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Toyota Community<br />

Spirit Gallery<br />

presents<br />

new DAYS<br />

an exhibition by emerging artistsfrom the communities of<br />

hobsons bay, port phillip + beyond<br />

APRIL 4 TO JUNE 27, 2007<br />

Toyota Australia, 155 Bertie St Port Melbourne<br />

Inquiries phone Ken Wong 03 9690 0902<br />

Gallery Hours Thu & Fri 1pm to 6pm or by appointment


Toyota Community<br />

Spirit Gallery<br />

The Toyota Community Spirit Gallery is an<br />

initiative of Toyota Community Spirit,<br />

Toyota Australia’s corporate<br />

citizenship program.<br />

Toyota Community Spirit develops<br />

partnerships that share Toyota's skills,<br />

networks, expertise and other resources with<br />

the community.<br />

The Toyota Community Spirit Gallery aims<br />

to provide space for artists, especially<br />

emerging artists to show their work. The<br />

space is provided free of charge to exhibiting<br />

artists, no commission is charged on sales<br />

and Toyota provides an exhibition launch<br />

and develops a catalogue for each exhibition.<br />

The Gallery has now shown works by over<br />

200 artists. Toyota has worked with the<br />

Hobsons Bay City Council and the<br />

City of Port Phillip on this project.


new DAYS<br />

Samara Adamson-Pinczewski<br />

Garry Arnephy<br />

Vivian Ashworth<br />

Sharon Billinge<br />

Claire Blake<br />

Robyn Cerretti<br />

Tamar Dolev<br />

John Gambardella<br />

Tanja George<br />

Fiona Halse<br />

Briele Hansen<br />

Trudi Harley<br />

Brian Holton<br />

Annika Koops<br />

Stevie Maree<br />

Marte Newcombe<br />

an exhibition by emerging artistsfrom the communities of<br />

hobsons bay, port phillip + beyond<br />

exhibiting artists<br />

Mardi Nowak<br />

Isabel O'Brien<br />

Carolyn O'Neill<br />

Shini Pararajasingham<br />

Naomi Pitts<br />

Helen Pollard<br />

Chris Rowe<br />

Melanie Scaife<br />

Maggie Smith<br />

Karen Standke<br />

Merryn J Trevethan<br />

Ri Van Veen<br />

Cyrus, Wai-kuen Tang<br />

CHERIE Winter<br />

HEATHER Winter<br />

Daniela Zimmermann<br />

curator Ken Wong<br />

thanks to<br />

Tania Blackwell, Hobsons Bay City Council<br />

Sharyn Dawson, City of Port Phillip<br />

Katarina Persic, Toyota Australia<br />

invitation,catalogue design & editing watch arts<br />

All Images (detail): FRONT COVER: L-R top: Karen Standke, Annika Koops, Merryn J Trevethan, middle row: L-R Helen Pollard, Chris Rowe,<br />

Isabel O’Brien botton row: Fiona Halse, Marte Newcombe, Melanie Scaife INSIDE COVER: Sharon Billinge THIS PAGE: Stevie Maree


CURATOR<br />

KEN<br />

WONG<br />

This exhibition commences the 2007 Toyota Community Spirit Gallery program and is our<br />

fourth annual exhibition dedicated specifically to the works of emerging artists. The profile<br />

of the gallery as a valuable opportunity for artists continues to expand with a record over<br />

one hundred entries for this exhibition, from which thirty-two artists have been selected to<br />

exhibit. Our focus continues to be on local artists with eight from the City of Port Phillip and<br />

seven from Hobsons Bay exhibiting, but this exhibition has also provided opportunity to<br />

seventeen guest artists from outside these areas.<br />

Consequently, NEW DAYS represents a diverse cross section of contemporary emerging art<br />

practice and also serves to highlight significant contemporary themes that are of concern to<br />

not only the artistic community, but also to the wider community to which we all belong.<br />

These themes include the natural and urban environment, global warming and climate<br />

change, technology and consumerism, social isolation and the struggle to find meaning<br />

and make sense of our modern world. None of these issues are new, but there is a level of<br />

conscious concern they hold for many of us in our day to day existence in recent times<br />

that suggests we are facing a new paradigm of unprecedented challenges.<br />

This new paradigm can often be an overwhelming and frightening place, but to me the<br />

existence of the Toyota Community Spirit Gallery program is a small sign that there is also<br />

the potential for positive change. The fact that a major corporation like Toyota recognises<br />

that it has a broader social responsibility that extends beyond it’s employees, customers<br />

and shareholders and is willing to lead the corporate community in this way is in itself a<br />

very positive paradigmatic change.<br />

By supporting artists who quietly grapple with the larger issues that cloud our present and<br />

our future, maybe Toyota is assisting us all to better understand and rise to the challenge<br />

of the new paradigm that confronts us all.<br />

Welcome to NEW DAYS.<br />

Ken Wong is the Director of <strong>Watch</strong> <strong>Arts</strong>, a Melbourne based contemporary arts consultancy. He has worked in the<br />

fine arts industry since 1997 in both commercial and community arts, curating and managing a host of projects<br />

including gallery and outdoor sculpture exhibitions.<br />

NEW DAYS


ARTISTS & WORKS<br />

06<br />

07<br />

08<br />

09<br />

10<br />

11<br />

12<br />

13<br />

14<br />

15<br />

16<br />

17<br />

18<br />

19<br />

20<br />

21<br />

Samara Adamson-Pinczewski<br />

Strata Metallic Oil on canvas 138 x 71cm 2005 $2400<br />

Garry Arnephy<br />

Albert Park Yacht Club Oil on canvas 61 x 92cm 2006 $800<br />

Vivian Ashworth<br />

Purple Haze Acrylic & glaze on canvas 122 x 91cm 2006 $3800<br />

Sharon Billinge<br />

big city dreaming Silverpoint & mixed media 35 x 35cm 2006 NFS<br />

Claire Blake<br />

Elemental Creeping Ceramic earthenware 22 x 60 x 25cm 2007 $380<br />

Robyn Cerretti<br />

Lightpoems Transparencies/lightboxes Variable 2006 $2000<br />

Tamar Dolev<br />

The Three Wise Women Mixed media 61 x 76cm 2007 $800<br />

John Gambardella<br />

Night Seagulls over the Bolte Bridge Oil on canvas 120 x 90cm 2005 $1500<br />

Tanja George<br />

Red Haring Metal & wood 58 x 37 x 37cm 2006 $550<br />

Fiona Halse<br />

Barcelona 1 Mixed media on paper 130 x 103.5cm 2006 $1500<br />

Briele Hansen<br />

Outsidein DVD installation 194 x 63 x 60cm 2007 POA<br />

Trudi Harley<br />

Study for Respect Graphite on paper 38 x 30cm 2003 $200<br />

Brian Holton<br />

A Day in the Country Acrylic on canvas 71 x 102cm 2006 $820<br />

Annika Koops<br />

Rebel Child Oil on canvas 100 x 70cm 2006 $3000<br />

Stevie Maree<br />

Untitled Pegasus print 100 x 75cm 2006 $2000<br />

Marte Newcombe<br />

Night Rider Silkscreen 44 x 40cm 1995 $550


22<br />

23<br />

24<br />

25<br />

26<br />

27<br />

28<br />

29<br />

30<br />

31<br />

32<br />

33<br />

34<br />

35<br />

36<br />

37<br />

ARTISTS & WORKS<br />

Mardi Nowak<br />

I wanted to start a revolution Woven tapestry 120 x 90cm 2006 NFS<br />

Isabel O'Brien<br />

Through (1) Photograph/lightbox 50 x 70 x 15cm 2006 POA<br />

Carolyn O'Neill<br />

Stained Glass – Sea of Green Acrylic on canvas 75 x 100cm 2007 $400<br />

Shini Pararajasingham<br />

Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful Mixed media 140 x 93 x 68cm 2006 $2100<br />

