September 10, 2018
Kingaroy Regional Art Gallery’s latest exhibition has provided an unusual challenge for the 18 artists whose works make it up.
At last Thursday’s night’s official opening of “Shaking The Cage”, several of the artists whose works are on show spoke about how they’d tackled the exhibition’s theme.
Art being art, it was little surprise to discover each had taken a different approach.
Well-known print maker Carmel Nott told the opening night crowd her works were focussed on the Bunya Mountains rainforest and its thoughtful management against risks such as bushfires and logging.
They were designed to provoke people into considering the forest as an ancient, living ecosystem where things have grown and died in a cycle that stretches as far back as the dinosaurs.
Wooroolin artist Diana Bolton said the flooding of the Wooroolin Wetlands in 2013 – which had inundated her family’s vineyard and gardens – had definitely shaken her own cage and inspired her works in the show.
Artist Dot Rowland said she had the most fun making marks that shake a viewer’s cage, showing a brush she’d created to paint one of her pieces.
And potter Fay Stumm said she’d when she’d turned to Google to find a definition for shaking the cage, “saving the environment” was one of the answers it turned up, and this had inspired one of her pottery pieces.
All the artists in the new exhibition are members of the Jumping Ant Arts group.
Visitors will be able to enjoy the eclectic collection of works that includes acrylics and watercolours; ink, pastel, charcoal and collage pieces; ceramic and textile works; and items by printmakers, photographers and sculptors until early October.
The spread of works made mounting the exhibition a more difficult task than usual, and it was hung by photographer Max Walters.
Outgoing Kingaroy Arts Team president Jenny Gemmell said Max had done the job extremely well.
- Shaking the Cage will remain on display at the Kingaroy Regional Art Gallery in Haly Street, Kingaroy from 10:00am to 4:00pm Mondays to Fridays and 10:00am to 2:00pm weekends and public holidays until October 11. Admission to view it is free.
