Exhibitions describe our place in world
LOCAL and regional exhibitions in two different genres describe our place in the world and how memory shapes our commemoration of it. Historically, ceramics have paralleled our very existence, while photography has documented the drama of the ordinary and extraordinary in everyday life.
The Alexandra Lawson Gallery, Railway Street, Saturdays 10am-1pm, is presenting “Remnants” a ceramic exhibition by Dan Elborne. Ceramic art is arguably the oldest handicraft. It can be functional, decorative, and also reflect esoteric spiritual connotations. Elborne has achieved all these aspects with “Remains”, his exquisite porcelain dipped and gold lustre detailed animal skulls and in “At Rest”, the hand-built lidded jars like funereal relics filled with the anagama ash of their firing.
These vessels were made during a recent residency in Japan where Elborne used a version of the ancient wood fired anagama kiln. His current work explores commemoration as a way of honouring collective and personal memory. The nature of the material and the processes used are significant to the aesthetic of the object. Clay, and the subsequent artworks created become metaphors for human characteristics such as fragility, resilience, and vulnerability.
No Comply Gallery, 6 Laurel St, is showing very different ceramics in “Newly Formed”, an exhibition by Peta Berghofer. The pieces are about the “idea” of pottery, rustic hand-built shapes in opposition to the slickness of mass production. These are forms without function but there is a tactile quality, the indentations and surface decoration avow the presence of the artist. The objects, vessel shaped or sculptural, are like “blind pottery” where touch has squeezed and caressed the clay into gravity-defying entities.
Parkside Ceramics at the Darling Downs Potters’ Club, 145 West St, has a selection of work by club members that runs the gamut from decorative, functional, sculptural, and domestic ware to wall works, wind chimes, and little animals: perfect for special and original gifts.
The Arts Gallery at the University of Southern Queensland is hosting “Street Seen,” an exhibition of photography by Brian Condron. This is an elegant body of work presented in discreet, understated black frames. There is a purity about black and white photography that enhances the imagery and these silver gelatin prints make the most of fine grain and available light. Velvety black and crisp white are separated by an impressive tonal range. Condron is a master of the candid. With the astute eye of the flâneur, he captures individuals abandoned to solitude in the midst of the city. The camera bears witness to silent narratives, the dramas of everyday life played out in the public arena.
The Nobby Library foyer is displaying “Murals of Toowoomba” a series of photographs by the Clifton Photographers. Sadly, the lack of a context statement acknowledging the artists and artworks photographed compromises the professionalism of the venture.