Sunday, 15 November 2009

In the words of another

All memory of that night shone before fading. (2009)

On now in Gallery 2 of Craft Victoria is a collaboration between artists Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison that presents a wunderkammer of paintings, prints, collage, postcards and artist books.

A show that centres on themes of nostalgia, love and introspection, the title comes from words in Hermann Hesse’s 1927 novel Der Steppenwolf and the artists have created artefacts based on the story’s sense of longing and displacement. The result is an alternate universe of fantastic curiosities, of pain and dreams made flesh.

The ideas come together most successfully in the lithographs which take the best elements of the collages and watercolours and reflects most succinctly the theory behind the show. The combined skill of the artists and the quality of the work is capable of supporting the narrative concept, which after reading the exhibition statement would have been no easy feat.

A Key to Help Make Your Own World visible is a superb and intriguing exhibition that works well within the gallery space.


A Key to Help Make Your Own World Visible
Emma Kirsopp, The Melbourne Art Review

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