The theme of this year’s exhibition is ‘Sustainability’. Artists were invited to express their views about our complex relationship with our environment, and also to explore possibilities about the way forward. 

The guidelines and ideas for the exhibition emerged from an art and climate awareness presentation held earlier in the year by Lis Bastian and artist Rod McRae, both of whom have experience in the art-and-sustainability debate. 

With well over 100 artworks, the exhibition presents a kaleidoscope of responses. We are all in the process of figuring out how we relate to the political and environmental impacts of climate change so naturally artist’s responses will be varied. 

No matter what stance you take, it is a political issue. Some artists choose to be didactic with hard-hitting messages while others see sustainability in a more nuanced light, preferring to celebrate the beauty of the natural world in the hope that others will see it too and be inspired to act. 

There is an eclectic mix of bucolic gum tree paintings alongside more abstracted or expressive interpretations of the landscape, while others extend on traditional still life themes. 

A number of artists have made assemblage sculptures from found or recycled materials - in keeping with ideas of reducing the demand for new materials. 

Artists have always been pretty good at this sort of thing, because they excel at making one thing mean something else. Picasso, for example was famous for his brilliant assemblages, such as a bull’s head made simply from a saddle with handlebars from an old rusty bicycle for the horns. This playful side of art was something we all knew as children before being ‘persuaded’ to see a stick as a stick rather than as a wand or a gun. 

One of the many standout works from the exhibition is Isabelle Mathieu’s sculpture Thanatos.

She made this creature from assembled bones which she then painted with patterns extracted from various political symbols. The bones have been given a new life as an artwork. This new creature is like an apocalyptic apparition or harbinger, representing the artist’s sense of “feeling helpless and not being able to change anything.” 

This is a powerful expression of the exasperation many people feel at cynical political processes that lead us into dead ends, while larger slow-motion disasters are unfolding.    

We’ll be featuring various pieces from the show on our Facebook page as the show goes on so be sure to ‘like’ us if you don’t already. The works are for sale. 

Don’t miss this show. Apart from supporting our local artists, it will give you a new perspective on all those bits and pieces lurking in the old shed and also get you thinking about how art is going to play an increasingly important role in helping us make sense of a brave new world.