Naomi Pitts<br />

Arctic Desert Acrylic on canvas 50 x 40cm 2006 $750<br />

Helen Pollard<br />

Dandenong Ranges Acrylic & printing ink 120 x 70cm 2006 $400<br />

Chris Rowe<br />

Keep Up Mixed media on paper 47 x 39cm 2006 $425<br />

Melanie Scaife<br />

The wholeness, the brokenness of now, of here Oil on canvas 50 x 50cm 2006 NFS<br />

Maggie Smith<br />

Seagull at Sunset Print on canvas 92 x 61cm 2006 $390<br />

Karen Standke<br />

Melancholy Oil on canvas 137 x 183cm 2005 $4200<br />

Merryn J Trevethan<br />

I Don’t Want To Say I Want You Oil on canvas 150 x 150 cm 2006 $4200<br />

Ri Van Veen<br />

Drought and Fire Ceramic 52 x 14 x 16 cm 2007 $400<br />

Cyrus, Wai-kuen Tang<br />

Engagement Porcelain 40 x 90 x 90cm 2005 $790<br />

CHERIE WINTER<br />

Sycamore Weave Mixed media 70 x 83cm 2006 $400<br />

HEATHER Winter<br />

Wild Fear Dura trans light box 68 x 106cm 2007 $3500<br />

Daniela Zimmermann<br />

Untitled Clay/mixed media Set of 3, 11 x 30 x 25cm 2006 $360


Samara<br />

Adamson-<br />

Pinczewski represented by SPAN Galleries<br />

GUEST ARTIST<br />

My recent paintings explore and<br />

communicate the expressive,<br />

psychological and decorative possibilities of<br />

colour, shape and design. These works are<br />

characterised by warm coloured grounds,<br />

metallic/iridescent pigments, geometric<br />

patterns, translucent layers of paint, and<br />

stippling.<br />

Many hours are spent investigating<br />

harmonious/discordant colour relationships<br />

and positive/negative shapes. These<br />

visual dualities are employed to<br />

communicate intimacy and/or<br />

theatricality using a wide expressive range.<br />

STRATA METTALIC<br />

Oil on canvas, 2005<br />

138 x 71cm<br />

Samara was born in Melbourne in 1977 and completed a Bachelor of Fine <strong>Arts</strong> in painting at Monash University<br />

going on to complete her Honours at RMIT and her Masters at Victorian College of the <strong>Arts</strong> in 2003. Her studio<br />

practice is based in Melbourne, where she specialises in painting, drawing and collage, pursuing an ongoing<br />

investigation into colour and geometric abstraction. She has held three solo exhibitions since 2000, in Melbourne<br />

and has participated in thirty-six group exhibitions since 1998 in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Taiwan. Over the<br />

past few years she has been selected for the Churchie Emerging Art Exhibition and twice for the Brett Whitely<br />

Travelling Scholarship.<br />

06<br />

NEW DAYS


COMMUNITY OF PORT PHILLIP<br />

GARRY<br />

ARNEPHY<br />

I am passionate with<br />

painting and I enjoy<br />

painting landscapes and<br />

particular types of styles.<br />

I have been developing<br />

my style since Uni by<br />

experimenting with<br />

many different<br />

techniques, colours and<br />

mediums. My landscape<br />

work is inspired by the<br />

places I have visited<br />

and would I like to<br />

share those moments on<br />

canvas and hope I can<br />

convey a feeling, mood<br />

or sensation to the<br />

viewer from what I see.<br />

ALBERT PARK YACHT CLUB<br />

Oil on canvas, 2006<br />

61 x 92cm<br />

Garry was born in South Melbourne in 1967 and has worked in the fashion and graphic industry for twenty years.<br />

In 2002 he returned to study and completed a Diploma of Graphic Art at RMIT. His works are exhibited locally at<br />

various galleries including Gallery 112 in St Kilda. He is currently developing a new body of work for exhibition<br />

based on his interpretation of the War on Terror. His goal is to pursue a career in painting full time. Current works<br />

can be viewed online at www.garryarnephy.a1grafx.com.au<br />

07<br />

NEW DAYS


VIVIAN<br />

ASHWORTH<br />

COMMUNITY OF PORT PHILLIP<br />

All of my work uses colour to express<br />

emotions. My process is a journey of<br />

discovering and exploring feelings which<br />

I attempt to transcribe onto canvas with<br />

bold intensities of colour.<br />

My aim is to make people think and feel<br />

in relationship to my own expression of<br />

feeling.<br />

purple haze<br />

Acrylic & glaze on canvas, 2006<br />

122 x 91cm<br />

Vivian has worked as a make-up artist for the past fifteen years in film, TV and fashion industries throughout<br />

Melbourne, Sydney and Japan. Using her colour and design skills in her paintings has been a natural creative<br />

progression for her. She is a busy working mum who balances the demands of family and work with developing her<br />

career as a painter. A resident of Port Phillip for many years, she held studios at Gasworks <strong>Arts</strong> Park. Her achievements<br />

include a solo exhibition at Smyrnios Gallery in 2005 and various group exhibitions including the Brisbane Art<br />

Fair with Thierry B Contemporary Art Gallery. Her inspiration comes from the people and places in her busy life.<br />

08<br />

NEW DAYS


guest artist<br />

SHARON<br />

BILLINGE<br />

My work is about happiness.<br />

More specifically it is about what<br />

we think will bring us happiness.<br />

In my current work I paint<br />

detailed layered abstracts onto<br />

timber to represent the<br />

happiness that we all feel is<br />

around the corner, the happiness<br />

that we strive towards but can<br />

never quite reach. The figures or<br />

hands in my work twist towards<br />

or around these areas in an<br />

attempt to touch them, sometimes<br />

listless in their approach,<br />

at other times focused and<br />

determined. In some of my work<br />

I paint and draw onto discarded<br />

wood and use the ancient<br />

medium of silverpoint to create<br />

very delicate renditions of the<br />

human body. Silverpoint is an<br />

unforgiving medium and requires<br />

meticulous rendering; mistakes<br />

cannot be erased. It<br />

immediately makes the object<br />

being drawn on precious. Albrecht<br />

Durer worked in silverpoint and<br />

further examples can be found<br />

in other Old Masters work.<br />

big city dreaming<br />

Silverpoint & mixed media on timber, 2006<br />

35 x 35cm<br />

Sharon was born in England in 1974 and trained at St Martins<br />

College in England in fine arts. She became an art teacher and<br />

struggled to balance her teaching work with making art. In 2001,<br />

she left the London college she had been teaching at and went<br />

travelling for two years through South East Asia, India, Nepal<br />

and then finally New Zealand and Australia. It was here that she<br />

decided to focus on making art and has been exhibiting in<br />

various galleries in Melbourne and other parts of Australia since<br />

2004, including a solo exhibition at Red Gallery in 2006. She was<br />

recently a finalist in the Williamstown Festival Tattersall’s<br />

Contemporary Art Prize and the Conrad Jupiters Art Prize.<br />

09<br />

NEW DAYS


CLAiRE<br />

BLAKE<br />

GUEST ARTIST<br />

This work is reminiscent of<br />

land and water.<br />

In some ways they are like<br />

islands that are always on<br />

the verge of shifting and<br />

travelling to new oceans.<br />

However, their movement is<br />

surreptitious and gradual<br />

like my own creative<br />

impulses.<br />

ELEMENTAL CREEPING<br />

Ceramic earthenware, 2007<br />

22 x 60 x 25cm<br />

Born in Ballarat in 1977, Claire completed her Bachelor of Visual <strong>Arts</strong> – Honours (majoring in Ceramics) in 2002.<br />

