Unsolved Histories, my solo exhibition currently on view at the Old Butchers Shop Gallery, is an official Ballarat Heritage Festival event.
Ballarat’s renowned Heritage Festival opens this coming weekend, on Saturday 18 May. For those who are planning to include the exhibition in your itinerary - and I really hope you will - here is a little about what you will find.
The Rückenfigur, or rear view figure, has occupied a central position in my work since the turn of the last century. The motif has figured in every medium throughout the history of art, but arguably is most closely associated with the work of nineteenth century German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich. Victorian mourning and sentimental jewellery, Early and High Renaissance art, Elizabethan portrait miniatures, the films of Alfred Hitchcock and surrealist paintings of Rene Magritte are among the disparate influences infiltrating these works. Unsolved Histories charts a course through selected paintings, prints and drawings created over the past last six years, uncovering a link to my own familial connection to Ballarat.
Continue scrolling for additional installation views and to learn about the evolution of the Old Butchers Shop Gallery. Situated in historic Soldiers Hill, it has a heritage all its own.
For further information about Unsolved Histories and the Old Butchers Shop Gallery, visit the Ballarat Heritage Festival site here:
Unsolved Histories
The Old Butchers Shop Gallery
112 Seymour Street
Soldiers Hill, Ballarat VIC 3350
The gallery is open from 12-4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays - 18-19 May and 25-26 May - or by appointment. I’ll be there on all of these days and look forward to welcoming you.
Photo credit for image 1: Julie Bennett;
Photo credit for images 4 and 7 from top: Jimmy Pasakos;
The rest are by me.