25 April – 13 May 2012
Iron with a J
WILLIAM MAGUIRE
Iron with a J is an exhibition of contemporary and experimental forged ironwork, inspired by recent travel to Japan. With this exhibition William challenges you to change your perception of what a blacksmith does.
Will is a highly skilled craftsman having complete a dual trade in blacksmithing and engineering fabrication in Australia he then worked under a number of renowned artist blacksmiths in England, Russia and America. He uses his rare skills as a blacksmith to create a wide variety of commissioned work and particularly enjoys expressing his ideas through wrought steel.
Identity
LYNDA LEE LEWIS
"Understandings of self and other occur universally through images. Traversing history and cultures, the production, presentation and apprehension of images has been essential to how we come to know ourselves and make sense of our relations with others. Images reflect different conceptions of what it is to be human and reveal continuities and discontinuities over time. At a moment of deep global uncertainty, images from the past and present provide a vital and potent mewium for envisaging our collective future."
Featuring 21 artists, at varying stages in their degress at the University of NEwcastle, ths exhibition is an investigation, represented through various modes of photography, exploring the theme of identity.
Il Familja - the ties that bind
BECC SPITERI
In the Maltese language, 'Il familja' simply means 'the family' . Growing up as the youngest child of European migran parents, my experiences were a mish-mash oof Maltese and Australian cultures which was not something I particularly appreciated. This was during the 1980's, before it was fashionable to be European. When having anything other than Vegemite and cheese sandwiches in your school lunchbox make you a target for ridicule.
Today, I embrace my Maltese herate and the traditions my three siblings and I acquired as a result of being raised in a Maltese / Australian household. This exhibition is a celebration of my family and my heritage, highlighting important traditions and customs I have grown to value.
Splitscreen
ROBERT NEDELJKOVIC, SKYE JACOBSON AND ELAINE BULL
Elaine Bull, Skye Jacobson and Robert Nedeljkovic are currently studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts and are in their final year of the program. Each student possesses their own style and methods towards creating their are and are all accomplished in the printmaking sphere. Their diverse styles within print range from monoprinting to sikscreening to collographing and regardless of those differences they are all unified under the 'Printmaker's Umbrella" Here at Watt Space they will present you Splitscreen; this is a sliver of sight into the lives of three different printmakers.
Compassion
BEC CASTELIJN
There has never before been a time when the world lay open at our feet as it does in 2012 in Australia. Why then do drought, famine, torture and the buying and selling of human beings go unnoticed? How is it that an atrocity can leave our minds the moment it leaves the headlines? Psychology refers to this effect as compassion fatigue and emotional exhaustion, an my large-scale translucent portraits are an attempt to face the realities of a broken planet in a way that does not thus alienate the viewer. Behind every statistic, there is a human face.