Featured in the current exhibition at Bendigo Art Gallery, Collective Vision: 130 years, is a diverse and surprising array of portraits from the gallery’s own permanent collection.
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Spanning a timeframe of more than 300 years, the display includes a number of traditional works alongside images which challenge the preconceptions of what constitutes a portrait.
A highlight of the exhibition is an early work by acclaimed Australian artist Patricia Piccinini.
Born in in 1965, Piccinini’s practice encompasses sculpture, photography, video and drawing, and examines the boundary between the artificial and the natural.
Her surreal drawings, hybrid animals and vehicular creatures, question the way that contemporary technology and culture changes our understanding of what it means to be human and wonders at our relationships with – and responsibilities towards – that which we create.
In the gallery’s work Psychotourism, actor Sophie Lee poses in a digital landscape as the proud owner, mother, or older sibling of the LUMP™ (Lifeform with Unevolved Mutant Properties), a form designed to satisfy every desire for the perfect offspring, presenting a possible future to us.
Piccinini’s work is fundamentally about the human condition, despite the quasi-human appearance of her sculptures.
Another striking work on display is In-Sanitarium by Ilona Nelson. Purchased in memory of Wynne Baring by the Bendigo Art Gallery Foundation in 2016, this image is from a series titled thisplace; a collaborative project developed to explore the complexities and realities of motherhood.
Mothers anonymously sent the artist their thoughts and feelings about being a mother, and these personal testimonies informed the work.
Each subject posed in an everyday setting effaced by the detritus of child-rearing which renders the identity of the parent subordinate to the needs of the child.
In contrast are a selection of historical images that relate to Bendigo’s beginnings, such as portraits of the first commissioner on the goldfields, the first mayor of Sandhurst, and two portraits of Reverend Doctor Backhaus.
Also displayed is a collection of portraits of the Bendigo Liedertafel 1884–92.
An intriguing montage, it features members of this gold rush-era Bendigo men’s singing group - liedertafel being the popular name for any society or club that sings male harmony, often in the German language.
Little is known about the Bendigo Liedertafel. Of these 60 portraits, to date, only one has been identified.
For a range of artists’ talks and programs please go to www.bendigoartgallery.com.au.
And for all local artists interested in showing their work at the Bendigo Art Gallery as part of the Going Solo program, applications will close 4pm, this Friday, March 17.