials that artists could afford at this time. Exhibition curator (and TWMA Director), Maudie Palmer says, “It’s wonderful to see these early giants of mid-20th century modernism side by side, it’s obvious which artists painted together; the crucial shift from figuration to abstraction is evident and themes peculiar to the time like the ubiquitous 1950s that can be identified.” Some of the artists featured include: Ralph Balson, Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, John Brack, Janet Dawson, Ian Fairweather, Joy Hester, Godfrey Miller, John Perceval and Clifton Pugh, among others. Two Sydney artists, Sue Saxon and Jane Becker have joined forces in another TWMA exhibition, All that is solid melts into air, where eggshells have been used as the primary medium. The delicate shells have been fragmented, cracked and illuminated from within to represent “a growing sensibility of fragility and defencelessness in the midst of the overwhelming dynamisms that are currently reshaping our world”. The exhibition has been curated by Anthony Fitzpatrick who explains, “These delicate and ephemeral works compel us to reconsider our relationship to nature and contemplate how our ongoing exploitation and degradation of the environment also diminishes humanity, further undermining and eroding our sense of connection to the natural world”. Both exhibitions run until 27 May. - www.twma.com.au
It’s your last chance to get along to ACCA’s tenth NEW exhibition, NEW12, which runs until 20 May. This highly anticipated annual event showcases the “bold, brave new work” of emerging artists destined to become the “art stars” of tomorrow. This year’s exhibition has been curated by Jeff Khan, co-Director of Sydney’s Performance Space and includes the following artists: Angelica Mesiti (NSW), Ross Manning (NSW), Katie Lee (VIC), Bennett Miller (WA), Kate Mitchell (NSW) and Charlie Sofo (VIC). Video artist, Angelica Mesiti’s work featured in NEW12 consists of four large screen video installations, filmed in numerous international locations. Katie Lee’s work “explores the relationship between the body and its environment via the mediating structures that shape our movement through space”. Specialising in sculpture, performance and installation, Katie’s NEW12 work consists of projections of choreographed movements that appear throughout the ACCA galleries. Also focusing on sculpture, installation, video and performance, Bennett Miller is interested in exploring the use of live animals in his practice. In NEW12 he has re-created Berlin Zoo’s monkey enclosures. Kate Mitchell has re-created a new office-style of Morse code that involves pulling vertical blinds up and down. A conversation between two neighbouring office workers via their blinds has been filmed and presented for NEW12. Charlie Sofo is fascinated by the small actions of everyday life. Charlie’s daily activity of “walking areas we often take for granted” is featured in his video and sculpture works for NEW12 - www.accaonline.org.au If you missed Emily Jones’ article, Room for Further Excavation in our April issue, don’t miss Counihan Gallery’s group exhibition, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, which finishes on 13 May. >> continued next page
> Albert Tucker (b. 1914), Explorer 1964, oil on composition board, 11.77 x 45.5 cm. Gift of Eva and Marc Besen, 2001. TarraWarra Museum of Art Collection
> Featured artists include: Christian Capurro, Simon Evans, Elizabeth Gower, Mandy Gunn, Deborah Kelly, Nicholas Mangan, Stuart Ringholt, Joan Ross and Heather Shimmen. Exploring the notion of “cut and paste”, these nine artists have used collage to “cut up their world and rearrange it as a way of reimagining, or shedding light on, the society we live in”. The exhibition has been curated by Emily Jones, who observes that there is a common thread that connects many of the artists. “It’s the artist’s natural disposition to store objects until they become useful…most of the artists who use collage are obsessive hoarders,” says Jones. Fascinated by this medium, Jones believes that collage “can be quite satirical in nature, but it retains its ability to bring harmony to the juxtapositions.” It also “has ability to reflect and reconfigure contemporary life and that’s what makes it so potent.” - www.moreland.vic.gov.au/gallery It was the Swinging Sixties and the conservative days of the 50s were a distant memory. Popular culture ruled and names such as Jean Shrimpton and The Beatles rolled off every hipster’s tongue. Enter a new generation of fashion photographers: Terrence Donovan, David Bailey and Brian Duffy, who “rewrote the rule book on fashion photography”. This month, Monash Gallery of Art’s exhibition Notorious: Duffy’s celebrity portraits showcases a selection of Brian Duffy’s portraits, drawn from the Duffy Archive in Britain. Duffy’s interest in fashion photography was roused when he worked as a fashion illustrator at Harper’s Bazaar during the 1950s. The Sunday Times newspaper published his first photographs and he was ‘discovered’ as a photographer when he started working for British Vogue in 1957. Duffy’s photography career continued until 1979, encompassing a variety of genres, including fashion, portraiture, advertising and reportage. Sadly, Duffy abandoned his photography career abruptly and burnt most of his negatives. Notorious
Melburnin’ / Courtney Symes
is comprised of images from the archive that have been sourced from negatives and contact sheets from newspapers, magazines and remaining material from Duffy’s personal collection. Runs until 13 May. - www.mga.org.au Manningham Gallery annually celebrate National Reconciliation Week with an exhibition featuring contemporary Victorian Indigenous artists. This year’s four featured artists include: Robyne Latham, Anna Liebzeit, Steven Rhall and Peter Waples Crowe. Don’t miss the exhibition floor talks running in conjunction with the show: artists Steven Rhall and Anna Liebzeit will discuss contemporary indigenous arts in Melbourne on 26 May and 28 May respectively. Runs from 23 May – 16 June. - www.manningham.vic.gov.au The Atrium Project: Filling The Void is an exciting initiative organised by the Incinerator Gallery. The project is comprised of an exhibition program designed to turn “barren spaces into energetic and invigorating places” by “bringing the Walter Burley Griffith heritage building to life”. Richard Ennis, Incinerator Gallery curator says, “The West hasn’t got much in terms of public galleries, so this project coupled with our upcoming curated exhibition program will give visitors this side of the river another great location for experiencing Australian art in one of Melbourne’s most historically significant pieces of modernist style architecture, the Walter Burley Griffin Incinerator.” This May, check out Hatchlings - a bronze-based floor installation from renowned sculpture and installation artist, Ewen Coates. Ennis explains that “We’re not only filling the void that is a result of the architecture of the building, but filling the void with good quality art and thought provoking exhibitions, currently lacking in the West and North-Western suburbs of Melbourne.” Hatchlings runs until 13 May. - www.incineratorgallery.com.au
< Robyn Gibson, Biggering and biggering (detail) 2011, monoprint assemblage on BFK Rives Moulin du Gue paper, 232cm wide x 174cm high (assemblage of 12 panels).
Biggering and biggering
ROBYN GIBSON
greenwish #6
I was gob-smacked! The delivery of our Council’s new monstrously-sized recycling bins was a pretty powerful sign that we haven’t curbed our consumption of stuff at all since the efforts at education and media attention: we’re obviously throwing out so much more! Staring at the new bin, I couldn’t imagine how an average household could possibly fill one of these things every two weeks, or even a month! But, if it’s being recycled, we’re doing a good thing, right? This got me thinking about the insanity of our society in relation to its incessant desire for various commodities, our ‘luxury fever’. Studies have shown that the majority of Australians believe our country is too materialistic1, but that we simultaneously feel we don’t have enough money to buy all that we need. Clive Hamilton, in his paper ‘Overconsumption in Australia – The rise of the middle-class battler’2 summarises it this way: “…a substantial majority of Australians who experience no real hardship, and indeed live lives of abundance, believe that they are ‘doing it tough’… The desire to emulate the lifestyles of the very rich has led to booming sales of trophy homes, luxury cars, pleasure craft, cosmetic surgery and professional quality home equipment. The scaling up of ‘needs’ often outpaces the growth of incomes so that many people who are wealthy by any historical or international standard actually feel poor.” As the richest get richer, everyone else struggles to keep up by buying entry-level luxury goods. As Hamilton suggests “… it is essential to sustaining fragile self-images in a society of people preoccupied with relative position and struggling to develop a framework for answering the post-modern question ‘What should I do with my life?’” What we’re actually doing with our lives is
over-working to maintain these self-images (Australians work longer hours than almost anyone else in the world), using more resources at a greater rate and therefore delaying any real protection of the natural environment, and producing more waste and greenhouse gas emissions than ever before. Would a society with time on its hands to ponder such actions choose to continue this madness? The problem is our perceptions of what we need for survival and comfort keep changing according to our income, what we’re fed by the media, and the government of the day. ‘Howard’s battlers’ are middle-class, aspirational and prefer to go into debt to have what they want now rather than save. As an example, the ratio of mortgage debt to the average household income rose from 32% in 1990 to 95% in 20023. And our credit card debt rose 42% in the past five years to $49.3 billion in 2011,4 as the desire to keep up with the Joneses sees people spending thousands of dollars on new barbeques, fridges and home theatre systems. Interestingly, as we discard old items for those more desirable, a transformation takes place that has nothing to do with the actual object. Psychologically we flip a switch that says ‘this car/ phone/barbeque/house is not good enough/big enough/the right model’ and suddenly we assign it to the category of waste, unwanted goods. continued next page >>
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Greenwish#6 / Robyn Gibson
Our fragile sense of identity flits between objects in a search for belonging and happiness; capitalism and its aggressive marketing to all levels of society supports this belief that we will not be accepted if we don’t maintain this constant acquisition. It seems the desire to prop up the self-image has become more important to many people than the health of the planet, relationships with each other (time with family and friends), and personal well-being. Luckily, there are creative responses that kick against the ‘throw-away society’ agenda. In Melbourne, Fix it! is a group of friends who “believe there are better options than sending broken objects on a one-way ticket to landfill” and organise repair, creation and upcycling workshops to share skills and inspire participants to host similar events in the future. Incredibly, this grass-roots initiative rescued 3 tonnes of landfill in their 5-day July 2011 event alone.
