Bringing the news to life
ARTS
AN exhibition that artistically brings the news of the 19th century to life is bound for Geelong Gallery.
The Outrage, Obscenity and Madness exhibition will show digital paintings and works on paper.
The unique works reinterpret art that accompanied reports of crimes and misdemeanours that appeared in Richard Egan Lee’s broadsheet newspapers in 1870s.
Mr Egan Lee published papers at the time that led to multiple slander and obscenity cases, but he was undeterred.
After each, he established a new masthead. His publications included Police News, Police Budget, Citizen Press, Banner of Truth and Pictorial Weekly Budget.
His battle led to changed visual censorship laws in the state.
Elizabeth Gertsakis, an artist, curator and cultural historian, has reimagined the illustrations, 140 years after they were first published.
Ms Gertsakis said the first time she came across images used in Mr Egan Lee’s publications, she stopped.
“I thought, ‘What’s that? I’ve never seen anything like this before’,” she said.
Ms Gertsakis presumed the images were German or middle European because they were so “bleak”.
“They’re crude, but they’re very emotional and very powerful,”she said.
When Ms Gertsakis realised the images were Australian, they “grabbed” her.
“They did cover not only suburbs … and country towns.”
Ms Gertsakis said Mr Egan Lee invited readers to send in illustrations of events, “almost like an invitation to democratic expression”.
The exhibition includes arts based on newsworthy events that occurred in Geelong and the surrounding region.
“There was an event that occurred in Geelong where someone committed suicide,” Ms Gertsakis said.
She said the image for the story was “theatrical” but “at the same time, it sort of moves your emotion, so even though the drawing might look like a cartoon, you really get the pathos and the sadness of the suicide, but it’s not literal.”
Ms Gertsakis used digital manipulation to recreate the 19th century news images, and said she wanted to give the images “power” by making them large. The exhibition will be at the Geelong Gallery from February 17-May 6.