Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, 'A key to help make your own world visible'

Inspired by Hermann Hesse’s classic novel Der Steppenwolf Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison present a new collection of artist books, fine lithographic offset prints and other works on paper.

In Der Steppenwolf the ‘Magic Theatre’ is a hallucinatory, parallel world controlled by saxophone player, Pablo: “I can throw open to you no picture-gallery but your own soul,” he tells the suffering protagonist Harry, “All I can give you is the opportunity, the impulse, the key. I help you to make your own world visible. That is all.” Taking its cue from Hesse’s surrealistic landscape, A Key to Help Make Your Own World Visible presents a series of hidden interior topographies; worlds existing somewhere between the pain and beauty of things past.

Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison have worked collaboratively for the past ten years, chiefly using paper as their medium. From carefully constructed limited edition artists’ books to works on paper, they record, deconstruct and rebuild miniature worlds. Graduates of RMIT, they have exhibited together both locally and abroad. They were awarded the Australia Council for the Arts, New Work for Emerging Artists grant in 2000, and the Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists in 2002, and their work is represented in the collections of Artspace Mackay; Bibliotheca Librorum Apud Artificem; Ergas Collection; Melbourne, Monash, RMIT and Charles Sturt Universities; UWE Bristol; the State Libraries of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland; Print Council of Australia; Latrobe Regional Gallery, Burnie Regional Gallery and Warrnambool Art Gallery and various private collections.

Postcard collages

Installation view

Gracia and Louise's exhibition in Gallery 2 was on from 23 October to 28 November. During this time, they also CLOG's esteemed guest bloggers (thank you ladies!). To view their posts, click here.

Don't forget to also check out their beautiful website + respective blogs (click here for Gracia's, and here for Louise's). It's a comprehensive collection of their work, publications and interviews.

To view more images from their recent exhibition, click here.

Photography by Richard Brockett