Robyn Gibson is a printmaker, and partner in Lifehouse Design, award-winning sustainable building designers in Castlemaine, Central Victoria. Lifehouse Design is currently developing a unique flexible module-based house, called the LiFEHOUSE. See www. lifehousedesign.com.au and facebook
Locally, Castlemaine Community House’s Growing Abundance project is tackling the issues of food consumption, waste, and security by relocalising food production and consumption, and in the process reducing carbon emissions. It organises fruit harvesting, fruit donation, bottling and distribution, and provides support for the local industry (along with Council and the Harcourt Fruit Growers Association). It’s Castlemaine Abundance Kitchen Enterprise (CAKE), regular ‘Food for Thought’ films and talks, and ‘Local Produce Guide’ all builds on strong community involvement, education, and taking responsibility for local food security. Considering Australians currently throw out almost a quarter of all food purchased (most of it fresh fruit and vegetables), and annual food waste amounts to approximately three million tonnes, we need such programmes to radically change the way we relate to our earth and its resources. FOOTNOTES: 1. The Australia Institute Newspoll survey, 2002. 2. The Australia Institute, Discussion Paper no. 49, November 2002, ISSN 1322-5421. 3. ANZ Bank. 4. Reserve Bank, May 2011.
MAY SALON
G.W. BOT, Glyphs: Tree of Life 2012, watercolour and graphite on colombe paper, 100cm x 100cm. Winner 2012 Calleen Art Award, Cowra Regional Art Gallery (NSW) ww.cowraartgallery.com.au
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1. Chiharu SHIOTA, State of Being, installation view. TWMA Vista Walk Gallery, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road Healesville (VIC), until 27 May - www.twma.com.au 2. Bridget KEENA, Mask 2012, wire, computer parts, copper, paper, florist’s ribbon. Disposaphobia: A Detritus Narrative , CASPA, Hargraves Street Castlemaine (VIC), 4 – 25 May - www.castlemainefringe.org.au/caspa
PREVIOUS SPREAD: Sue SAXON and Jane BECKER, Freefall 2012, 117 eggshells on light strand 80cm x 450cm. Courtesy of the artists. Photography: Paul Green. All that is solid melts into air, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road Healesville (VIC), until 27 May - www.twma.com.au 3. Christopher James LIAUBON, Cartes De Visite - The Exiled Agitators 2010, screenprinted strawboard, acrylic paint, PVC adhesive, found mantle piece, 170 x 18 cm, cards 11cm x 7cm. Moving Parts, Devonport Regional Gallery, 45 Stewart Street Devonport (TAS), 5 May – 10 June - www.devonportgallery.com 4. Jacqueline FELSTEAD, Ladies 2012, archival pigment print, 76x76cm. Retreat, Global Gallery, 5 Comber Street, Paddington (NSW), 2 – 13 May. Part of Head On Photo Festival www.headon.com.au
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MAY SALON PREVIOUS SPREAD: Tale of Tales (Belgium), The Path 2009, screen shot. Garden of Forking Paths, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Deerubbin Centre,1st Floor, 300 George Street Windsor (NSW), 18 May – 8 July www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au 5. Carl SCRASE, Rose For Direct Democracy (Carl Scrase after Joseph Beuys) 2012, video still. Experiment 02 - Biological Empathy Virus, Screen Space , Ground Floor, 30 Guildford Lane Melbourne (VIC), Tuesday 8 May, 6-9pm (a one-night-only event) - www.screenspace.com 6. Max Dominic PIANTONI, The descent of the Dodo #1 2012, digital image. Courtesy the artist. First and Last, Counihan Gallery in Brunswick, 233 Sydney Road, Brunswick (VIC), from 24 May - www.moreland.vic.gov.au/gallery NEXT SPREAD: Liz ARCHER, The Three Ages of Courtesans 2010, acrylic on cotton canvas, the reclining figure is trapunto quilted (low relief),124 x 86cm. Lot19 Studios and Artspace, Lot19 Langslow Street. Castlemaine (VIC), 11 – 27 May - www.lot19art.com
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7. Jose LEGASPI (Philippines), Self portrait 2010, pastel on paper, 99 x 70 cm. Courtesy of The Drawing Room Contemporary Art, Manila. Beyond the Self, a National Portrait Gallery exhibition. McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Garden, Langwarrin (VIC) 1 April – 15 July 2012; the Anne and Gordon Samstag Museum of Art (SA), 2 August – 5 October 2012; Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (NT), 24 November 2012 – 4 February 2013 - www. portrait.gov.au 8. Miranda MADGWICK, Ancesteral Connections 2012, acrylic on canvas, height 600mm x width 500mm ($620). Recognition: Australian Indigenous artists from the Melbourne Eastern Region, Box Hill Community Art Centre, 470 Station Street Box Hill (VIC), 29 May – 3 June - www.bhcac.com.au
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Jason WATERHOUSE, Extent, 2012, mixed media installation, 3m x 3m. Floor, Gallery One, Stockroom Gallery, 98 Piper St, Kyneton (VIC), 12 April â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 6 May - www.stockroomkyneton.com
stralian books with Jean-François Vernay
Any novel by Melbournebased author Sallie Muirden is the perfect pick for a Mother’s Day gift. She certainly shares with Beverley Farmer a marked feminine writing packed with emotions and a taste for womanly concerns. In her debut novel Revelations of a Spanish Infanta (1996), Diego Velázquez is probing the Dark Continent: “What is to become a woman? Is it to begin the menstrual flow, the monthly plea of the womb to be filled with life? Is it to view a birth, to witness first-hand the cross and fulfilment of womanhood?”
demonstrate a heartrending passion for Velázquez and 17th-century European lifestyle told on similar narrative modes, i.e. a double vision through a male and female lens – Velázquez’s perspective alternating with the infanta’s/ Paula’s. We Too Shall be Mothers is the intriguing story of Marie-France, a young Carmelite, who abandons the essentially mundus muliebris of convent life in 1793 to make the switch from sister to mother and experience the joys of womanhood. The early chapters set the tone for this rebellious act: “Good little girls. You will be sisters one day?” […] “No, Father, we want to be mothers.” Muirden’s prose focuses on motherhood issues (matrix, barrenness, fertility, pregnancy, child delivery, motherly
“That’s the nicest thing about romance, at least at the start when there are whole territories still to be discovered in each other, the mapping just beginning ...” Like Shirley Hazzard, Muirden thematically indulges in heart matters with their vicissitudes and complexities experienced in international contexts. Her novels are all first-person narrations based in Europe (Spain and France) and informed with historical knowledge, novels that mostly involve beguiling female protagonists as central characters (a twelve-year old Spanish infanta, a Carmelite sister named MarieFrance and Paula – a Sevillian courtesan). Starting with Muirden’s second novel, We Too Shall be Mothers (2001), would be a wise choice because her first and latest novel are companion historical plots that
love, etc.) that recur in her Spanish novels. Judging from the blurring of boundaries between feminine and masculine in certain parts of this novel, Revelations of a Spanish Infanta seems to delve into Jungian psychology by depicting the early days and dual nature of a now internationally famous painter who falls madly in love with his sitter, an infanta on the verge of womanhood. But in order to surrender to such feelings, Velázquez must let go and give way to his maternal instincts. By and large, Revelations of a Spanish Infanta is chiefly about giving birth both creatively and biologically, about the pitfalls of symbiotic union and of the vulnerability of intimacy.