Since then she has been working part-time and working to develop her artistic career. She has been studying<br />

ceramics in a variety of tertiary environments and is inspired by ‘retro’ design that often appears in op-shops as well<br />

as the organic forms of Gaudi’s architecture. She is currently working as a ceramic technician and teacher in two<br />

universities which allows her constant contact and input from students, a dialogue that she says informs her current<br />

practice in rewarding ways.<br />

10<br />

NEW DAYS


guest artist<br />

ROBYN<br />

CERRETTI<br />

My practice incorporates the use of<br />

phenomena including light, temperature,<br />

sound, and found objects, debris and<br />

dust, together with time-based media;<br />

video, film and photography, to talk about<br />

the human experience of being in the<br />

world, our ability to question the nature of<br />

existence and being, our awareness of the<br />

passage of time and of our own mortality.<br />

Lightpoems explore ideas of duration and<br />

of time as an expanded present, holding<br />

future and past within it. Using long<br />

exposure photography with various light<br />

sources to write text and using the<br />

camera to capture what is seen unaided<br />

as an after-image.<br />

The light-boxes display analogue<br />

transparencies in relation to authenticity,<br />

exploring the idea that photography, like<br />

recorded sound, is an exact transfer of<br />

what it represents: the real.<br />

lightpoems<br />

5 x 4 colour photographic transparencies,<br />

light-boxes, electrical cable, 2006<br />

Installation variable<br />

Robyn was born in Italy and migrated to Australia when she was two years old. She was raised and still lives in inner<br />

Melbourne. In 2005 she graduated from RMIT University with a Bachelor of <strong>Arts</strong> (Fine Art), Honours 1st Class in<br />

painting. She currently tutors art at local community centres and is completing post-graduate studies for her<br />

Masters in Fine Art.<br />

11<br />

NEW DAYS


TAMAR<br />

DOLEV<br />

GUEST ARTIST<br />

THE THREE WISE WOMEN<br />

Mixed media, 2007<br />

61 x 76cm<br />

When producing artworks I<br />

enjoy experimenting with<br />

materials such as soil,<br />

sand, sticks, PVA glue,<br />

spray paint and anything<br />

else that creates a texture.<br />

I believe that one of the<br />

advantages of being a<br />

visual artist is the ability to<br />

explore the texture of<br />

different materials before<br />

creating an artwork.<br />

Currently I enjoy exploring<br />

a number of new mediums<br />

and textures in my art.<br />

Tamar's love for art began at an early age when she began to draw and sketch in school whilst dreaming of being<br />

a visual artist in her community. In 1997 she won the prestigious Maurie Gold memorial award for mixed media<br />

whilst studying for her VCE. In 1999, Tamar embarked on a trip to live on a Kibbutz in the North of Israel for four<br />

months, where she participated in an art program and graduate exhibition. During this time she created a number<br />

of artworks using found objects and natural materials such as soil and leaves. The following year Tamar was<br />

diagnosed with cancer and received chemotherapy at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. During her time in hospital<br />

she completed a number of pencil drawings and watercolours relating to her experiences, a number of which are<br />

still on display there. In 2003 she completed a Bachelor of Fine Art in printmaking at Monash University. Tamar most<br />

recently held a solo exhibition at the Muse bar in St Kilda and has also participated in a number of other group and<br />

solo exhibitions.<br />

12<br />

NEW DAYS


COMMUNITY OF HOBSONS BAY<br />

The Bolte Bridge has become a<br />

Melbourne landmark and features<br />

predominantly as part of the city<br />

entrance from the new Docklands<br />

precinct. It is worthy of recognition, not<br />

just from an architectural perspective, but<br />

also as a subject for painting. I am so<br />

captured by the bridge form that it has<br />

become the focus of a series of works.<br />

‘Night Seagulls’, painted in 2005,<br />

represents the Bolte Bridge in its<br />

contemporary style. The squiggly lines in<br />

‘Night Seagulls’ are meant to capture the<br />

movement of the seagulls against the<br />

night background and reflective lights<br />

shining upwards from the base of its two<br />

central pillars. If one was to be there<br />

during this time (the best time to view<br />

the Bridge), the viewer would be left<br />

with that impression.<br />

JOHN<br />

GAMBARDELLA<br />

NIGHT SEAGULLS OVER<br />

THE BOLTE BRIDGE<br />

Oil on canvas, 2005<br />

120 x 90cm<br />

Born in Trieste, Italy, John’s family migrated to Australia in 1954 and settled in Melbourne. Over the years he has<br />

continued to live in the inner suburbs of Melbourne – eventually moving to Footscray some years ago. John has<br />

always been interested in fine art since his early school days and continued his self-taught painting practice into his<br />

early thirties. Changes to his working career contributed to a break in his artistic endeavours until 2005. Since then<br />

he has resumed painting with great vigour, motivated not only by a need for self-expression, but also the desire to<br />

make a contribution to promoting original art to the public. John’s style of painting has predominately been<br />

traditional and has covered many mediums and subjects. He is a realist by nature and that is reflected in his art.<br />

13<br />

NEW DAYS


TANJA<br />

GEORGE<br />

COMMUNITY OF PORT PHILLIP<br />

I find inspiration in a critical but often<br />

humorous reflection on every day life. I use<br />

mainly steel and wood in the fabrication<br />

of my sculptures. A fascination with<br />

discarded industrial, mechanical objects<br />

and components has been the basis for<br />

my recent sculptural work, which<br />

acknowledges the beauty and value of<br />

these ‘reinvented’ parts. They have been<br />

taken out of their purely functional<br />

context and given an aesthetic life. Some<br />

of my work has been quite surreal and<br />

stylised but I also enjoy incorporating<br />

many different styles.<br />

RED HARING<br />

Metal & wood, 2006<br />

58 x 37 x 37cm<br />

Tanja was born in Vienna, Austria but grew up in Germany where she worked as a journalist for Esquire magazine.<br />

In 1989 she moved to Australia where she studied fine art and film, completing her Bachelor of Film and Television<br />

at Victorian College of the <strong>Arts</strong> in 1995. After graduating she made a semi-documentary called Death and Passion<br />

which was filmed on location in Pamplona and Zaragoza in Spain. In 2004 she travelled 9000 kilometres directing<br />

a travel documentary about Australia for Germany television. Apart from her work in the film industry, Tanja has<br />

recently assisted Geoffrey Ricardo in fabricating sculptures for his 2006 exhibition Herd at Australian Galleries,<br />

