Artist Lucy Bleach
This month at 15 sites across the Mornington Peninsula, hidden histories and unexamined stories will be revealed by 18 Peninsula and national artists as part of the Front Beach Back Beach exhibition.
Presented by Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery and Deakin University’s Public Art Commission, FBBB is part road trip, part curatorial experiment and part exploration of how contemporary art in public spaces can offer new and unique understandings of people, locale and time. In creating their work, the artists have engaged with the community in multiple ways, including through their research, co-production, participation and performance.
Vera Möller studio.
Flinders-based artist Vera Möller has created a captivating work titled Submarine Gardens at Flinders Pier. Through her artwork, Vera draws attention to the threatened habitat of the weedy seadragon and the intricate and colourful underwater world of sea sponges and sea grasses that exists beneath the pier. “I usually work on site-specific installations, usually indoors, so I haven’t done something like this before,” she says. “The curatorial team were really important to help me to see how I could activate the entire site.”
Vera commissioned underwater photographer Myra Kelly and her dive partner Paolo Bottari to take photographs of the world beneath the pier. The photographs are incorporated into an explanatory banner accompanying the artwork. “The idea of my project is to make this invisible, very rich part of the pier visible to an audience that would normally not see it. The purpose of what I do is to encourage other people to be interested in this region, the incredible complexity and beauty of those spaces they might not know about. One of the great joys for me is to connect with others who have a great love for this region and want to help protect it and have a new generation of kids learn about it so they too can experience it.”
Eleven kilometres away, just above Shoreham Beach, you’ll discover On This Shore, a sculptural work by Hobart-based artist Lucy Bleach, top centre. There are several elements to Lucy’s artwork that reflect her exploration of notions about public versus private land, native and introduced plant species, and erosion processes and formations. Erosion may be ecological or in the form of buildings such as the rammed earth chicory kilns, above right, that remain from when there was a chicory industry on the Peninsula decades ago. “Getting to know the geographies of the Peninsula, finding something to respond to which was the chicory industry, and looking at the things in a slow state of flux all felt really interesting to me,” Lucy says.
There are different elements to Lucy’s artwork, including rammed earth, chicory and ice. The elements have different timescales and may be in a process of collapse or disintegration or transition of form throughout the exhibition. “As a complete outsider and new to the Peninsula because of this project, it’s been great to meet with a range of people who are ecologists and people from the foreshore committee and the owners of the property next door to the site. Everyone was willing and open to engage in the project.”
Artist talks will be held on Saturday, November 5, from 5-6pm with Lucy Bleach and curator David Cross at The Pines at Shoreham, and on Sunday, November 6, from 11-11.45am at Flinders Pier with Vera Möller, Myra Kelly and Paola Bottari. Register for free tickets by searching the artists’ names at www.eventbrite.com.au
FBBB runs from November 4-27. Find the complete program at www.fbbb.com.au
Chicory kiln.
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