The Mystery and Mastery of Motherhood: Sally Muirden’s Fiction
A Woman of Seville: A Novel of Love, Ladders and the Unexpected (2009) is another realistic romance which ingeniously blends history and fantasy. A mysterious and mute ladder-man, seduces Paula who, among other things, is a sitter for a fictitious Flemish painter reminiscent of Rembrandt. The enigmatic character, which doesn’t have a name until the last chapters of the book, fuels Paula’s romantic imagination: “That’s the nicest thing about romance, at least at the start when there are whole territories still to be
discovered in each other, the mapping just beginning, just like Christopher Columbus setting out from Spain – the bright steel of childhood intensity returns.” But the grim reality behind the poetic figure of the ladder-man eventually sets in and reveals the saddening cruelty of human nature.
Jean-François Vernay is the author of The Great Australian Novel – A Panorama (Melbourne: Brolga, 2010).
DARKEST PERU PART II
words and pics Ben Laycock
Over 30 years have passed since that odd and fateful trip deep into the Peruvian jungle. Olivia’s light has long since faded. She has suffered, she has grown wiser, and so has Peru, that blighted nation of stoic peasants ruled over by a motley collection of megalomaniacs and psychopaths. Somewhere along the way, through no fault of my own, I have managed to acquire a wife and kids. Somehow my eldest daughter has contracted ‘the travel bug’ and taken off, at the tender age of 16, to spend a year on Rotary exchange in Balniario Camborio in Southern Brazil. Missing her dearly, I decide the time is ripe to show my family one of the great wonders of the world; Machu Pichu. The idea seemed simple enough on paper: Pop over to Balniario, grab Kali, and nip up to Peru for a quick squiz at the awesome ruin. Easier said than done. What ensued was an arduous journey involving much suffering and wisdom, crossing the entire continent of South America from the Atlantic to The Pacific, wading through the crocodile infested swamps of The Pantanal, dodging the poisoned arrows of the Yanamami Indians of The Amazon, surviving the constant revolution that is Bolivia to finally end up trudging the Inca Highways of The Andes, that have not seen a maintenance crew since Atahalpa was beheaded some 500 years ago.
not be aware that Chile is the skinniest country in the world, being about 4.5 thousand kilos long and only a few hundred kilos across at its widest point, half of which is occupied by the inhospitable peaks of the Andes, leaving but a thin sliver for human habitation. Not unlike a long piece of string with knots in it. Chile is just like Australia except the people are smaller and browner. To start with, it’s a bit dull compared to the rest of the continent. They killed most of the interesting people long ago, just like we did. They did have one interesting fellow, Salvador Allende, the first and last democratically elected Communist leader in the entire world, but they got rid of him quick smart. Just like we got rid of Gough Whitlam and at around the same time. Here, the C.I.A. just got a fella in a top hat to tap Gough on the shoulder and tell him to piss off. In Chile your socialists were a bit more recalcitrant and they had to resort to bombing the Presidential Palace with F111 jet fighters while Allende stood on the balcony saluting the Chilean flag and singing The Internationale. Now they have another interesting person in The Palace; Michelle Bachelet, the first woman president in South America. She is trying to be as dull as dishwater so maybe she will survive.
Chapter 1: Chile Our journey begins in an aeroplane crossing the biggest thing in the world; The Pacific Ocean. Upon arrival in Santiago the smog is so mild we can glimpse the snow capped peaks of The Andes towering above Next Chapter: Brazil us, a rare moment apparently. Readers may - www.benlaycock.com.au
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your art life online
NSW / ACT
canberra • National Gallery of Australia Until 15 July 2012 Eugene von Guérard: Nature revealed. EUgEnE von gUérard is arguably australia’s most important colonial landscape painter. The exhibition features over 150 works, including many of von guérard’s beloved iconic landscapes, as well as beautifully illustrated sketch books, and never-before-seen paintings. unDisclosed 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial, opening 11 May 2012. From May 2012, the national gallery will celebrate the second national Indigenous art Triennial. gallery visitors will have the opportunity to experience the dynamic visual expression of contemporary aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. From across the country, 20 aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists have been selected to represent Indigenous arts today. open daily 10am - 5pm. Parkes Place, Parkes, Canberra 2600. T: (02) 6240 6411, www.nga.gov.au
bob boutique presents An Exhibition of new artworks & fine art prints by Misery! On now til June 30th bob boutique 17 Williamson Street, Bendigo www.misery.com www.bob.net.au
• PhotoAccess Huw Davies Gallery 3 to 20 May Access all areas 2012 - the members’ show. 24 May to 10 June SAM ToWNSeND: Postcards form Texas and ChRISTINe RUFFleT: Noble Conquest. PhotoAccess huw Davies Gallery, Manuka Arts Centre, Manuka Circle Griffith ACT. Tuesday to Friday 10am to 4pm, weekends 12 noon to 4pm. T: (03) 6295 7810; www.photoaccess.org.au Image: by Susan henderson.
cowra • Cowra Regional Art Gallery See our website for this month’s exhibitions. 77 Darling Street Cowra NSW 2794. Tues to Sat 10am - 4pm, Sun 2 - 4pm. Free Admission. www.cowraartgallery.com.au Image: G.W. Bot Glyphs: Tree of Life (detail) 2012, watercolour and graphite on colombe paper, 100cm x 100cm. Winner 2012 Calleen Art Award.
sydney • Art Gallery of New South Wales Until 3 June Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2012. Until 22 April ArtExpress 2012. Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney NSW 2000. T: (02) 9225 1744, www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
newtown • At The Vanishing Point Inc. 19 Apr – 13 May: Box Brownie – paintings of memory and war by ELizAbETh RAnkin. The Drop-In Centre & Street Scenes – paintings by JAMES SMyThE. Humor from my Pen – political cartoons by GERARDo hERnánDEz. iWitness – bUbALoo FAhy. 17 May – 10 Jun: Phone+tics – part of the head on Festival – curated by nAThAn PEnzER. PATRiCk o’RoURkE – works in charcoal. hours: Thurs to Sun 10am to 6pm. 565 king Street, newtown 2042. T (02) 9519 2340. E info@atthevanishingpoint.com.au; www.atthevanishingpoint.com.au
windsor • Hawkesbury Regional Gallery Until 13 May: The Versatile Clints: four generations of artists. 18 May – 8 July: Garden of Forking Paths (dLux/MediaArts Touring Show) Deerubbin Centre, 1st Floor, 300 George Street Windsor 2756. T: (02) 4560 4441 F: (02) 4560 4442; Mon-Fri 10am-4pm Sat & Sun 10am-3pm, (Closed Tues and public holidays). Free admission. www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au
devonport • Devonport Regional Gallery 5 May – 10 June Moving Parts, curated by AStrid Joyce and eLLie rAy. AntHony JoHnSon, ed King, JAcob LeAry, cHriStoPHer JAMeS LiAubon, nAncy MAuro-FLude, AdAM riSH, george SMiLey, PiP StAFFord. open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun and pub hols 12-5pm. 45 Stewart Street, devonport,tasmania 7310. e: artgallery@devonport.tas.gov.au t: (03) 6424 8296; www.devonportgallery.com image: christopher James Liaubon, Cartes De Visite The Exiled Agitators, screenprinted strawboard, acrylic paint, PVc adhesive, found mantle piece. 170 x 18 cm, cards 11cm x 7cm.
hobart • Inka Gallery Inc. not-for-profit, artists’ run, original contemporary art. exhibitions three-weekly. Salamanca Place, Hobart. Hours 10am-5pm,t: (03) 6223 3663 www.inkagallery.org.au; www.inkagalleryhobart. blogspot.com
• MONA, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart Ancient, modern and contemporary art. Monanism the permanent collection - evolving over time. Some pieces are moving or going, others are staying. Forever. Like Sidney noLAn’s Snake (1970 – 1972). opening June 23, Theatre of the World by JeAn-Hubert MArtin. up to 350 artworks and objects of curiosity spanning 4,000 years of creativity. Fees: $20/adult; under 18s are free. Autumn/ winter opening hours from 30 April: 10am to 5pm, closed tuesdays. Food, bars, winery, microbrewery, accommodation, bookshop and library. 655 Main road berriedale, tasmania, 7011. t: (03) 6277 9900, www.mona.net.au
TASMANIA
box hill • Box Hill Community Arts Centre 1 – 6 May Motherhood Unmasked exploring the experiences of mothers in Whitehorse; 8 – 20 May Matsudo Week exhibition of Japanese Calligraphy by MIHo ARAkI, 22-27 May Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea fundraiser exhibition Shake, Rattle and Roll; 29 May – 3 June Reconciliation Week Exhibition Recognition by Australian Indigenous artists from the Melbourne Eastern Region. 470 Station Street Box Hill T: (03) 9895 8888 www. bhcac.com.au Image by Miranda Madgwick.
