The Ipswich House: Heritage house portraits by contemporary Queensland artists: 11 Sep 2010 - 14 Nov 2010

The Ipswich House: Heritage house portraits by contemporary Queensland artists, Curator Michael Beckmann, Ipswich Art Gallery, QLD, Australia

A picturesque and illuminating foray into the history and vision of Queensland’s early domestic architecture as seen through the eyes of 13 contemporary Queensland artists, "The Ipswich House" examines the city’s significant architectural heritage through a selection of commissioned ‘house portraits’ across a diverse range of mediums.

 These house portraits are more than mere pictorial representations of the city’s heritage-listed buildings, instead offering explorations into the architectural design, construction and fabrication methods while also exposing more than a hint of the personal histories and memories of their former residents.

This exhibition opens on September 11 Sep 2010 - 14 Nov 2010

Noel McKenna | Jane Burton | Barbara Heath | Michael Zavros | Richard Stringer | Maureen Hansen | Mel Robson | Carl Warner | Annie Hogan | Christina Waterson | Madeleine Kelly | Bruce Buchanan | Judy Barrass

    

The four images above are from the "Seen and Not Heard" series. They were commissioned specifically for this exhibition. I have a small statement about these images from this series:

Seen and not heard plays homage to a child’s perspective. Shot from the head height of a child, the world seems oddly skewed with looming doorways, deep long passages, tall ceilings and the familiarity of close flooring. The ambiguous nature of these spaces parallels childlike states that may hover between keen anticipation to trembling fear of who may enter or exit these transitional spaces. This process of re-contextualization speaks to how we may weave together memories of such places and participate in a shared experience of being. Both visually alluring and repelling Seen and not heard straddles the binary of confidence/uncertainty and real/imagined through a palette of earthy hues that become more ethereal from the ground upward.

Annie Hogan

Update on Monday, October 11, 2010 at 4:48PM by Annie

The catalogue for this exhibition came today in the mail from Australia!

Here is the front and it has wonderful essays in it from some of Australia's leading arts writers. Thanks Michael Beckmann for including me in the show and for the wonderful essay!