Postcards from a Show

For someone who hasn’t exhibited work publicly for a couple of years I’m really quite in the thick of it now. I find myself in the position of having not one but two shows running concurrently and they both represent different aspects of my artistic endeavours.

The first show, Zoologica, is running at the Kaori Gallery until 2nd August and the second show, 2 Tens & A Tomato, a collaborative joint exhibition with visual artist and poet Marina, is at the Front Gallery until 28th July.

When approached by the Front Gallery in June about a sudden vacancy in their gallery calendar I was at first hesitant … I was in the thick of organising Zoologica and didn’t want two photographic exhibitions running concurrently … but when Marina and I spoke about the potential of a joint show combining our poetry, writings, imagery and imaginations we decided to pitch our ideas to The Front … and they said ‘yes’. That was about three weeks before the show was due to to open and at that stage we had no completed ideas not to mention any completed collaborative works to put on show.

The show contains 20 works including clay sulpture, images and words, installations, mirror-books and photography. One thing we both realised as we brought the work into being for this show is that we had far too much and indeed have enough material for another two thematic shows at least! We have been busy!

The installation Carousel, featuring suspended words bent into fencing wire so that their shadows play against the wall and surrounded by photos of those very wiry words draped around the necks of the City’s antique (and still operating!) carousel and blue velvet with blue lighting forming a small stage … it turned out beautifully … the words, by Marina, run as follows;

A broken carousel
My life
A dead Burst
of sound and colour
Staring blankly
at one another
We ask
With rusting words
why the ride
never begun

We are deeply indebted to my good friend Alex (and his son Tristan) for assisting us with the installation of Carousel along with a number of the other works through his unique solutions to our hanging requirements (and above-all by remaining calm!). I’m including a number of pictures I snapped with my phone (when I remembered to) whilst setting up the show.

In addition, Marina and I are guests at this month’s Canberra Poetry Slam where we will be reading works from the exhibition. This is happening on Friday night at The Front in the bar adjacent to the gallery space.

It’s all go! I’ll be in to document the show later this week and will post about that separately 🙂