• Whitehorse Art Space 19 April – 26 May 2012 Age of Aquarius: the photography of PAul Cox. This travelling exhibition of photographs from Monash Gallery of Art sheds light on this overlooked aspect of Paul Cox’s work. Screenings of Paul Cox’s early short films will accompany the exhibition. Tues and Fri 10am - 3pm, Wed and Thurs 9am - 5pm, Saturday noon - 4pm. T: (03) 9262 6250, 1022 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill VIC 3128, www. boxhilltownhall.com.au Image: Paul Cox, Age of Aquarius (Carol Jerrems, Jan Hurrell) (detail) 1970, gelatin silver print. Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection. Copyright: the artist.
brunswick • Brunswick Arts Space 12 to 27 May (opening Fri 11 May, 6-8pm) Draw The Curtains, sweetheart by AnnE SoREnSon and EMMA SoREnSon. 2a little Breese Street, Brunswick. Thu-Fri 2-6pm, Sat-Sun 12-5pm. Brunswickarts is accepting applications for 2012, check out www.brunswickarts.com.au
MELBOURNE
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Counihan Gallery in Brunswick Until 13 May: Cut with the kitchen knife: CHrISTIAn SIMon EvAnS, • CounihanCAPUrro, Gallery in Brunswick lIzABETH GowEr, Until 13 May: Cut with MAnDy the kitchenGUnn, knife: EBorAH KElly,CAPUrro, nICK MAnGAn, CHrISTIAn SIMon STUArT EvAnS, ElIzABETH GowEr, GUnn, rInGHolD, JoAn roSS MAnDy and HEATHEr DEBorAH nICKA MAnGAn, HIMMEn. FromKElly, 24 May: room for STUArT ordering rInGHolD, JoAn roSS and HEATHEr memory: MElAnIE JAynE TAylor. First and SHIMMEn. From 24 May: A room for ordering ast: JEnnA CorCorAn, AlISTEr KArl, MAx memory: MElAnIE JAynE TAylor. First and DoMInIC PIAnTonI, CArMEn rEID, ADElE Last: JEnnA CorCorAn, AlISTEr KArl, MAx MITH, IvE PIAnTonI, SoroCUK, JoHnrEID, STEvEnS. DoMInIC CArMEn ADElE Gallery open wed-Sat 11am to JoHn 5pm, Sun 1pm to SMITH, IvE SoroCUK, STEvEnS. open wed-Sat to 5pm,3056 Sun 1pm to pm. Gallery 233 Sydney road, 11am Brunswick T: (03) 233 Sydney road, Brunswick 3056 T: (03) 389 5pm. 8622; www.moreland.vic.gov.au/gallery. E: 9389 8622; www.moreland.vic.gov.au/gallery. E: ounihangallery@moreland.vic.gov.au counihangallery@moreland.vic.gov.au
burwood burwood
• Deakin University Gallery Deakin University ArtArt Gallery 18 April to 26 OurPlace: Place: Visiting Visiting The 8 April to 26 MayMay Our The Country We Live In. This exhibition,drawn drawn from from ountry We Live In. This exhibition, the Deakin University Art Collection, features he Deakin University Art Collection, features many recent acquisitions. It examines symbols, manycontexts recent acquisitions. It examines and narratives that have symbols, become ontexts andthe narratives that have become part of identity vernacular with artworks art of identitysimple vernacular with artworks thatthe challenge and self-congratulatory identities, simple sometimes contentious and hat challenge and self-congratulatory challenging, sometimes playful and irreverent, dentities, sometimes contentious and but always revealing. Gallery - 4pm hallenging, sometimes playfulhours and 10am irreverent, Tuesday to Friday, 1 - 5pm Saturday. Closed ut always revealing. Gallery hours 10am - 4pm Public Holidays, Free Entry. 221 Burwood Hwy, uesday to Friday, - 5pm Closed Burwood 3125. T:1(03) 9244Saturday. 5344; F: (03) 9244 ublic5254, Holidays, Free Entry. 221 Burwood Hwy, E: artgallery@deakin.edu.au; www. urwood 3125. T: (03) 9244 5344; F: (03) 9244 deakin.edu.au/art-collection 254, E: artgallery@deakin.edu.au; www. eakin.edu.au/art-collection
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• Hunt Club Community Arts Centre Galleries Centre open Mon-Thurs 9am - 7.30pm, Fri deer park 9am - 4.30pm, Sat 9am -12.30pm. Closed HuntPublic Club Holidays. Community Centre Galleries 775Arts Ballarat road, Deer Centre open Mon-Thurs 9am 7.30pm, Park (Melway 25, F8) T: (03)- 9249 4600 Fri E: www.brimbank. am huntclub@brimbank.vic.gov.au - 4.30pm, Sat 9am -12.30pm. Closed ublicvic.gov.au/arts Holidays. 775 Ballarat road, Deer
ark (Melway 25, F8) T: (03) 9249 4600 E: untclub@brimbank.vic.gov.au www.brimbank. ic.gov.au/arts
Our Place: Visiting the country Our Place: we live in
George Matoulas Map of Australia 2009 29.5 x 34 cm Edition 5 Collagraph, chine colle Deakin University Art Collection Photography by Simon Peter Fox George Matoulas Image reproduced Map of Australia 2009 courtesy of the artist
Visiting the country we live in
Deakin University Art Gallery (Melbourne Burwood Campus) 18 April to 26 May 2012
Dennys Lascelles Exhibition Space (Geelong Waterfront Campus) 4 June to 6 July 2012
Deakin University Art Gallery, Deakin University, Melbourne Burwood Campus, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood Victoria 3125. Melways Ref 61 B5. T +61 3 9244 5344 F +61 3 9244 5254 E artgallery@deakin.edu.au Hours Tuesday–Friday 10 am–4 pm, Saturday 1 pm–5 pm, free entry. Gallery closed on public holidays. Please visit www.deakin.edu.au/art-collection for exhibition details.
Deakin University Art Gallery (Melbourne Burwood Campus) 18 April to 26 May 2012 Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B
Dennys Lascelles Exhibition Space (Geelong Waterfront Campus) 4 June to 6 July 2012
Deakin University Art Gallery, Deakin University, Melbourne Burwood Campus, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood Victoria 3125. Melways Ref 61 B5. T +61 3 9244 5344 F +61 3 9244 5254 E artgallery@deakin.edu.au Hours Tuesday–Friday 10 am–4 pm, Saturday 1 pm–5 pm, free entry. Gallery closed on public holidays. Please visit www.deakin.edu.au/art-collection for exhibition details. Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B
29.5 x 34 cm Edition 5 Collagraph, chine colle Deakin University Art Collection Photography by Simon Peter Fox Image reproduced courtesy of the artist
doncaster
• Manningham Gallery 26 April – 12 May Metal Madams and Mad Moments. TRISH SIDWAY’s solo exhibition brings together a selection of her whimsical sculptures that have been created by her curiosity for neglected and abandoned objects. 23 May – 16 June Celebrating Reconciliation. Each year Manningham Gallery celebrates National Reconciliation Week with an exhibition of contemporary artwork by Indigenous artists working in Victoria. This year’s exhibition will highlight recent work by the four contemporary Indigenous artists ROBYNE LATHAM, ANNA LEIBZEIT, STEVEN RHALL and PETER WAPLES CROWE. 699 Doncaster Road, Doncaster 3108. Open Tuesday to Friday 11am to 5pm, Saturday 2 to 5pm. T: (03) 9840-9367. E: gallery@manningham.vic.gov.au; www. manningham.vic.gov.au/gallery Free entry. Image: Robyne Latham, The Gap, 2011, egg tempera on canvas, 93 x 207cm (detail). Image courtesy the artist.