Melbourne. She is also creating her own work, mainly in the medium of sculpture and photography. Her first<br />

exhibition of sculpture was held at Lancaster Press Gallery in February 2007.<br />

14<br />

NEW DAYS


epresented by<br />

stephen mclaughlan gallery<br />

guest artist<br />

FIONA<br />

HALSE<br />

‘Barcelona 1’ explores issues regarding<br />

open space and building form through<br />

collage. It also seeks to understand<br />

ambiguous, blurred marks against<br />

focused areas. My work searches for<br />

inner contours, although abstract in its<br />

approach, the linear circular forms derive<br />

from figurative, skeletal sources. I hope<br />

that the calligraphic marks can capture<br />

aspects of Klee’s walking line philosophy<br />

and ideas within his Pedagogical<br />

Sketchbook. The collage approach to<br />

constructing form and space (used by<br />

many Barcelona artists) has been<br />

embedded in this work.<br />

barcelona 1<br />

Mixed media on paper, 2006<br />

130 x 103.5cm<br />

Fiona was born in Sydney in 1974 and later moved to Melbourne where she completed a Bachelor of Fine <strong>Arts</strong> at<br />

Monash University in 1996. She has exhibited in a range of exhibitions including three solo shows, most recently<br />

at Red Gallery in Fitzroy in 2005. She has been the recipient of The Ian Potter Foundation Cultural Trust (1998)<br />

and her works have been reviewed by noted arts writers Robert Nelson and Jeff Makin. In November 2006 she was<br />

awarded a Support Stipend to complete a residency at Can Serrat International Art Centre, Spain.<br />

15<br />

NEW DAYS


BRIELE<br />

HANSEN<br />

GUEST ARTIST<br />

My work explores relationships between<br />

the perceptual being, the physical being<br />

and the environment.<br />

I seek to evoke real and imagined<br />

physical realities through technical<br />

dislocations of time, light, object and site.<br />

The experience is a little like cinematic<br />

referred pain, the ghost limb of a real<br />

event, a n acute sense of longing or<br />

reaching towards the absent. I see my<br />

work as a kind of butterfly net of time<br />

codes and tape loops catching the flutters<br />

of physical and psychological states.<br />

outsidein<br />

Wood, digital video & mixed media, 2007<br />

194 x 63 x 60cm<br />

Briele was born in Australia in 1973 and grew up in New Zealand. In 1992 she completed her first course of tertiary<br />

education and received an Advance Certificate in Professional Photography from Unitech in Auckland. She also<br />

worked within the film industry for a number of years within both Costume and Art Departments. From 1994, Briele<br />

lived and studied in Italy for three years. In 1999 she relocated to Melbourne to study and completed a Master of<br />

Art by Research at RMIT in 2004. Briele's first solo exhibition spacessence was held at Firstsite Gallery in<br />

Melbourne in 2000. Since then she has received two public art installation commissions and been in included in a<br />

number of group shows in Melbourne and USA.<br />

16<br />

NEW DAYS


COMMUNITY OF HOBSONS BAY<br />

TRUDI<br />

HARLEY<br />

This work is part of an on going series of<br />

works which involve the exploration of<br />

pathways, their textural surfaces created<br />

both accidentally and specifically, and<br />

their surrounding areas. I am<br />

particularly drawn to the abstract<br />

qualities that the subject matter offers.<br />

This particular work is part of a series of<br />

twelve drawn in 2003, that reflect on the<br />

different ‘pathways’ people take in their<br />

lives and some of the differing qualities<br />

that one needs to stay true to one’s self.<br />

This point was a major crossroad in my<br />

life. Somewhere along the path of our<br />

lives our inner world seeks to become<br />

one with the outer. In my work I now<br />

seek that unity.<br />

STUDY FOR RESPECT<br />

Graphite on paper, 2003<br />

38 x 30cm<br />

Trudi was born in Korumburra in South Gippsland and graduated with a Bachelor of Education, Art and Craft at<br />

Burwood State College in 1984. She has spent much of her adult life teaching art in government and private<br />

schools and has lived in China and Sydney during the 1990’s. Over recent years she has found more time to focus<br />

on her own practice, exhibiting and furthering her studies with workshops in printmaking at the Australian Printmaking<br />

Workshop. A resident of Williamstown, she also does life drawing and teaches drawing at weekend workshops<br />

locally. Her works are held in corporate and private collections within Australia and overseas including Hong Kong,<br />

England, America and Germany.<br />

17<br />

NEW DAYS


BRIAN<br />

HOLTON<br />

GUEST ARTIST<br />

A DAY IN THE COUNTRY<br />

Acrylic on canvas, 2006<br />

71 x 102cm<br />

Brian was born in the UK and attended Luton Art School, going on to train<br />

commercially in the Advertising Department of Electrolux UK. He emigrated<br />

to Australia in 1962 and was employed by various print houses, Massey<br />

Ferguson and the State Electricity Commission. Turning freelance in 1978,<br />

he created a print and design advertising service. As a freelance artist, time<br />

was at a premium, but over the last five or six years, he has become fully<br />

devoted to pursuing his own practice.<br />

I try to express the<br />

day-to-day situations of<br />

people and places in a<br />

multi-image approach.<br />

Colour and freedom is<br />

the important element in<br />

my work. This is the<br />

country town where time<br />

has created its own<br />

demands. It is sunny,<br />

relaxed and the<br />

buildings have a patina<br />

of age. Buildings rely on<br />

co-existence, rather than<br />

design. The painting<br />

was undertaken without<br />

any under drawing,<br />

rather a free flowing<br />

intuitive approach was<br />

taken. This work is in<br />

contrast to others I have<br />

done of the city and<br />

suburbs, where the loose<br />

free flowing line work<br />

conveys the underlying<br />

lack of planning and<br />

visual disharmony of<br />

modern living.<br />

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epresented by DESPARD GALLERY<br />

guest artist<br />

I see the subjects in my paintings as a<br />

site for exploring the conflict between the<br />

corporeal reality and the flagrant fantasy<br />

surrounding bodily representation within<br />

consumer culture. I want my figures to<br />

exist within the aesthetic paradigm of<br />

consumerism, whilst remaining<br />

sufficiently ambiguous and challenging<br />

enough to insinuate the dark<br />

problematic area that sits beneath many<br />

advertising images, particularly those<br />

aimed at the adolescent market. I am<br />

interested in the indefiniteness of the<br />

‘youth’ as a category and it’s valorisation<br />

within our society, and the increasing<br />

perverse and hybridised nature of<br />

commercial depictions of age and<br />

sexuality. I intend for my figures to<br />

offer themselves not as victims, but as<br />

agents for our psychological projections.<br />

ANNIKA<br />

KOOPS<br />

REBEL CHILD<br />

Oil on canvas, 2006<br />

100 x 70cm<br />

Annika was born in 1983 and grew up in an isolated region of Tasmania’s east coast where she cultivated an interest<br />

in art from a young age. In 2000 she moved to Hobart to study at the Hobart School of Art and it was there she began<br />

painting with oil and developing a passion for representing the human figure, with particular interest in painting the<br />

skin and it’s myriad variations and manifestations. She moved to Melbourne in 2004 to complete her studies,<br />

graduating with first class honours at the Victorian College of the <strong>Arts</strong>. In 2005 she set up and moved into a studio in<br />

