For those unable to celebrate the opening of our current exhibition of new paintings by Helen S. Tiernan in person, the videos of Helen’s talk and opening remarks by Rosemary Forde, Visual Arts and Cultural Development Officer, Bass Coast Shire Council, are now available on our website.
Click here to watch Rosemary’s official opening.
“Helen’s work is offering us so much – of history, of literature, of sheer visual mastery; it is ourselves, our story, our land, sea, and sky, reflected back to us in many complicated and nuanced ways.”
We were delighted that Helen also spoke about her painting and the directions it has taken over the past year she has been working on these series of artworks. Click here to watch the artist video.
Helen talks about her large ‘fantasy realism works – Land, Sea and Sky, as well as her abstract series and the new paintings depicting whales in the deep. Whilst she acknowledges each viewr brings their own thoughts to her work, it is illuminating to hear her speak of the layers of meaning and inspiration.
“Land – You also see Alice in Wonderland and the White Rabbit – what you are seeing there is my satire. Because a lot of my earlier colonial work is about navigation, and discoveries and looking for the Great South Land and this is Alice in Wonderland looking into this and saying “Oh, what have we done; what’s going on here”. So I’m making a comment on the environment that we are living in at the moment. … and that’s the cleared land, the introduced and native species, I’ve got the square cow and the thylacine… The abstract components at the far end, I’m talking about the built environment.”
Visit the Gallery to view the exhibition and visit our website to preview the paintings and download the illustrated catalogue. Gallery hours: Tues – Fri 10am – 6pm.
The Gallery will close on Friday 19 December and reopen after the summer closure on February 4 February. Emails will be monitored intermittently during this time.