east melbourne • The Johnston Collection House Museum and Gallery Fairhall: After The Meal: A Taste For Excess 5 March – 22 June. Melbourne architect and restaurateur, Pascale Gomes-McNabb rearranges William Johnston’s collection. This guided tour explores the hedonistic aspects of eating against the backdrop of Johnston’s extraordinary collection. Gallery: Pride & Ornament: The Folly of Vanity 5 March – 22 June. Explores vanity in its various forms, from the creation of beauty and concealment of physical flaws, to more complex ideas about how collecting and connoisseurship can be used to construct identity. Bookings essential www.johnstoncollection.org
fitzroy • Colour Factory Gallery Littoral by Kristian LaemmLe-ruff. exhibition dates: 4 may – 26 may. Opening night: 3 may, 6-8pm. 409 - 429 Gore street, fitzroy 3065. t: (03) 9419 8756, f: (03) 9417 5637. Gallery hours: mon - fri 10am - 6pm, sat 1 - 4pm. e: Gallery@colourfactory.com.au, http://www.colourfactory.com.au/gallery/ image: Kristian Laemmle-ruff, Road to Essaouria, C-type print, 2011, 100 x 125cm.
footscray • Magnani Papers Australia Beautiful fine art papers for printmaking, painting and drawing. mention this Trouble ad and get 10% off! 40 Buckley street footscray 3011. t: (03) 9689 5660, www.magnani.com.au e: james@magnani.com.au
ivanhoe • Banyule Arts Space 23 May – 20 June 2012 No.1: The 2012 Banyule Contemporary Art Fair - one group of leading Banyule artists expressing the diversity of contemporary art practice in one space. Featured artists: RoNA GREEN, CAz GuiNEy, LENE KuHL JAKoBSEN, iRiANNA KANELLoPouLou, AMy KENNEDy, ANGELA LyNKuSHKA, GEoRGiA THoRPE, and WAyNE ViNEy. Curator: CLAiRE WATSoN. Banyule Arts Space: 14 ivanhoe Pde, ivanhoe. Wed-Sat 11am-5pm. Free Entry. T: (03) 9457 9851; www.banyule.vic.gov.au/arts
langwarrin • McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park 1 April to 15 July, Beyond the Self: Contemporary Portraiture from Asia. A travelling exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery. Australia’s leading Sculpture Park and Gallery. 390 McClelland Drive, Langwarrin (Mel. Ref. 103 E3 only 45 min from St Kilda!) T: (03) 9789 1671. Gallery Hours: Tues-Sun 10am-5pm (Entry by donation). McClelland Gallery Café, Tues-Sun 10am-4.30pm. Guided Tours: Wed and Thurs 11am and 2pm, and Sat and Sun by appointment only. Prior bookings highly recommended. E: info@mcclellandgallery.com, www.mcclellandgallery.com
melbourne • 19 – 27 May: Next Wave Festival 2012 NWF2012 challenges emerging artists to create urgent, generous, ambitious and essential art. over 9 days, 38 projects in many unusual locations all over Melbourne you’ll find bleeding-edge contemporary art – from performances to parties, breakfast talks to bus tours. Book individual shows or come on a guided journey with Day Passes starting at $15. Visit nextwave.org.au for details. image from Shotgun Wedding by BRiDGET BALoDiS, MARK PRiTCHARD and zoë RouSE. Photo: Sarah Walker.
• Blindside Artist Run Space 2 – 17 May: Both spaces presented by the make+shift+projects collective, Kultopia: G1: AMAndA Airs and GrAyden shelley in Kultopia Amanda Airs and Grayden shelley work collaboratively to create multicoloured abstract spatial constructions that respond to the gallery space. This exchange will result in a built structure that will transform the gallery space through optical illusion and distortion and coalesce the dialogue between the two artistic practices. The space will become immersive and experiential as the installation mediates the viewers movement through the space. G2: JAck rowlAnd, curated by Adrianne howard. Jack rowland will transform the gallery space into a hyper-real immersive environment by creating a large technicolour landscape painted directly onto the gallery wall. it will offer a new consideration of the seemingly familiar rural Victorian landscape by challenging traditional realist painting with the use of unnatural oversaturated colour themes and psychedelia. 19 – 27 May: G1 & 2: MATThiAs schAck-ArnoTT - Chrysalis presented as part of the next wave Festival. A meditation on the ideas of confinement, isolation and the visceral experience of sound, chrysalis will be centered around a custom built structure designed by Matthias schackArnott in collaboration with Buro Architects. This structure will at once be both an occupied space and a ‘playable’ sonic object. only large enough for a single person to inhabit at once, the structure’s exterior surface will be made up of a combination of materials that have different acoustic properties and sonic timbres. Matthias will ‘play’ the exterior surface of the structure in a rigorously composed 8-minute work, using a set of specialised techniques, including spraying water, applying pressurised air from canisters, dropping grains across the surface, and a variety of other techniques developed through exploration and experimentation on new materials. The single audience member will be inside the enclosed structure in near darkness, experiencing a fragile, elemental sound world that is completely immersive. 30 May – 16 June: G1: sAlly TApe - Voyeuristic Pleasure, Patterns and Architecture. G2: Lauren Simmonds – Moments of Stillness for an Evolutionary Race.
The artist’s metaphorical fuel for this exhibition is the creative tension born out of opposites. Through installation and performance, artist lauren simmonds weaves a body of work which plays with the static nature of visual art forms and the dynamic nature of movement. simmonds aims to releases a subconscious play of free association, setting the stage for the viewers’ search for meaning. nicholas Building, 714/37 swanston st (enter via cathedral Arcade lifts, cnr Flinders lane), Melbourne. hours: Tue to sat 12-6pm. T: (03) 9650 0093; www.blindside.org.au image: Jack rowland, A Fine Day, 76cm x 122cm, oil on canvas, 2010.
• fortyfivedownstairs 26 April – 13 may, Far Away by SAySiX theAtRe, theatre. 24 April – 5 may, Gone Bush by BeCK WheeleR, painting. 24 April – 5 may UNFOLD: works from paper, group show featuring 10 outstanding Australian artists. 8 – 19 may, Wye River & Coastline by AllAN WOlF-tASKeR, painting. 16 may – 3 June, Uncle Vanya by hOtWiRe PRODUCtiONS, theatre. 22 may – 2 June, Heroes of Kangaroo and Lamb by MARTIN HODGE, drawings. 22 may – 2 June, A Retrospective by DAViD lAWRANCe, painting. 45 Flinders lane, Melbourne, 3000. T: (03) 9662 9966, www. fortyfivedownstairs.com
• Matt Irwin Photographic Gallery Project 300. Supporting the children of Nepal. Charity exhibition by AyliN Ahmet. 12 – 18 May. Opening 11 May, 6−8pm. Matt Irwin Gallery, 239 Flinders lane (entrance via Scott Alley), Melbourne www.mattirwin.com.au
• RMIT Gallery Only From The Heart Can You Touch The Sky, Exhibition dates: 12 April – 9 June 2012. Drawing its title from a from a poem by MovlAnA JAlAl Al-Din RuMi, the celebrated 13th-century Persian Muslim poet and Sufi Mystic, this exhibition of contemporary work focuses on the fusion of art and poetry. Featuring paintings by KhADiM Ali and calligraphy by Ali BABA AwRAng and MAMMAD AiDAni and Persian rugs sourced from private collections. Public programs Free events. Bookings essential: 9925 1717. Thurs 10 May: 5.30 - 7.00 pm. Panel Discussion: Only From The Heart Can You Touch The Sky Dr MAMMAD AiDAni, Researcher and playwright, ARC Research Fellow, School of historical and Philosophical Studies, university of Melbourne. nEil gRAnT, Author, The Ink Bridge; editor and contributor to From Kinglake to Kabul. PooyA MEhMAn PAziR, musician, the Mehr Ensemble (founded in Tehran, 1999) Dr gAy BREylEy, ethnomusicologist and cultural historian Adjunct Research Associate, School of Music - Conservatorium, Monash university. Thurs 17 May 5.30 pm – Gabbeh: an analysis Dr Mammad Aidani, on the 1996 iranian film Gabbeh. 1996, directed by MohSEn MAKhMAlBAF. Followed by a screening of the film. Thurs 7 June 12-1pm Weaving Words: the relationship between poetry and carpets in the Persian world. Susan Scollay, independent scholar and guest co-curator Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond, currently at State library of victoria. Unsafe Haven: Hazaras in Afghanistan: Exhibition dates: 12 April – 9 June 2012. Former refugee ABDul KARiM hEKMAT’s photos of the hazara people in Afghanistan provides an insight into the plight of the hazara and challenges the view that Afghan asylum seekers are no longer in need of protection. Public Programs at RMiT gallery. Free events. Bookings essential: 9925 1717
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Thurs 3 May: 5.30 - 7pm: Panel discussion Unsafe Haven: Hazaras in Afghanistan Abdul Karim hekmat: Photographer of Unsafe Haven and freelance writer. JuliAn BuRnSiDE: Ao QC. Barrister, author, human rights and refugee advocate. DAviD MAnnE, Executive Director, Refugee & immigration legal Centre. Dr AnnE MCnEvin: RMiT Research Fellow. Author, Contesting Citizenship: Irregular Migrants and the New Frontiers of the Political. najaf Mazari: Afghan author: The Rugmaker of Mazar-eShari;The Honey Thief Thurs 24 May: 5.30-7 pm Art After work film screening The Kite Runner, 2007, directed by MARC FoRSTER. RMiT gallery: 344 Swanston Street, Melbourne 3000. T: (03) 9925 1717 F: (03) 9925 1738. E: rmit. gallery@rmit.edu.auwww.rmit.edu.au/rmitgallery Free admission. lift access. Mon-Fri 11am to 5pm, Thurs 11-7. Sat 12.00 to 5pm, closed Sun and public holidays. RMiT gallery open of RMiT open day Sunday 14 August. Become a Fan of the gallery on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter@ RMiTgallery. now open to 7 pm Thursday nights. image: Khadim Ali, Rustam and Sohrab (detail) 2008, opaque watercolor on wasli paper.