North Fitzroy, to continue her practice. Annika is represented by Despard Gallery in Hobart and has shown at various<br />

exhibitions including the Melbourne International Art Fair in 2006. She was recently offered her first artist in residence<br />

position at Foundation B.a.d in Rotterdamm, the Netherlands. Beginning in September, Annika departs to spend<br />

four-months travelling and researching European art and gathering information for a body of work to be completed<br />

upon her return.<br />

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STEVIE<br />

MAREE<br />

COMMUNITY OF PORT PHILLIP<br />

As a resident of St Kilda, I feel I am a<br />

member of the local community. The Bay<br />

itself is part of life here and conveys<br />

changing moods and character just like<br />

many of the locals. Having Port Phillip<br />

Bay as a neighbour for the last couple of<br />

years has been inspirational. It is like a<br />

friend. It seems to have provided the<br />

notions and ideas for the direction I have<br />

taken with my photography, as water is a<br />

key symbol in many of my recent works.<br />

I take photographs because that’s how I<br />

express myself. My images are an<br />

extension of my feelings and thoughts.<br />

Untitled<br />

Pegasus Print, 2006<br />

100 x 75cm<br />

Stevie grew up in a quiet coastal town on the Gippsland Lakes in country Victoria. Leaving the safety net of the<br />

family and home behind, she ventured to Melbourne in 2003 to further her understanding and pursue her creative<br />

passion. In 2004 she enrolled in an Advanced Diploma of Photography at the Photography Studies College in<br />

Southbank, graduating in 2006. She now calls call Melbourne home but the transition to city life has not always<br />

been easy. ‘I know I survived the hard times by being obsessed about my passion’ she says.<br />

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guest artist<br />

MARTE<br />

NEWCOMBE<br />

I have been living in the U.S. for<br />

the past twenty-four years and<br />

have shown my work there but<br />

coming back to Australia to live<br />

has essentially meant beginning<br />

again here as a new artist. This<br />

print is based on my sculptures<br />

which I made from found objects<br />

and tools and then welded. I<br />

scanned the images into Photoshop<br />

and manipulated them before<br />

outputting them to CMY K plates<br />

and hand-printing them as<br />

silkscreen prints. My work deals in<br />

part with the correlation of<br />

machines to humans and how the<br />

machines we create reflect the<br />

mechanisms of our bodies, both<br />

deliberately and inadvertently.<br />

NIGHT RIDER<br />

Silkscreen, 1995<br />

44 x 40cm<br />

Marte was born in Switzerland but her family became displaced after World War II and immigrated to Australia. She<br />

graduated from the University of Tasmania before moving to the United States where she completed a second<br />

degree in fine arts and lived for 24 years teaching printmaking and computer graphics at Georgetown University,<br />

George Washington University and the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington D.C. She has shown<br />

work in galleries and museums throughout the US and worked for NASA as a graphic artist for the past eight years.<br />

She recently returned to live in Australia.<br />

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MARDI<br />

NOWAK<br />

I WANTED TO START<br />

A REVOLUTION<br />

Woven tapestry, wool, cotton & linen, 2006<br />

120 x 90cm<br />

COMMUNITY OF PORT PHILLIP<br />

Using the historically traditional technique<br />

of weaving, my inspiration comes from the<br />

modern, such as fashion magazines, torn<br />

advertising billboards and street graffiti.<br />

Works are created by collaging together<br />

images and photographs from magazines<br />

with old drawings and photocopies to<br />

reproduce the many layers found on<br />

billboards, similar to wallpaper plastered<br />

over old wallpaper. Notions of time play a<br />

factor in this work. There is a disjunction<br />

between the disposable and fast flow of<br />

images in contemporary mass media<br />

against the deliberation and slowness of a<br />

woven construction. It is the challenge of<br />

turning the contemporary and disposable<br />

images of fashion magazines into a craft<br />

form that has been recognised for<br />

centuries that keeps me excited about<br />

the medium. My tapestries tell a modern<br />

story of the fascination with fashion,<br />

celebrity and consumerism.<br />

Mardi is an artist and curator and currently manages the Town Hall Gallery in Hawthorn. She completed her<br />

Masters of Fine Art at Monash University in 2004 and has exhibited in several group exhibitions in Australia and<br />

overseas. She was recently selected to exhibit works in Munich in the German government funded exhibition<br />

Talente 2007, which features artists aged under thirty years from twenty-five countries who show innovative<br />

excellence in the field of art and craft. She enjoys collaborating on art projects with writers and illustrators and also<br />

mentors a group of young artists in the City of Boroondara. Mardi’s studio practice is based in St Kilda in the City of<br />

Port Phillip.<br />

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COMMUNITY OF PORT PHILLIP<br />

ISABEL<br />

O’BRIEN<br />

This work is from a series<br />

called ‘Enlighten’. It is an<br />

investigation into the workings<br />

of vision, exploring the parallels<br />

between language and vision<br />

– different ways of reading<br />

and interpreting images.<br />

These photographs have<br />

elements concealed, restricting<br />

the visual field, perhaps<br />

drawing the eye to parts that<br />

would not necessarily attract<br />

our attention. This fragmented<br />

format allows the eye, after<br />

initially just seeing an<br />

abstracted image, to bring the<br />

parts together making sense of<br />

what is missing. Another<br />

important aspect of the work is<br />

the use of light. Light is what<br />

allows vision and this also has<br />

significance to the library<br />

setting (a place of knowledge)<br />

and the idea of it as a place<br />

of enlightenment. This is<br />

reflected in the concealing and<br />

the revealing of elements of<br />

the image and the cognition<br />

or understanding by the<br />

viewer of what they see.<br />

THROUGH (1)<br />

Photograph/lightbox, 2006<br />

50 x 70 x 15cm<br />

Isabel was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1976 and moved to<br />

Melbourne in 2001. She has travelled widely through Europe and<br />

Asia and has lived in St Kilda for the past six years. In 2005 she took<br />

up studio space at the St Kilda Bowling Club Studios, a move which<br />

has provided the opportunity to make stronger links with both the<br />

local community and other artists. In 2006 she completed her<br />

Masters of Art in Public Space with high distinction at the University<br />

of RMIT. She is continuing to exhibit and develop her work locally and<br />

was recently selected to exhibit in the Williamstown Festival<br />

Tattersall’s Contemporary Art Prize.<br />

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CAROLYN<br />

O’NEILL<br />

COMMUNITY OF HOBSONS BAY<br />

stained glass - sea of green<br />

Acrylic on canvas, 2007<br />

75 x 100cm<br />

Stained glass has long evoked<br />

a sense of spirituality, peace<br />

and reflection. Take the time<br />

to gaze through these<br />

illuminating fragments of<br />

connection and significance.<br />

Despite our diverse colours,<br />

shapes and sizes we are equal<br />

components of life’s rich<br />

tapestry. The process of<br />

painting this collection has<br />

been both meditative and<br />

liberating; gently reminding<br />

me that we are all one.<br />

Carolyn is a Melbourne artist who began painting in 2003 and has exhibited her work at various local exhibitions.<br />

As an emerging artist, she finds the creative process to be therapeutic and is working to develop her own distinct<br />

style. Art has become a place to express herself without boundaries or limitations; to let go and allow the work to<br />

take on a life of its own. Carolyn paints primarily in acrylic and favours a rich vibrant palette. Her work is often bold,<br />

her brushstrokes generally thick and her expressive style naïve; sometimes inspired by indigenous patterns, dots<br />

and circles. Carolyn lives in Hobsons Bay with her family and is a member of the Hobsons Bay Art Society.<br />

