The Ballan District Artists Collective and The Ballan Arts Space have collaborated on a dual exhibition featuring a variety of artwork by local artists.
A member of the management committee and president of Wombat Regional Arts Network Inc, Miranda Williamson said the artists involved in the exhibition had unique styles and perspectives.
“Our theme was techno or organic and hide and seek. Most people have gone with the theme and it’s a very difficult theme, it turns out,” she said.
“When I read the theme of techno organic, I wouldn’t have considered some of the things that some of the artists have come up with, especially because it’s a techno portion of it. But just seeing how people interpret the theme has been interesting for myself.”
The exhibition provided a platform for artists to show their works in public.
“A lot of our artists, when they’ve joined the collective, haven’t been the sort of artists that showed their work before. So, we’ve ended up with a lot more people than we ever thought were artists in the area joining. The exhibition provides that opportunity for networking and skillsharing,” she said.
“Some of our artists have even got collectors of their work now that are local that come in and try to get their work. We’ve got a lot of sculptures at the moment in this exhibition and there were people that were really interested and there was a lot of discussion with people that came in. The artist has gotten a big commission out of it so the exhibition creates that opportunity and discussion.
“The whole gallery is a not-for-profit so that the community’s got somewhere to exhibit. We keep our prices low. We get grants to cover things so that we’re not relying on our artists to cover costs. We don’t discriminate, we let everybody that’s a member contribute to the exhibition. We got a huge variety because we don’t say no to the artwork.”
The exhibition ‘Techo and/or Organic and Hide & Seek’, is on show until November 3.
Locals and visitors are also encouraged to attend the Ballan’s Art Space’s Hide & Seek Festival on November 2 from 10am to 9:30pm.
Afraa Kori