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moonee ponds • Incinerator Gallery Artecycle 17 May – 8 July. Environmental and Sustainability Sculpture Prize and Exhibition. It’s Never Too Late To Mend, Rayna FahEy. 13 april – 13 May. The Atrium Project: Filling The Void. Rotating yearlong sculpture and installation with Hatchlings by EwEn CoatES, 13 april – 13 May. opening hours: tues to Sun, 10am-4pm. Incinerator Gallery, 180 holmes Road, Moonee Ponds VIC 3039 t: (03) 8325 1750, E: incinerator@mvcc.vic.gov.au, www. incineratorgallery.com.au
north melbourne • Langford120 120 Langford Street, north Melbourne. Directors: IREnE BaRBERIS, wILMa taBaCCo. t: (03) 9328 8658; M: 0433 138 058 Gallery hours: 11am-5pm, wed to Sat, Sun 12-4pm. E: Langford120@gmail.com; www.langford120.com.au Image: aShER BILu, M-Theory, until 6 May.
southbank • ACCA - Australian Centre for Contemporary Art 17 March – 20 May 2012, NEW12, presented by the Balnaves Foundation. now in its tenth year, the nEw series is aCCa’s annual commissions exhibition for promising australian artists, this year curated by JEFF Khan (formerly artistic Director of next wave, current Co-Director of Sydney’s Performance Space), and featuring major new works from selected artists anGELICa MESItI (nSw), MatthEw BRaDLEy (Sa), KatIE LEE (VIC), BEnnEtt MILLER (wa), KatE MItChELL (nSw) and ChaRLIE SoFo (VIC). australian Centre for Contemporary art, 111 Sturt Street, Southbank. Gallery hours: tuesday-Friday 10am-5pm, weekends and Public holidays 11am-6pm. Mondays by appointment. t: (03) 9697 9999. admission: Free. www.accaonline.org.au
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st andrews • The Baldessin Press and Studio Artists / writers retreats, workshops, studio access etc in tranquil bushland 50 kms from Melbourne. T (03) 97101350, www. baldessinpress.com
upwey • Burrinja Gallery Cnr Glenfern Rd and Matson Dr. Tue to Sun 10.30am-4pm. T: (03) 9754 8723. W: burrinja. org.au Image: Christian THOMPSON, Howl for your troubles 2012, type c print, 100 x 100 cm. Part of The 60th Blake Prize.
wheelers hill • Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) 30 March–3 June 2012 Cold eels and distant thoughts curated by DJON MuNDINe OAM. 30 March–13 May 2012 Notorious: Duffy’s portrait photography. 860 Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill 3150. Tues - Fri 10am to 5pm, Sat - Sun 12 to 5pm, Closed Mon. T: (03) 8544 0500, e:mga@monash.vic.gov.au, www.mga.org.au
geelong • Geelong Gallery In search of the picturesque - the architectural ruin in art until 24 June. Geelong region artists program Industrial desire - Gary Smith until 6 may. Geelong region artists program 2012 Art Unlimited, 12 may to 17 June. Geelong Gallery, Little malop Street, Geelong. t: (03) 5229 3645, www.geelonggallery.org.au, Free entry. Open daily 10am to 5pm. Closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New year’s Day. image: Bernardo Bellotto, Ruins of the Forum, Rome c. 1743, oil on canvas. Collection: National Gallery of Victoria, melbourne. Felton Bequest, 1919.
mornington peninsula • Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery Until 11 June: Roy LIchtensteIn: Pop remix, a National Gallery of australia exhibition. mornington Peninsula regional Gallery, Civic reserve, Dunns rd, mornington ViC 3931. tel: 03 5975 4395 Web: mprg.mornpen.vic.gov.au. Open tuesday – Sunday 10am-5pm.
• Print Council of Australia Inc. Printmakers and print collectors stay in touch with print exhibitions, events and technical issues through imPriNt magazine. members receive frequent email updates and information about opportunities (courses, forums, group exhibitions and competitions). Subscriptions $65/year or $45 concessions see website: www.printcouncil.org.au or phone t: (03) 9328 8991 for membership details
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• Art Gallery of Ballarat paper To to 13 May, Kerrie LeishMan: The New Beauty? art Gallery of Ballarat, 40 Lydiard st nth, Ballarat 3350. e: artgal@ballarat.vic.gov.au T: (03) 5320 5858. W: wwwartgalleryofballarat.com.au Free entry unless specified. Open daily.
Sat 19 Mar - Tue 26 Apr CENTRAL VIC
Art Gallery of Ballarat 40 Lydiard Street North Ballarat Victoria 3350 Telephone: 03 5320 5858 artgalleryofballarat.com.au
• Ballarat Arts Foundation Grants rounds for emerging artists: 1 – 31 March and 1 – 30 september. visit Downloads on www.ballaratartsfoundation.org.au or T: (03) 5332 4824 or M: 0409 352 268
• Ballarat Arts Foundation – MIB 2012! Anything You Can Do, 2pm, sunday 24 June, her Majesty’s Theatre. BaF presents another in their blockbuster series of concerts showcasing established and emerging artists ‘made in Ballarat, in a light-hearted battle of the sexes on stage featuring jazz, music theatre, opera and dance. Directed by PeTer TuLLOch, with MD ian GOvan, arrangements by GraeMe venDy, and hosted by Bruce rOBerTs of Win news, it stars rOGer LeMKe, JacqueLine DarK, anD cheLsea GiBB. Booking: Majestix (03) 5333 5888 or www.hermaj.com
• Her Majesty’s Monday 7 May 7pm, Contact! the netball opera at Ballarat Mining Exchange; Tuesday 15 May 8pm, Syncopation at Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts; Wednesday 16 to Saturday 26 May, BLOC Music Theatre’s Oklahoma!; Thursday 24 May 7pm and Friday 25 May 11am, April’s Fool at Helen Macpherson Smith Theatre; Monday 28 May 6pm and Tuesday 29 May 11am, Me and My Shadow; Friday 1 June 8pm, Dusty the Concert; Saturday 2 June 8pm, The Housekeeper. Her Majesty’s Theatre, 17 Lydiard Street South, Ballarat. Box Office/Ticket Sales: MajesTix T: (03) 5333 5888 Box Office hours - Monday to Friday, 9.15am - 5pm and one hour prior to performance starting times.
• Post Office Gallery Wed 2 – Sun 13 May PHIL BERRY: Mates and Milkshakes - Corner Shops in Ballarat; Wed 16 May – Sat 9 Jun WENDY BOLGER: Pleasure Framed. Post Office Gallery, Arts Academy, University of Ballarat. Cnr Sturt and Lydiard St Ballarat. VIC. 3350. Mon/Tue by appt. Wed-Sat 1-4pm. T: (03) 5327 8615, E: s.hinton@ballarat. edu.au; www.ballarat.edu.au
• Radmac Radmac Office Choice (incorporating Radmac Gallery) is your one stop shop for all your office and school supplies, computer consumables, copy and specialty papers, art and craft supplies, art classes (bookings essential) and much much more. Radmac 104 Armstrong Street (Nth) Ballarat 3350 T: (03) 5333 4617 Gallery Hours 8.30am to 5.30pm Mon – Fri, 9am to 12pm Sat.
