This is the exhibition program for 2008 for the Crawford Stewart Gallery. Exhibitions and dates are subject to change. Please confirm with the Shepparton Art Gallery on (03) 5832 9861 before visiting to avoid disappointment.
Blue Installation
by Elaine Miles and Eugene Ughetti
13 September to 22 October
Blue Installation is a large-scale, site-specific installation
artwork by Elaine Miles which incorporates hundreds of blue
coloured glass and textile objects. The exhibition is inspired by
the artist's personal memories of past interactions within regional
domestic homes. The colour blue is a reference to the blue chakra
of Eastern philosophy, which pertains to the throat and governs
communication and self expression. The work promotes a personal
response to the role of sound in our lives.
Percussionist Eugene Ughetti will explore the potential sounds that
can be generated from within the installation through a live
percussion performance at Shepparton Art Gallery on Saturday. By
intertwining visual and aural media, the installation subverts the
commonplace understanding of a domestic setting.
Elaine Miles and Eugene Ughetti are becoming well known
particularly for their explorations of glass as sound material
through their recently formed Glass Percussion Project that has
presented interdisciplinary events nationally and internationally.
Elaine is a leading installation artist and Eugene is a leading new
music percussionist, composer and director.
Eugene's performance at Shepparton Art Gallery on Saturday 13
August at 3.00pm is presented in association with the Australian
National Piano Award.
The enchanted forest: new gothic storytellers
A Geelong Gallery & NETS Victoria touring exhibition
Guest curator: Jazmina Cininas
1 November to 14 December
The enchanted forest: new gothic storytellers brings together works by six contemporary artists that reflect the current fascination with mythic storytelling and nature-based allegory as expressed in cinema and literature as well as the visual arts. Each of the artists - Jazmina Cininas, Deborah Klein, Milan Milojevic, James Morrison, Louise Weaver and Louiseann Zahra-King - work in meticulous, time-consuming methods to re-interpret the natural world through intricately crafted images and objects.
Through their work, they imagine an earlier time when animals and trees were thought to speak, when mankind was in thrall to the forest, and the boundary between civilization and wilderness was less clearly defined. Their invented flora and fauna echo historical representations of the natural world while various anthropomorphic beings evoke the types of literary and pictorial illustration of forest and folk-lore that we associate, for example, with stories from the 19th-century collection assembled by the brothers Grimm.
While the imagery and objects displayed here remain distinct to each artist, we can still recognise intersecting storylines and narratives as well as shared concerns with broader social, cultural and environmental issues.
The Iraq Suite
Liz Ashburn
20 December to 8 February 2008
The Iraq Suite is a collection of miniatures in watercolour that reflects the reality of life for the soldiers and civilian population in Iraq. Over the last four years Liz Ashburn has created this body of work as a commentary of distress about the destruction of the environment and cultural heritage as well as the continuing loss of life. She uses images drawn from the media coverage of Iraq in combination with decorative designs from various Muslim sources. Liz Ashburn is an academic in the art schools of the University of New South Wales and the University of Newcastle.