10 September 2022 to 13 November 2022
Image: Lee Bethel Women hold up half the sky 2022 (detail); Matt Bromhead Screen 18 2022 (detail); Nicole Kelly Solastalgia 2022 (detail), photograph by Flore Vallery-Radot; Kerry Toomey Tent Days 2022, photograph by Silversalt Photography; Christine Druitt Preston Bouquet for Hazel 2022 (detail).
The cross-generational group of mid-career artists who grew up or live in southern Sydney have diverse practices which include painting, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, drawing, printmaking and paper cuts. Hazelhurst Arts Centre has a long history of supporting artists from the region and each artist has been commissioned to develop significant new bodies of work for these exhibitions which come at pivotal points in their careers.
Each artist has produced unique and personal works, yet common threads can be drawn across the five exhibitions. Each body of work has a relationship to the home and domestic life – Bethel and Toomey explore ideas of women’s domestic life and craft traditions, Druitt Preston delves into the history of Hazelhurst cottage and its owners, and Kelly examines the aftermath of the destruction of south coast residents’ homes from bushfires. While for Bromhead, his domestic duties around caring for his young family shapes his current studio practice, where works are developed in short bursts. The physical nature of each artist’s chosen medium – whether it be paper, fabric, paint or clay – also informs their works, which employ detailed, repeated and painstaking techniques such as cutting, layering, carving, moulding and stitching.
Lee Bethel: A way with words
Lee Bethel is interested in the materiality of paper and how it can be cut, pricked, folded or arranged to create an array of forms, shadows and complex patterns. Her works often explore the relationship between object, place and memory. Her new conceptual body of work examines women, feminism and the domestic environment using song lyrics, names and significant feminist quotes.
"Using words by women I create works that are aesthetically beautiful, female, pretty, domesticated and laboured, that on closer viewing reveal disturbing truths and unveil attitudes that haven’t changed since I was 14 years old."
Matt Bromhead: Screens
Matt Bromhead works across drawing and sculpture. His works combine elements of collage with intuitive mark-making and found items to create lyrical compositions and forms. His works in this exhibition begin as gestural ink marks on paper which is then torn and glued to create a series of semi translucent layers. These works are composed slowly, with each layer informing the next and showing the passing of time.
"The new works in ‘Screens’ are slowly built in layers of mulberry paper and rice glue. When done, I want them to present a final image whilst equally revealing the daily history of their construction."
Christine Druitt Preston: A Stilled Life
Christine Druitt Preston predominantly works with printmaking which is often combined with textiles and embroidery. She is interested in the patterns of the domestic – the familiar and the everyday. For this exhibition she presents an ambitious multifaceted installation which expands printmaking beyond its traditional limits. The works explore the original Hazelhurst cottage, its architecture, its history and the lives of original owners Ben and Hazel Broadhurst.
"A stilled life’ acknowledges the bequest made by Ben and Hazel Broadhurst of their home, Hazelhurst, to the community. Showing work drawing on the past domestic life of Hazelhurst, my home, and Hazelhurst today, the exhibition re-imagines the gallery space by domesticating it – transforming it into a Still Life."
Nicole Kelly: Solastalgia
Nicole Kelly’s vibrant paintings create a sense of place. Her landscapes, which are often painted plein air, capture the essence and mood of the Australian landscape, while her interior views document the domestic environment and its inhabitants. This new panoramic installation focuses on the aftermath of the 2019/2020 bushfires on the NSW south coast and features painting and ceramics. Audiences are invited to enter this immersive landscape and contemplate the current climate crisis and its consequences.
"‘Solastalgia’ is an immersive installation of painting and ceramics exploring the duality of climate grief and love for the land, to highlight the devastation of climate change and its threat to our land, wellbeing and planet."
Kerry Toomey: Threads of the detachables
Kerry Toomey is a Gamilaroi women who grew up in Pilliga, NSW. Toomey’s sculptures and works on paper are interwoven with text, patterns and culturally significant items such as kangaroo hide and emu feathers. The new series of wearable collars, each painstakingly embellished and embroidered, represents her relationships with important women in her life and their personal stories, while also reinforces a connection to Toomey’s own personal history and culture.
"I have created a variety of sculptural detachable collars that express my remembrances of the past, often inspired by a moment or a memory that has stayed with me for years. I have researched old photographs and talked to family members to create these collars. Each collar is pivotal in bringing the memory back."
View the exhibition catalogue below.
 | This exhibition was supported by Sutherland Shire Council and the NSW Government through Create NSW. |
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