Star/Dust
Lucy Beach, Brigita Ozolins, & James Newitt
Star/Dust was a year-long series of contemporary art experiences presented at Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery with the support of Detached Cultural Organisation. It coincided with Children’s Book Week and the City of Hobart Art Prize.
The series included:
Volcano Lover by Lucy Beach was a multimedia installation that investigated the communities who live around volcanic sites: The Nut in Stanley, an extinct volcanic plug in North West Tasmania; Mt Wellington, an igneous intrusion that looms over Hobart; and Mount Yasur Volcano, Tanna Island, Vanuatu, one of the world’s most active volcanoes.
Volcanoes are the perfect combination of art and science. Artist Lucy Bleach captured the drama of volcanoes through an eruption of colour, light and sound, including recordings from Mount Yasur. This exhibition prompted audiences to consider how volcanoes affect the communities that coexist with them.
Volcano Lover was part of Star/Dust, a year-long series of contemporary art experiences presented with the support of Detached Cultural Organisation. It coincided with Children’s Book Week and the City of Hobart Art Prize.
Dates: March 18 - July 1, 2011
Location: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
The Reading Room by Brigita Ozolin, was an immersive, interactive environment concerned with the imaginative world of books and reading. The gallery walls were painted red and lined with approximately 30,000 books. There were comfortable chairs and couches where visitors could sit back and listen to over 100 people, from all walks of life in Tasmania, reading a passage from one of their favourite books. Visitors could also pick up a book and start reading silently. On the walls of the room, hovering above the thousands of books, was an ancient, Hermetic phrase spelled out with convex mirrors. It read: ‘AS IT IS BELOW, SO IT IS ABOVE’
Dates: July 23 - October 16, 2011
Location: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
To Catch a Tiger by James Newitt explored the space between memory and history, fact and fiction, desire and loss.
The Thylacine (the extinct ‘Tasmanian Tiger’) is presented in this exhibition as a point of connection between broader issues related to political and environmental subjects such as conservation, forestry and scientific ‘truth’.
The exhibition brings together interviews with several Thylacine experts and enthusiasts. Their conversations and opinions about the Thylacine and its significance to Tasmanian culture are both compelling and arresting. At times the recorded conversations exist in stark contrast to each other – creating points of confusion and contradiction – while also being absolutely rational and informed by direct personal experience and in-depth research. A vast collection of images is presented alongside these interviews. Historic material is combined with the artist’s own imagery – history, artifice, fantasy and the vastness of the Tasmanian landscape creates a web of references for the viewer to decipher and interpret.
Dates: November 5th, 2011 - March 25th, 2012
Location: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