RADMAC
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bendigo • Bendigo Art Gallery 11 March to 17 June Grace Kelly: Style Icon. Organised by the V&A Museum, London and the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco. 42 View Street, Bendigo. T: (03) 5434 6088. www. bendigoartgallery.com.au Image: Grace Kelly, 1953. © Everett Collection / Rex Features.
• The Capital Info and tickets online at www.thecapital.com.au. T: (03) 5441 6100 or visit 50 View Street, Bendigo. Full list of shows at website.
5434 6100 www.thecapital.com.au 50 VIEW STREET BENDIGO
La T • Community & Cultural Development (CCD) www.bendigo.vic.gov.au - for arts, festivals and events info at your fingertips. Select Council Services, then Arts Festivals and Events for Events Calendar and Arts Register. The CCD Unit is an initiative of the City of Greater Bendigo. E: eventscalendar@bendigo.vic.gov. au T: (03) 5434 6464
• La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre VAC Gallery: To 6 May SYLVIA GRIFFIN, LUCAS DAVIDSON, RHONDA PRYOR, and PARISH STAPLETON – Transitory States. 10 May – 17 June JUAN FORD – The Sleep of Reason. Access Gallery: To 20 May KAWAYAN DE GUIA – Buwaya. 23 May – 17 June MARK SELKRIG – Mapping the In-Betweens. Gallery hours: Tue - Fri 10am-5pm, Sat - Sun 12pm-5pm. 121 View Street, Bendigo. T: (03) 5441 8724, www.latrobe.edu.au/vac
castlemaine • Arts Officer - Jon Harris Community Activity and Culture Unit Mount Alexander Shire Council Jon Harris (Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri) PO Box 185 Castlemaine 3450. T: (03) 5471 1793, M: 0428 394 577, E: arts@mountalexander.vic.gov.au
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• Buda Historic Home and Garden A property of national significance. Home of the creative Leviny family from 1863 to 1981, featuring their personal belongings, original furnishings and arts and crafts collection. 1.2 hectares of heritage gardens to wander including plant nursery. Textiles Award and Exhibition 2 – 17 June. 42 Hunter Street, Castlemaine 3450. T/F: (03) 5472 1032, W: www.budacastlemaine. org Open Wed - Sat 12-5pm, Sun 10am-5pm. Groups by appointment.
• CASPA Disposaphobia: A Detritus Narrative – paintings and sculptures by BRIDGET KEENA. Opening Fri 4 May, 6pm, until Fri 25 May. Above Stoneman’s Bookroom, Hargraves St. www.castlemainefringe.org.au/caspa
• Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum MAX MIDDLETON: Painter of Light, 5 May – 24 June. A tribute exhibition covering landscape, still life, figure work and animals spanning over 60 years as a professional painter. 14 Lyttleton Street Castlemaine, Vic. For full list of events and exhibitions log onto: www. castlemainegallery.com Image: Creation of a New Day (detail) 1977, oil on canvas. Collection of the artist.
• Falkner Gallery 19 April – 10 June: Taken CHRISTOPHER RACE and NICHOLAS SERGEANT, photography, and All Sorts of Snippets, LIZ CAFFIN, DAVID FRAZER, ANITA KLEIN, ANITA LAURENCE, ROBYN RAYNER and ILSE VAN GARDEREN, prints, drawings and paintings. 35 Templeton Street, Castlemaine Hours: 11am-5pm ThursSun T: (03) 5470 5858; E: falknergallery@tpg. com.au; W: www.falknergallery.com.au Image: Nicholas Sergeant, Transatlantic Coastline.
• Greengraphics: web and print We design anything, in web or print. Call (03) 5472 5300 or visit www.greengraphics.com.au
• Lot19 Studios and Artspace LIZ ARCHER Exhibition: 11 – 27 May. My personal passion for Asian imagery and culture provides the impetus for my artistic expression of these hybrid -narratives. As an artist I am interested in demystifying cultural and symbolic conventions in traditional Asian art; mainly from the Chinese Ming period and the Japanese Edo period of the tattoo. I am stepping outside of myself and Western artistic concepts, forging a cultural fusion that explores humanity’s metaphor for social thought and conditions; especially about man’s social and philosophical relationships and the environment. Gallery hours: Friday 10am4pm. Sat/Sun: 12-4pm. Lot19 Langslow Street. Castlemaine. www.lot19art.com
• Nunan Gallery New and retrospective art work. Be unafraid – come and visit and enjoy. Open Frid. Sat. Sun 10am to 5pm. Nunan Gallery, 40 Campbell Street Castlemaine. T: (03) 5470 6724; E: brian@briannunan.com; www.briannunan.com
• Union Studio Framers and Gallery Custom, exhibition and conservation framing. Contemporary art and design gallery. 7 April – 20 May KIR LARWILL Small Pleasures, LISA KEARNS Tre Ordinaire. Open 7 days. 74 Mostyn Street (enter via Union St) Castlemaine. www.unionstudio.com.au T: (03) 5470 6446
daylesford • MADE gallery Flow: paintings by JAN LANCASTER, Exhibition will run from 4 – 27 May. Open FriSun, 11am-5pm. The Raglan, Wills Square, 1 Camp Street, Daylesford Vic 3460; M: 0437 687 942. E: made@theraglan.com.au www. theraglan.com.au Image: Evening Journey Great Ocean Road.
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kyneton • Stockroom Makers, artists and project space. 10 May (opening Sat 12 May, 430pm) until 3 June - DEBRA GOLDSMITH, Trees; LARRY PARKINSON, Dressing up for the Devil; PANDAROSA, More or Less Concrete. Thurs-Mon 10.30am-5pm. 98 Piper Street, Kyneton 3444. T: (03) 5422 3215. www.stockroomkyneton.com
newstead • Dig Café May exhibition ROBERT POLLARD, photographs. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Open Wednesday and Thursday 9am-4pm, Friday and Saturday 9am - late, Sunday 9am-4pm. Cnr Lyons and Panmure Streets Newstead. T: (03) 5476 2744; www.digcafe.com.au Image by Robert Pollard.
• Gathering Gathering is located in Newstead, 15 minutes from Castlemaine, 25 mins from Daylesford. We stock all original, all Australian, all handmade goods. Perfect for shopping for that special gift or for something for yourself. You can find one of a kind pieces for grownups and kids to wear, adorn yourselves with, and place in your home. It is a space in our community to see hand making at its best. Panmure Street Newstead.
• Karen Pierce Painter, illustrator, art Teacher, Community artist. Quality prints and cards. Old Post Office Studio, 22 Panmure Street newstead. T: (03) 5476 2459, www.karenpierceart.com Open Studio: Wed 25th to Sun 29th april. See arts Open Castlemaine website: www.artsopen.com.au
woodend • Dawn Robinson & Helen Cottle Art Gallery artists DaWn rObinSOn and Helen COTTle have lived and worked in the Macedon ranges for over 20 years. Their new gallery features all original artwork, paintings in watercolour, oil and acrylic, sculpture, glassware, hand crafted glass jewellery and more. Open Thurs-Sun 10am-4pm and most public holidays. after hours gallery visits are available by special arrangement. 42b anslow Street, Woodend. Dawn: 0411 025 445 e: dawn@ muddyduckdesigns.com; www.muddyduckdesigns. com Helen: 0407 679 339 e: helen@helencottle. com.au; www.helencottle.com.au
gippsland • KW Abstract Art Kerrie Warren, abstract expressionist opens her studio on the 1st Sunday of every month. a great opportunity to view and purchase large works on canvas and stoneware ceramics. Visit the website for details... www.kerriewarren.com.au
EASTERN VIC
• Gecko Studio Gallery ABIGAIL VAN ROOYEN - Black Dog, paintings and printmaking, until 19 May. Gecko Studio Gallery, 15 Falls Road, Fish Creek, Vic 3959 E: framing@geckostudiogallery.com.au T: (03) 5683 2481, www.geckostudiogallery.com.au Open 10 – 5pm, Thur to Mon.
