October Exhibitions 2018

While our October Exhibitions celebration was cold and rainy,  we danced to keep warm. Thank you to all who came along to support two local solo shows, ‘AL-TER’ by Laurie Oxenford and ‘NOT EVIL ENUF’ by Jake Twigg.

In the Main Gallery we were proud to present ‘AL-TER’. This body of work is a collection of new sculptural forms by Australian artist, Laurie Oxenford. Her third solo exhibition for 2018, Oxenford continues her ongoing exploration of repositioning found objects and recycled industrial materials in a gallery space. ‘AL-TER’ discusses the purpose of materials and objects, especially those whose sole purpose is to construct such spaces as the gallery, and how they can be contextualised as art within that same environment. In doing this she draws upon ideas and processes explored in the Minimalist, Assemblage and Arte Povera movements.

Oxenford documents and responds to her own interactions with natural and urban landscapes and the nature of each functional object within that dialogue. By inviting functional, everyday and non-traditional art materials into an exhibition context, she challenges art making expectations and the value of material in art. By undermining expectations of what should be found in the gallery space, she is able to move materials that usually hide beneath the surface, to a place where they become static vessels for ideas.

Function and consequently un-function are explored through intuitive placement of forms. This allows the artist’s experiences and alterations made in the studio to add new meaning to the objects. In this way, Oxenford draws upon the ideas attached to her materials, acknowledging how they have existed previously and the ways that they can be altered. Non-traditional installation methods serve as vehicle for the audience to participate in a reverent appreciation of ‘mundane’ materials, giving new authority to purposeful things that can no longer be used.

‘NOT EVIL ENUF’ is the perpetual, abyssal descent into the theory of mind. Deluded by the notion of a universal consciousness that is shared by all living entities, ‘NOT EVIL ENUF’ is an attempt to explore the fundamentally darker aspects of what it means to be human. Questions without answers. Wisdom without experience. Death without Life.

Toowoomba-based emerging artist Jake Twigg's work places real world situations into a different skin in his first solo exhibition. He draws inspiration from the history of the occult/alchemical arts and how certain icons can initiate thoughts and ideas upon the viewer. This body of work is a stroll into the realm between superstition and skepticism, from the artist’s perspective. Valuing aesthetics over underlying messages within the work itself, ‘NOT EVIL ENUF’ looks towards the world of occult figures, mainly the demon, running parallel to the moments of everyday modern life.

We couldn’t have danced without tunes, so we’d like to thank DJ Blindhorse and DJ Pump for deejaying our opening event!