Watson Arts Centre, Aspinall Street, Watson, ACT
Opening event: 6:00pm Friday 10 July
Curated by Patsy Hely and Sarah Rice, SURROUND/S showcases high-level, imaginative work being made in Canberra and the regional areas that encircle it. Contributing artists have been asked to respond to ideas about surrounding or being surrounded. The theme has been prompted by the consideration that Canberra is the only Australian state/territory to be entirely enclosed in another – NSW. Canberra itself is surrounded by mountain ranges: those lovely hills – Mt Majura, Mt Ainslie, Red Hill – that ring the city round. In turn, Canberra circles the city’s aesthetic and some would say spiritual centrepiece, Lake Burley Griffin.
The Canberra region has a broad geographical spread: Queanbeyan to Cooma in the south, Cowra, Yass and Goulburn to the west and north, and Bateman’s Bay, Merimbula, Eden etc to the east. Looking more widely, Australia is surrounded by the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, the southern hemisphere, the world, the universe and beyond. . . . The question this exhibition asks then, is how might surrounding or being surrounded play out in ceramic objects?
Image: Gail Nichols, Mountain Mist, soda vapour glazed local metamorphosed shale, 14 x 40 x 20 cm, 2014