healesville • TarraWarra Museum of Art 25 February – 27 May 2012 BRIAN CASTRO, KHAI LIEW, JOHN YOUNG: Passages. Passages is a collaborative project which presents an enticing combination of thought-provoking literature, elegant design and fine art. In bringing together the writings of Brian Castro, furniture of Khai Liew, and paintings of John Young, fresh dialogues and dynamic correspondences emerge and are exchanged between these divergent creative practices. SUE SAXON and JANE BECKER: All that is solid melts into air. A site-specific project conceived as a response to ‘a prevailing anxiety and uncertainty in the natural and socio-political spheres - an increasing awareness of our vulnerability to uncontrollable destabilising forces’. CHIHARU SHIOTA: State of Being. This internationally acclaimed artist has transformed the Vista Walk at TWMA, weaving a dense network of black yarn which proliferates in countless layers throughout the space. Before the imperative of scale: Selected works from the TWMA collection. Featuring works by the giants of modernism of the 1950s and 1960s the exhibition explores a period when Australian artists tended to produce works on a smaller scale. For public programs and events at TWMA please visit website. TarraWarra Museum of Art, 311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road, Healesville VIC, 3777; www.twma.com.au Image: Chiharu Shiota, State of Being (installation detail) 2012, double bass, violin and black wool © Chiharu Shiota.
mildura mildura
MURRAY MURRAYRIVER RIVER
• •The TheArt ArtVault Vault 22––21 21May MayFiona FionaMerlin MerlinFamiliar FamiliarThings Thingssmall small gallery; gallery;Craig Craiggough/Wendy gough/WendyStavrianoS StavrianoS Two TwoDirections Directionsmain maingallery; gallery; 23 23May May––11 11June June Shane ShaneJoneS JoneSFigments Figmentsmain maingallery; gallery;Deirdre Deirdre Edwards EdwardsRiver RiverMapping Mappingsmall smallgallery. gallery. artists artists inin residence: residence: Craig Craig gough gough and and Wendy Wendy StavrianoS; StavrianoS; Shane Shane JoneS; JoneS; deirdre deirdre edWardS. edWardS.43 43deakin deakinavenue avenue,Mildura ,Mildura3500. 3500. t:t:(03) (03)5022 50220013 0013e:e:juliechambers@theartvault. juliechambers@theartvault. com.au com.auwww.theartvault.com.au www.theartvault.com.auimage: image:aShane aShane Jones, Jones,Canary Canary2012, 2012,oil oilon onplywood, plywood,25 25xx30 30cm. cm.
• •Mildura MilduraArts ArtsCentre Centre 99May May- -16 16June June2012, 2012,Who Whoare arethese theseanimal animal headed headed humans? humans? raChel raChel Kendrigan. Kendrigan. venue: venue:rio riovista vistahistoric historichouse, house,199 199Cureton Cureton avenue, avenue,Mildura. Mildura.open openWed Wed––Mon: Mon:11am-4pm. 11am-4pm. 21 21 May May toto 15 15 June June 2012, 2012, Sound Sound installation: installation: Walter Walter iSon. iSon. venue: venue: leaP leaP Project Project Space, Space, 39 39langtree langtreeave, ave,Mildura. Mildura.open opentues-Fri: tues-Fri:11am11am3pm. 3pm.until until30 30May May2012, 2012,Picturing PicturingMother Motherand and Child: Child:The TheCunningham CunninghamDax DaxCollection. Collection.venue: venue: Sunraysia SunraysiaMallee Malleeethnic ethnicCommunities CommunitiesCouncil, Council, 38-40 38-40 Madden Madden avenue, avenue, Mildura. Mildura. open open Mon Mon - Fri: Fri: 9am-5pm. 9am-5pm. Mildura Mildura arts arts Centre Centre regional regional gallery gallery isisclosed closed while while the theCentre Centre undertakes undertakes an anexciting excitingredevelopment redevelopmentofofMildura’s Mildura’sarts artsand and cultural culturalprecinct. precinct.199 199Cureton Curetonavenue, avenue,Mildura Mildura viC viC3500. 3500.t:t:(03) (03)5018 50188330; 8330;F:F:(03) (03)5021 50211462; 1462; www.milduraartscentre.com.au www.milduraartscentre.com.au image: image: rachel rachel Kendrigan, Kendrigan,The TheProlific ProlificBreeder. Breeder.
swan swanhill hill
• •Swan SwanHill HillRegional RegionalArt ArtGallery Gallery Swan SwanHill HillPrint Printand andDrawing DrawingAcquisitive AcquisitiveAwards Awards 2012, 2012,13 13May May––88July. July.PANDA PANDA- -acquisitions acquisitions from fromthe theSwan Swanhill hillPrint Printand anddrawing drawingawards awards 11May Maytoto33June. June.horseshoe horseshoeBend, Bend,Swan Swanhill hill 3585. 3585.www.swanhillart.com; www.swanhillart.com;t:t:(03) (03)5036 50362430 2430
Swan Swanhill hillPrint Print&&drawing drawingacquisitive acquisitiveaward award2010 2010 Winning WinningPrint: Print:deborah deborahWilliams, Williams,Pause Pause2009, 2009, engraving engravingand androulette rouletteintaglio, intaglio,71 71x x89 89cm. cm.
benalla
NORTHERN VIC
• Benalla Art Gallery Of Love and War, Australian War Memorial Touring exhibition to 10 June. Bridge Street, Benalla, Victoria, 3672. Opening hours 10am-5pm. T: (03) 5760 2619. E: gallery@ benalla.vic.gov.au; Please check the website for details: www.benallaartgallery.com
shepparton • Glasson’s Art World, High St Shepparton Art supplies, graffiti art products, Artists Designer Gallery, Dookie Art Retreat, archival framing, painting trips. E: info@glassonsartworld.com.au, www.glassonsartworld.com.au
• Shepparton Art Museum Sam Jinks: Body in Time, 3 May to 1 July. 70 Welsford Street, Shepparton VIC 3630; T: (03) 5832 9861; E: art.museum@shepparton.vic. gov.au; www.sheppartonartmuseum.com.au Acting Director: Ryan Johnston. Open 7 days, Free Entry.
LAUNCH PARTY Saturday 18 February 2012 • Free arts activities, live music & tours of SAM: 10.00am to 5.00pm • Sir John Longstaff: Portrait of a Lady Exhibition
wangaratta • Wangaratta Art Gallery Until 20 May SILVER 1987 – 2012: Wangaratta Art Gallery celebrates 25 years. The exhibition includes works by artists such as: Marc NewsoN, Professor roberT baiNes, Liz wiLLiaMsoN, caroLiNe roThweLL, saLLy sMarT, brook aNdrew, sTeLarc, sTUarT devLiN, carLier Makigawa, sUsaN cohN, MariaN hoskiNg, george baLdessiN, MichaeL dooLaN, bea Maddock, LorraiNe coNNoLLyNorThey and MiTsUo shoji. 56 ovens street wangaratta. director: dianne Mangan, hours: Mon-Tues 12-5pm; wed-Fri 10am-5pm, sat-sun 1-4pm. T: (03) 5722 0865, F: (03) 5722 2969, e: d.mangan@wangaratta.vic.gov. au or gallery@wangaratta.vic.gov.au; www. wangaratta.vic.gov.au then follow the links to the gallery. Follow us on Facebook. iMage: george baldessin, Untitled multiple – triptych c. 1972, cast aluminium, 13 x 7 x 7cm (each) dimensions variable. courtesy of the baldessin estate & australian galleries, Melbourne & sydney.
ararat • Ararat Regional Art Gallery Town hall, vincent street. Mon, wed to Fri 10am – 4.30pm, w/ends 12 - 4pm. T: (03) 5352 2836 facebook.com/araratgallery
WESTERN VIC
hamilton • Hamilton Art Gallery Nihonga = Japanese Painting. Until 24 June. Nihonga translates as ‘Japanese Painting’ but refers to a specific style of painting from Japan. These works are Western in style but Japanese in production and subject. These works were a gift to the State of Victoria by the International Culture Appreciation and Interchange Society of Japan and have rarely been shown before. This exhibition celebrates this superb gift to the people of Victoria. 107 Brown Street, Mon - Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 10am-12pm and 2-5pm, Sun 2-5pm. T: (03) 5573 0460, E: info@ hamiltongallery.org; www.hamiltongallery.org Image:HASHIMOTO Meiji (1904-1991), Cherry Blossoms 1976, mineral pigments on paper.
horsham • Horsham Regional Art Gallery 21 Roberts Ave, Horsham. Tues-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat-Sun 1-4.30pm. T: (03) 5362 2888; E: hrag@ hrcc.vic.gov.au; www.horshamartgallery.com.au
natimuk • Goat Gallery A new show every month featuring the widely ranging skills of local artists. 87a Main Street. Weekends 1 - 4pm and by appointment. M: 0418 997 785 www.goatgallery.com.au
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