Sheep Shapes
Newcastle Herald
Saturday March 5, 2005
Julie Squires, Pauline Jollow Fine Art Gallery
University of Newcastle Until tomorrow Wearable Art Tighes Hill Gallery Until March 13 Alternative Endings, 2004 Graduands Watt Space Until March 13 Grass Challenge plus Red Field contemporary art space Until March 13 Hannah Bertram, Niomi Sands Rocketart Until March 13 Wendy Batiste, Ron Royes, Mark Costello John Paynter Gallery Until March 13 AMAZINGLY, Julie Squires is a sculptor who has lived from public and private commissions since her student days in Newcastle 10 years ago. Her life-size bronze human figures have been deservedly celebrated. The Destiny figurehead on Dyke Point, completed for the Newcastle Port Corporation in 1999, is now a familiar part of the Newcastle cityscape. Many earlier works are on view at the Constable and Hershon vineyard at Pokolbin. I always wondered where the fallen angel finally came to rest. The exhibition at the University of Newcastle as part of her Masters degree documents this career in public sculpture and brings us works commissioned since she moved to Melbourne. These include five bronze sheep made for an outer suburban school in what recently were paddocks and the intermediate stage of a large portrait sculpture of the great rhapsodic cellist Jacqueline du Pre{aac}, surreally grappling with an as yet invisible instrument. A rather different work was selected for a prestigious prize exhibition at Victoria's McClelland Gallery. It makes poignant reference to the plight of the world's displaced peoples, with many forms of well-loved cast-bronze footwear impaled on a prison-like fence. Sharing the university gallery are the atmospheric paintings of Pauline Jollow, in which layers of colour echo the evolutionary procession of the natural world. DOZENS of artists have contributed wearable art for the exhibition at the Tighes Hill Gallery. While some pieces seem more wearable than others, this no doubt is a matter of taste, or even nerve. Anna Scobie's hand-felted wraps and scarves are in a spectrum of luscious colours. Sandra Shaw's operatic garments in devore{aac} silk velvets have an Edwardian luxury. Laraine Palmer recycles furnishing fabrics into a sumptuous coat. Robyn Stanton Werkhoven creates an erotic kimono. And of course also represented are Newcastle's celebrated Foong sisters who recently won a Mercedes Start-up Fashion Award. Hats come from Diane Scorse, jewellery from Sue Mudge and Pearl Moon, with little pig paintings by Judith Whittet also finding a place among the garments, bags and cushions. This show should be repeated every year. ANNA Scobie, together with Romona Smith, was the organising talent behind the showing at Watt Space by last year's graduating third year students from the university's art school. While there are fine works such as Judith Thomas Meulman's fiery paintings and Sandra Lee Brown's inventively prickly sculpture, much of the work seems to share in the university's recent general lack of resources and direction, with students left to follow individual interests, sometimes to the point of self-indulgence. However, images from the driver's seat by Garrick Muntz, Erin Garman's unnerving dolls and Angela Armstrong's debutantes show that photomedia are alive and well. Anna Scobie's carved wooden fish are always a pleasure. So are her flannelette visions of Venice. Many of these artists may well join the postgraduate program. Perhaps this explains why accomplished graduates such as Nora Moelle and Gareth Graham are so frugally represented here. ANNA Scobie is also one of the artists who responded to the grass challenge at Field, utilising squares of artificial turf in their works in various media. The most spectacular example is the surging green wave of Philippe Ribbons, though Diana Robson's urban jungles have an unsettling irony. Shellie Smith goes beyond Astroturf in using real sprouting grass seed. Her window installation will be worth watching. Red was a slightly less fruitful subject. NIOMI Sands transfers her scissor skills from a cut-out whipper-snipper to a patchwork of plastic fabrics. She is collaborating with Melbourne artist Hannah Bertram in the latest residency project at Rocketart, funded by the Australia Council. They plan to fill the gallery with a giant quilt, echoing the sewing-bees of colonial society. The work, when finished in a fortnight may well be very handsome.AT John Paynter Gallery is a disparate trio of exhibitors. Wendy Batiste makes skilful portrait drawings, particularly sensitive to the fragility of youth. Ron Royes has bright paintings with an overt nudge, nudge message. Mark Costello's paintings conceal riches in layers of pale scumbling.
© 2005 Newcastle Herald
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