26 January  – 13 February 2011

Exhibitions opened by Virginia Mitchell, Director of Cessnock Regional Art Gallery, at 6.30 pm on Thursday 27 January 2011.

 

Irish Vision, say little but say it well.
(Fís na hÉireann, Diaspóra na Gaels, beagán agus a rá go maith)
EILIS DOYLE

I enjoy an intense, luscious and seductive relationship with paint, pens, pencils, photographic images, paper and canvas. My art speaks to my awakening of consciousness as a migrant, inspired by my Irish heritage, dreams, music, art and of being enriched by the eclectic nature of Australian culture and the abundantly diverse spatial landscape.  “I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet, Tread softly because you tread on my dreams" Yeats.

---

Clay Matters
CURATED BY NADIA AURISCH AND ELLEN FORBES

Rachel Allen
Nadia Aurisch
Gail Bedford
Robyn Bell
Isabella Brady
Kristy Davies
Becc Spiteri
Sharon Taylor
Casey–Lee Wright

This ceramic survey show curated by Nadia Aurisch and Ellen Forbes exhibits a selection of works from the students of the University of Newcastle.  Spanning across all years of study and the selection shows all different levels of experience and techniques within the ceramic medium.  All are welcome to survey the works and see why clay really matters.

---

The Enchanted Bedroom
RACHAEL IRELAND

The Enchanted Bedroom plays with the anxieties of being constrained in domestic space, drawing upon narratives of physical and imaginative escape from the confinement of home. My work captures thresholds and boundaries as they break down between worlds within and worlds beyond the walls of the house.

---

Scape
KRISTY DAVIES

Scape is an anagram of ‘space’. It is interesting to note then, the inclusion of ‘scape’ in the words ‘landscape’ and ‘escape’. In the outdoors we are given opportunities to explore our inner self without the social and physical constructs of suburbia and society. Our everyday experiences are not isolated from each other as they affect the makeup of our identities. These experiences construct the landscape of our lives.

---

Visited Our Trembling Flesh
CHANEL SOHIER

The collection of drawings is rooted in the idea of artifice and the rendering of a reality through the psyche using a collation of differing experiences and aspects in order to create one synthesised and affected whole.
Collating landscape and portrait images establishes a vast spectrum of perspective. The viewer is prompted to infer the information given throughout the collection to inform their unique understanding of what it means to observe – and further reflect on the processes of out visual experience in the world.
It is not the observation of a portrait alone that challenges our depth of understanding – but the engagement with the act of rendering separate instances of time from differing experience into one affected and synthesised moment. An image is a powerful mark and a fixed point in moving temporal and spatial dimensions.