“Sometimes things can be two different things at once.”
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Tomorrow, November 25, is the last day of ‘A Gathering’, a collection-based exhibition at La Trobe Art Institute that considers and presents new ways of seeing.
‘A Gathering’ implies an assembly of individual works is both many pieces and one entity. ‘A Gathering’ is also an acknowledgment that choice, selection, and positioning are important factors in bringing together an exhibition and aims to illuminate this aspect of exhibition making. LAI staff have worked collaboratively to select artwork and design the hang, reinforcing notions of gathered process as well as gathered materials.
Assembling an exhibition in this way challenges art-historical modes of presentation that traditionally position works of art in time and place.
‘A Gathering’ stretches forwards and backwards in time, across geographical and cultural boundaries, weaving stories through different forms, styles and subject matter.
In the smaller gallery, Lin Onus’ screenprint ‘Dislocation – Yellow’ is positioned alongside Norman Lindsay’s photograph ‘Rose Soady, The Water Nymph’. This curious pairing extends beyond a formal relationship and questions the gaze of the viewer and that of the artist. This positioning unravels the received reading of each work and instead invites a consideration of the space in between. In this moment, the viewer is aware of their own gaze and the narratives they bring to works of art.
‘A Gathering’ closes this Saturday, November 25 at La Trobe Art Institute, 121 View Street, Bendigo.
Travis Hodgson, La Trobe Art Institute