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guest artist<br />

SHINI<br />

PARARAJASINGHAM<br />

“Don’t hate be because I’m beautiful’ was inspired by my<br />

fascination in the torturous rituals women perform on<br />

themselves for the sake of beauty and the ‘ideal body’.<br />

For centuries, it was culturally acceptable for women to be<br />

absorbed in the mutilation of their own bodies to appear<br />

more feminine. Exemplary to this is the corset which began<br />

to appear in the 16th century - clearly a torture instrument<br />

for the sale of feminine perfection. The courting lady had<br />

to get her waist as slim as possible in the hope of<br />

obtaining her future husband. In modern times, “the<br />

hairless norm; the removal of body hair in women” is<br />

necessary to attain beauty in our culture. A behavioral<br />

science study found that the reasons cited for hair<br />

removal were primarily concerned with a desire for<br />

femininity and attractiveness. In fact, removing<br />

body hair is a practice so normative as to go mostly<br />

un-remarked, but one which contributes<br />

substantially to the notion that women’s bodies<br />

are unacceptable as they are. And yet, having a<br />

head full of long luscious hair is a sign of<br />

femininity. A woman with short hair is considered<br />

to be a ‘tom-boy’. I have married these concepts to<br />

produce this metaphorical and satirical piece.<br />

Shini completed a BA from Monash University in December 2003 and<br />

has exhibited two international solo shows and a number of group<br />

exhibitions in Melbourne, regional Victoria and Brisbane. She has been<br />

a finalist in the prestigious John Leslie Art Prize and the She Series<br />

Competition at Walker Street Gallery in Dandenong and was also the<br />

recipient of the Prato Travelling Scholarship in 2002. She has been a<br />

member of the Board of Directors of Brunswick <strong>Arts</strong>, a non-commercial,<br />

artist run gallery that places its values on community access and<br />

supporting emerging and established artists. Shini is currently<br />

focusing her energies on pursuing and developing her own studio<br />

practice.<br />

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DON’T HATE ME BECAUSE<br />

I’M BEAUTIFUL<br />

Plastic fencing, human &<br />

synthetic hair, 2006<br />

140 x 93 x 68cm


naomi<br />

pitts<br />

GUEST ARTIST<br />

This painting was part of a series<br />

produced out of my continued concern for<br />

the effects of a warming planet. I begin<br />

with a sublime, distant image of a<br />

glacial mountain from the colder regions<br />

of the earth. By adjusting it I had hoped<br />

to emphasise the upheaval and<br />

overwhelming pressure we place on the<br />

earth’s natural systems, to pose the<br />

question “Are we really capable of turning<br />

ice into desert?” Recent statistical<br />

analysis into the global ice melt, as<br />

highlighted recently by Al Gore, has made<br />

this painting even more pertinent to me.<br />

arctic desert<br />

Acrylic on canvas, 2006<br />

50 x 40cm<br />

Naomi completed a Diploma of Visual <strong>Arts</strong> at Barton TAFE in 1997, going on to complete a Bachelor of Fine <strong>Arts</strong><br />

with Honours at the University of RMIT in 2001. She has produced four solo exhibitions of her work, most recently<br />

at Red Gallery in Fitzroy in 2005. She was a finalist in the Metro 5 Art Award in 2005 and has participated in<br />

numerous group exhibitions including an emerging artists show at Span Galleries the same year. In 2006 she was<br />

also a finalist in the City of Banyule Works on Paper Prize and the R & M McGivern Art Prize.<br />

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guest artist<br />

HELEN<br />

POLLARD<br />

I am very passionate<br />

about the arts and I<br />

am always looking for<br />

new and exciting<br />

places to exhibit my<br />

work. My artwork is<br />

abstract, colourful.<br />

vibrant and energetic.<br />

The physical act of<br />

engaging with paint for<br />

me is an inner<br />

investigation and a<br />

process of discovery.<br />

I believe that the<br />

gestural mark is a<br />

direct physical<br />

expression. There is<br />

always an intense<br />

experience, emotion<br />

and feelings that relate<br />

to a memory, time or<br />

place that I aim to<br />

translate in paint.<br />

DANDENONG RANGES<br />

Acrylic & printing ink on canvas, 2006<br />

120 x 70cm<br />

Helen graduated from Lancaster University in England with a Fine <strong>Arts</strong> degree in 2003 before coming to Australia,<br />

where she is currently studying for her Masters in Art and Public Space at the University of RMIT in Melbourne. Over<br />

the past few years she has been working to establish her artistic career having converted her garage at home into<br />

a studio. Her commissions and group projects to date include installations in Xian in China and Sile in Turkey as<br />

well as a laneway installation entitled Colour of Night in the City of Dandenong in 2006.<br />

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CHRIS<br />

ROWE<br />

COMMUNITY OF PORT PHILLIP<br />

keep up<br />

Mixed media on paper, 2006<br />

47 x 39cm<br />

The interaction of people with each other,<br />

and their environment, is the constant<br />

thread that weaves throughout my work.<br />

They gather in groups for unspecified<br />

events. They confer, discuss, investigate,<br />

play, wonder and wait. They merge and<br />

blend with their surrounds whilst still<br />

anchored in their presence. A stillness<br />

exists despite the obvious activities of the<br />

protagonists. The use of text expands my<br />

initial idea and creates further dialogue<br />

within the work, an invitation to the<br />

viewer to create their own story. Collage<br />

is also an important aspect that<br />

strengthens the subtext of the original<br />

idea and also attests to modern issues of<br />

impermanency and consumerism.<br />

The superficial, layered and destroyed in<br />

part and then reworked, echo the search<br />

for meaning.<br />

The desire and need to express herself artistically has been a consistent force in Chris’ life since childhood. She<br />

lists her grandmother who continued painting until the age of 105 as her most significant influence, but she has also<br />

been influenced by other artists including Jim Dine, Oscar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, Georgia O’Keefe and Picasso.<br />

She completed her Bachelor of Fine Art at Monash University in 1989 but until recently her artistic development has<br />

been impeded by the necessity to make a living. Chris lives and works in Port Melbourne and has recently<br />

commenced full time studio practice having worked for many years in accident and emergency nursing. Her work<br />

is fuelled by many years nursing and personal experience, which she seeks to express in a universal context.<br />

