Currently showing at Wagga Wagga: Forget me not, featuring the work of Kristin McFarlane and Brenda Page…
Wagga Wagga Art Gallery
Home of the National Art Glass Collection
Forget me not. Kristin McFarlane and Brenda Page
Exhibition Dates: Saturday 11 July – Sunday 11 October 2015
This exhibition presents a collection of glass time capsules incorporating family heirlooms and personal items to illustrate ways we attempt to remember and preserve the past. My body of work looks at ways that people have tried to hold onto memories through the collection of letters, mementos, clothing, photographs, botanical specimens and ephemera.
The thoughts and personal narratives evoked illustrate how lines from a letter, a faded photograph, piece of music or a fragment of fabric can trigger emotions and memories. When these are fused within glass the fragile qualities of the material allow these sentiments to be transformed into pieces which illustrate the delicate balance of life, relationships, memory, fragility and longing. The objects and images explore fragility, loss and transience through a collection of preserved and delicate items combined with glass and are not so much about remembrance rather than the act of not forgetting – ‘Forget Me Not’.
Kristin McFarlane
My current body of work explores mourning and loss. This is not confined to the topic of death but encompasses losses we experience over a lifetime. I see our lives as a series of compartmentalised stages, a series of short stories that entwine and overlap. As one of these tales closes another opens, giving us an opportunity to reflect and mourn what has past and what will never be again. I want my work to have an emotional honesty, most times seemingly ambiguous but with that undefinable something that speaks to the heart of anyone who cares to engage in the stories told. My imagery and visual style is heavily influenced by Victorian aesthetics associated with mourning and death. I have chosen to use such a visual style to explore my concepts as it has a universal clarity about its intentions. The use of glass underlines the narrative, speaking of fragility and simplicity.
Brenda Page
Get with the program, peeps – take a family drive.
[Thanks Mikey. n(Ed)]
glass central canberra 