It’s time to Vent
VENT, by Amanda Davies and curated by Eliza Burke, is on at The Barracks Art Centre, New Norfolk, Until September 25
There are a number of art spaces in Tasmania that are re-purposed heritage buildings. Some of our most well-known and significant art spaces fall into this category; it’s also something that can be a bit complex, as heritage spaces can literally overwhelm art with their actual physical make-up, or their history, or both. This isn’t to say that heritage spaces shouldn’t be used for art – indeed, it actually makes for more engaging exhibitions, where there’s an extra challenge for an artist as they consider how to work with a space.
The Barracks at the Derwent Valley comes with a veritable deluge of history, much of which is well-known to the point of being local folklore. It’s a place of some notoriety, and any work that is shown here has that to contend with. It’s also got a very particular aesthetic – old paint and fireplaces sit on wooden floors.
Turning the Barracks into a functioning gallery has no doubt been a challenge and a lot of devoted work for the Derwent Valley Arts – but it’s happened, and the space has been running for a while now, consistently producing fine exhibitions. The space and the manner in which it works is well on its way to becoming a textbook example of how to make a heritage space transform into a viable arts space.
This is all crucial background to Vent. Vent has been long in the making – Amanda Davies and Eliza Burke have been investigating and discussing what an art show in the space of the Barracks might be. Burke has long investigated complex concepts where the arts and the sciences intersect, and is known for producing meticulous, thoughtful outcomes.
Amanda Davies is much the same – her famously visceral art is an ongoing and very personal journey into unsettling places and notions. This is an excellent meeting of minds, and the exhibition that’s gestated here is about as intense and special as one might expect.
The focus is complex – much of the aesthetic is derived from the physical structure and presence of the Barracks themselves and it’s obvious that much time was spent really looking at the rooms, the windows, the tone of the faded and worn paint that remains, places where layers are chipped and removed.
Of particular interest were the old-style vents, which Davies has incorporated as frames for her paintings that one may actually move by hand – this is a rare moment where one may actually touch the art. This interactive element brings the audience into direct contact with the art and the space it’s sited in, creating a sense of what is visible and invisible in the Barracks. In terms of this space we can look at a lot, but we can never quite see it all, and one investigation may even obscure another.
Davies has found a way of suggesting the seepage of history, and implying that this narrative has leaky nature that’s both physical and allegorical: the story of these buildings and all who has passed through them has to some extent been absorbed into the walls; Davies has found the permeable points where aspects of the narrative leak out.
This is an unsettling show, but it is also sensitive and respectful, and doesn’t seek to shock the audience – it’s subtle and focused, and powerfully moving.
More information: https:// www.derwentvalley.art/