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| La Femme au Naturelle by and courtesy of Maureen Clark |
Art Scene
Straight from the Media Release -
Gaara Arts is a group of women who also happen to be Broken Hill artists. Since forming in 2008, they have become an independent, incorporated entity, producing prolific work. Primarily, they respond to issues that face women in society by raising community awareness of these issues through exhibitions of their artworks at the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery and other public venues. Biannually, an exhibition is timed to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8. In 2012, the theme of the International Women’s Day exhibition is “Plastic Lives – A Woman’s Tale”.
Gaara Arts is a group of women who also happen to be Broken Hill artists. Since forming in 2008, they have become an independent, incorporated entity, producing prolific work. Primarily, they respond to issues that face women in society by raising community awareness of these issues through exhibitions of their artworks at the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery and other public venues. Biannually, an exhibition is timed to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8. In 2012, the theme of the International Women’s Day exhibition is “Plastic Lives – A Woman’s Tale”.
Each painting has been thoughtfully assessed by a poet who has then written an ekphrastic poem which seeks to interpret and, sometimes, confront their subjects. Local Broken Hill poets joined with metropolitan and interstate scribes to compose their works which will hang beside the paintings in the main gallery of the
One such poet is Sheryl Persson, an ekphrastic poet who transcribes visual art into poetry. Sheryl’s poetry group, DiVerse, performs regularly at the National Gallery and the Art Gallery of NSW. She has written a collection of poems, Scarcely Random, and has had articles and stories published widely. Sheryl will join other poets and the Gaara artists in at the Gallery for the opening of the “Plastic Lives” exhibition at 6.30pm on Friday, March 9. The exhibition will run until April 22nd.
Betty Pearson is the President and Angela Fitzpatrick the Vice-President of Gaara for 2012, while established artists such as Jenny Cattonar, Deirdre Edwards and Wendy Martin act as mentors for other emerging painters.
The group is hoping to repeat the success of the opening of their previous exhibition, “One Barrow, One Shovel”, which attracted 200 people to the art and memorabilia show in December last year.
All I can add is that I wish I could be there on the opening night. Luckily I will be back in Broken Hill at some point during the exhibition nonetheless, so I can’t wait to see it, it sounds quite fascinating.
Cheers, Jane D
Visited Broken Hill for the first time for the St Pat’s races – had a great time – races lots of fun & city was wonderful. Attended this exhibition “Plastic Lives - A Woman’s Tale” whilst I was in town. Really interesting thought provoking pieces with relevant creative poetry. Worth a look especially if you’re interested in women’s issues. I was also impressed with the permanent collection at the gallery and the space itself. I liked the other exhibition currently being held - Kurnu Paakantyi Stories by Badger Bates. Mel H
ReplyDeleteHi Mel H, great to hear your thoughts. I attended the “Plastic Lives …” exhibition on my recent trip, when I was in the city for the St Pat's races (had a great time there). It's a fascinating exhibition, and the poetry was, as you say, really creative and skillful as well I thought. Yes, Regional Gallery is a lovely space. I also enjoyed the Badger Bates exhibition. See separate post re this. Thanks for your comments, Jane D
DeleteReally enjoyed the upstairs exhibition by emarging artist Jade Manly - the exhibition was called Interactions - very interesting!
DeleteHi there, thanks for your comment, as it was a while ago I can't remember Jade's work but I'll note her website here http://jmanlyartist.webs.com/ if people are interested in looking at some of her work, which is pretty striking from what I've seen on that site. She is a local Broken Hill artists. I don't believe I have met her. Thanks again for the comment, Cheers, Jane D
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