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community of hobsons bay<br />

melanie<br />

scaife<br />

I live in Williamstown and make<br />

my art here in my studio<br />

(a glorified shed out the back of<br />

my place). I draw my inspiration<br />

from the Williamstown landscape<br />

which I find bleak but beautiful.<br />

If I am not drawing directly from<br />

the landscape, I use my long<br />

walks around the coastline to work<br />

through visual ideas for my<br />

paintings. This work is a selfportrait<br />

painted at a time of<br />

transition in my life. I wanted to<br />

capture a feeling of reflection and<br />

quiet hope, symbolised by the<br />

figure’s face which is turned<br />

towards a gentle light falling from<br />

a window beyond the frame. The<br />

title of the painting is taken from<br />

a poem by Diane Fahey.<br />

the wholeness,<br />

the brokenness of now, of here<br />

Oil on canvas, 2006<br />

50 x 50cm<br />

Melanie studied fine art (painting) at RMIT University, Melbourne and the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland. Her art<br />

practice incorporates painting, drawing and printmaking and includes figurative and abstract imagery. She is<br />

primarily interested in depicting internal states of being by carefully observing the external world. Her influences<br />

include an eclectic range of abstract and figurative painters and poetry. She is currently working towards a solo<br />

exhibition at fauxPho art space in Footscray.<br />

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MAGGIE<br />

SMITH<br />

COMMUNITY OF HOBSONS BAY<br />

I became seriously interested in<br />

photography over the last four years and<br />

have studied Creative Digital Imaging<br />

online at RMIT part time. At present I<br />

am still exploring the way I can increase<br />

my skills and learn new techniques to<br />

bring my ideas to fulfillment.<br />

‘Seagull at Sunset’ is a montage of scenes<br />

photographed in Williamstown and<br />

printed on canvas.<br />

SEAGULL AT SUNSET<br />

Print on canvas, 2006<br />

92 x 61cm<br />

Maggie is a resident of Hobsons Bay and has exhibited in the Art in Public Places program in 2005 and 2006.<br />

Her practice employs traditional photography as well as experimenting with digital media, recently pursuing part<br />

time studies at RMIT. She has successfully exhibited her work internationally and locally, achieving sixty-five<br />

awards and over three hundred acceptances in International and National Salons since 2002. In 2004 she was<br />

awarded a gold medal at the 7th International Unconventional Photography Salon Foto Odlot in Rzeszow, Poland.<br />

Other images have been acquired by the contemporary section of the Museu Internacional de Fotografia in<br />

Cerdanyola del Valles, Spain.<br />

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guest artist<br />

KAREN<br />

STANDKE<br />

My main topic in my<br />

paintings is the<br />

landscape. I have<br />

travelled a fair bit and<br />

my paintings reflect<br />

this. In Australia, I<br />

have been particularly<br />

fascinated by the<br />

outback landscape.<br />

My paintings are at<br />

the same time a<br />

celebration of natural<br />

beauty as well as an<br />

examination of the<br />

land and the people<br />

that inhabit it.<br />

‘Melancholy’ was<br />

inspired by a journey to<br />

Broken Hill in 2005.<br />

melancholy<br />

Oil on canvas, 2005<br />

183 x 137cm<br />

Karen was born in 1973 in Munich, Germany and grew up in Munich and in Ehrwald, Austria. After an apprenticeship<br />

in commercial Lithography she studied at the Academy for Graphic Design and attended the FOS Art School<br />

in Munich. After graduating, she left Europe for Japan, where she lived for one year, mainly in Tokyo. From late<br />

1997 until 2000, Karen lived in Wellington, New Zealand where she studied art at the Learning Connection Art<br />

School, graduating with an Honours Diploma in 1999. Having come to Australia in 2000, Karen has based herself<br />

primarily in Melbourne. In 2004 she travelled to Austria for a self-funded residency at the Zugspitzatelier Mario<br />

Gasser. She returned the following year to Australia and worked on exhibitions both here and in New Zealand. In<br />

2006 she was awarded a residency at Arthur Boyd’s Bundanon in New South Wales and shortly after, at Territory<br />

Craft’s studios in Alice Springs. Work from both of these residencies was shown as her most recent exhibition with<br />

Pivotal Galleries in Richmond.<br />

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merryn j<br />

trevethan<br />

represented by SPAN Galleries<br />

GUEST ARTIST<br />

I don’t want to say i want you<br />

Oil on canvas, 2006<br />

150 x 150cm<br />

My travel experiences around the world<br />

have helped my art practice come together<br />

both visually and conceptually. I find<br />

myself interested in notions of community<br />

and place. The urban environment is the<br />

starting point for these works, but the<br />

subject itself is visual language; the<br />

interaction of colour, form, and shape to<br />

create a sense of space and a heightened<br />

sense of the real. My work aims to<br />

translate the features of the landscape into<br />

shapes and colours that recall memory of<br />

experience, of being in the environment and<br />

on the road. Distorting perceptions, and<br />

playing on the push and pull of space and<br />

colour; creating dreamlike spaces that are at<br />

once embracing and familiar, yet strange<br />

and unsettling. Prompting viewer’s to<br />

reassess their perceptions of the everyday<br />

and the ways we see and experience reality.<br />

Merryn was born in 1976 and grew up in Melbourne’s bayside suburbs. From a young age she always loved art<br />

and wanted to be an artist, and completed a Bachelor of Fine <strong>Arts</strong> at Monash University in 1997. She had also<br />

always had a strong desire to travel the world and after graduating, she backpacked around the globe for thirteen<br />

months, travelling to Austria, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, the UK, as well as through Canada and<br />

the USA. This afforded her the opportunity to see some of the great masterpieces of art in the flesh and gain<br />

invaluable life experience, often staying off the beaten track with local families and experiencing local culture and<br />

customs. After returning to Melbourne she resumed her studies completing an Honours degree and her Masters of<br />

Fine Art at Monash. She is currently concentrating on developing her artistic career but is also keen to undertake<br />

further travels.<br />

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community of hobsons bay<br />

RI<br />

VAN VEEN<br />

I moved to Williamstown in July 2006 with my<br />

family and I am just starting to make<br />

connections with the community of Hobsons<br />

Bay. I had my first exhibition as part of the<br />

2007 Art in Public Places in Williamstown and<br />

have just become a member of Western Region<br />

<strong>Arts</strong> Network (WRAN) in an attempt to meet<br />

more artists and become involved in supporting<br />

art in this region. Ceramics inspires me not only<br />

in the creation of form but also in the firing<br />

process. The hot, physical and tactile process of<br />

wood and raku as well as the inherent resultant<br />

unpredictability make these firings my favourite.<br />

This environmentally motivated female-form<br />

piece is raku fired. It represents mother earth’s<br />

struggle with pollution and global warming and<br />

the resultant drought and fires.<br />

DROUGHT AND FIRE<br />

Ceramic, 2007<br />

52 x 14 x 16cm<br />

Ri was born to Dutch migrant parents and grew up in Frankston during the 1970’s. Her parents decided on a bush<br />

change in 1980 and her family spent the next 20 years in central Victoria establishing several farming enterprises.<br />

Ri gave birth to three daughters between 1987-93 and in 1999, returned to study completing Bachelor of Teaching.<br />

In 2003, Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome changed Ri’s life and unable to work, she turned to a past love – ceramics.<br />

Working with clay was initially therapeutic, but has gradually become a major focus in her life. In 2005 she returned<br />

to La Trobe University to study Visual <strong>Arts</strong> and ceramics and since moving to Williamstown in 2006, she has<br />

enrolled in a Diploma of <strong>Arts</strong> at Box Hill TAFE. Her works can be viewed at Browz Williamstown and via her website:<br />

www.ri-creations.com.<br />

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Cyrus, Waikuen<br />

Tang<br />

GUEST ARTIST<br />

engagement<br />

Porcelain, 2005<br />

40 x 90 x 90cm<br />

Cyrus, Wai-kuen Tang migrated to Australia in 2003 and graduated from<br />

the Victorian College of the <strong>Arts</strong> in 2004. Since then she has been<br />

working to develop her career, completing an artist residency in<br />

Tokoname in Japan in 2005 and exhibiting in solo and group exhibitions<br />

most recently Stephen McLaughlan Gallery and Westspace Gallery. As<br />

an Asian immigrant, she intends to create a dialogue between east and<br />

the west culture, reflecting her struggle to start her new life and the<br />

interchange between the past and the present. She is currently studying<br />

for her Masters at Monash University.<br />

As a Chinese artist in<br />

Australia, the culture shock<br />

inspires me to investigate the<br />

dialogue between tradition<br />

and contemporary, east and<br />

west. Memory oscillates<br />

between what is remembered<br />

and what is imagined; and<br />

this can reach heightened<br />

poetic consciousness through<br />

the artist’s intervention. Most<br />

of my projects are attempts to<br />

capture the loss of memory.<br />

I believe that dealing with<br />

the negative space or void is a<br />

way to capture the past and<br />

the loss of memory; that the<br />

space between objects is not<br />

empty. It serves an important<br />

purpose in installation.<br />

To me, it seems that the<br />

emptiness has something to<br />

do with time, an element<br />

that may be survived at the<br />

point of invisibility. Poetically,<br />

something happens in the<br />

object allowing the past and<br />

present to converge.<br />

34<br />

NEW DAYS


epresented by<br />

4CATS GALLERY<br />

COMMUNITY OF HOBSONS BAY<br />

CHERIE<br />

WINTER<br />

After purchasing property in the Hobsons<br />

Bay area, I found the wind swept beauty<br />

of the region has inspired me to look at<br />

trees and the environment differently.<br />

Becoming pro-active with the community<br />

(National Plant a Tree Day/Clean up<br />

Australia Day) has helped my personal<br />

and artistic growth. If I asked you to<br />

make me five things with living trees,<br />

what would you make? A fence, a coat<br />

hanger, a seat or what about the swing<br />

set or even a house! It’s true. It can all<br />

be done. My work is a reflection upon<br />

arborsculpture (the sculpting of living<br />

trees into aesthetic, functional and<br />

cultural forms) and societies reaction to<br />

the results. It is a hypothetical vision of<br />

how arborsculpture, an obscure tradition,<br />

can open up avenues and possibilities to<br />

create a broad spectrum of items and<br />

contribute to the environment in a positive<br />

way. It is a merger of print mediums,<br />

which combine to represent a hope for the<br />

future, a belief in the present and the<br />

knowledge of the past. Whether creating<br />

botanical architecture, furniture or<br />

featuring on Ripley’s Believe it or Not,<br />

trees continue to surprise me.<br />

SYCAMORE WEAVE<br />

Lithograph, colour pencil & chin colle, 2006<br />

70 x 83cm<br />

Cherie was born in Nowra in NSW and received her<br />

education at the College of Fine <strong>Arts</strong>, University of<br />

NSW and a Graduate Diploma from Sydney University.<br />

She moved to Melbourne in 2000 and has participated<br />

in solo shows and numerous selected exhibitions<br />

including the 16th Asian International Art Exhibition,<br />

Guandong Museum of Art, China. Cherie has been<br />

working as a technical officer in Visual Media at the<br />

University of Melbourne and completed a Diploma of<br />

Multimedia Design at Holmesglen Institute of TAFE.<br />

She has received awards and grants such at the Collie<br />

Print Trust Emerging Victorian Printmakers Scholarship<br />

from the Australian Print Workshop, Hunter Urban<br />

Division of General Practice Award and the Visual and<br />

Craft Artists’ Grant Scheme from the National Association<br />

for the Visual <strong>Arts</strong>.<br />

35<br />

NEW DAYS


HEATHER<br />

WINTER<br />

WILD FEAR<br />

Dura trans light box, 2007<br />

106.3 x 68cm<br />

Heather completed her Masters of Fine <strong>Arts</strong> at<br />

Victorian College of the <strong>Arts</strong> in 1991 and exhibited<br />

widely during the 1990’s before being invited to live<br />

and work overseas at the invitation of the Austrian<br />

<strong>Arts</strong> Council, Bundeskanzlerampt. She has exhibited<br />

in several solo and numerous group exhibitions both<br />

here and overseas and has completed artist residencies<br />

in Bulgaria, Switzerland, Vienna, Thailand and<br />

Australia. For quite some time, her focus has been on<br />

her work overseas and it is only recently since she<br />

has returned to live in Australia that she has begun<br />

work on rebuilding her profile locally. She is currently<br />

studying for her PhD at Melbourne University and<br />

works from her studio in St Kilda West.<br />

36<br />

COMMUNITY OF PORT PHILLIP<br />

Inspired by the behaviour of animals and<br />

nature, I look for the archetypes of human<br />

behaviours and find parallels in the natural<br />

world; an elephant never<br />

forgets, a snake transforms<br />

itself through the shedding<br />

of it’s skin. When sex<br />

becomes stale, does it need<br />

a bolt of lightning ? A Wild<br />

Strike is like a revelation of<br />

truth; sometimes like<br />

delivering shock treatment<br />

to the planet we wake up<br />

and learn our lessons! To<br />

imagine that you’re an<br />

animal you can begin to<br />

experience your life from a<br />

different perspective. The natural world can<br />

allow us to experience transformative powers,<br />

which lie beyond Western rationalism and unite<br />

us with its spiritual essence. I examine fear<br />

through zoomorphic experiences in order to<br />

find liberation. Wild Fear, through digital<br />

technology, attempts to subvert the stereotypical<br />

image of genre film stills ‘Deep Blue Sea’<br />

of a woman pursued by sharks. I jump into<br />

the shark tank and assume the yogi pose in a<br />

gesture of reconciliation. This work is inspired<br />

by theories of fears and aggression. You project<br />

onto others what you fear. Liberation from fear<br />

is achieved through the bodily gesture.<br />

NEW DAYS


guest artist<br />

daniela<br />

zimmermanN<br />

I like to tell stories, but I don’t like to<br />

use words to do so and I also have a<br />

deep seeded suspicion about things,<br />

which appear to be nice. I detest perfect<br />

objects as a main form of artistic<br />

expression. In my observation life is not<br />

nice at all, not perfect and definitely not<br />

smooth and shiny. I oppose the new and<br />

proper. I perceive that broken and<br />

cracked surfaces mirror human struggles<br />

and are equipped with inner strength. I<br />

am interested in the relationship and<br />

contrasts between different clay bodies<br />

and glazes and our surroundings of the<br />

natural and the built environment. I use<br />

found materials, the debris of everyday<br />

life, in combination with hand built<br />

ceramic objects to translate the physical<br />

appearance of modern existence into a<br />

visual language of the human condition.<br />

Photograph © Terence Bogue<br />

untitled<br />

Clay & inserted metal pieces,<br />

glazed & fired to earthenware temperature, 2006<br />

Set of 3 - 11 x 30 x 25cm<br />

Daniela grew up in a German village where her grandfather worked in the village kaolin mine and in his spare time<br />

collected minerals and fossils from all over the world. As a child she was fascinated by the diverse usage of kaolin,<br />

in porcelain and glazes, for making good quality paper and also at that time in the production of toothpaste. Now<br />

that she is living in Australia, she seems to have come full circle, returning to kaolin and minerals again and building<br />

structures which remind her of diverse landscapes, buildings, people and cultures she has observed and lived with<br />

along the way. In 2006 Daniela completed her Diploma of <strong>Arts</strong> in Ceramics at Box Hill Institute and was recently<br />

accepted as a finalist in the 2007 Montalto Sculpture Prize.<br />

37<br />

NEW DAYS

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