21 FEBRUARY - 15 MARCH 2015

AN ACCESS GALLERY EXHIBITION

BETHANY WHEELER

IMPRINT, PLACE & MEMORY

bayside.vic.gov.au/thegalleryatbacc facebook.com/thegalleryatbacc

THE POETICS OF BELONGING

The poetics of belonging to a place is that you belong to it and it belongs to you.Frequented from an early age it makes an impression on you, forming you into the person that you are in the process of becoming. Places leave an ever-fixed mark on the psyche, greater than any point on a map. They live on within the mind being able to be recalled in later years as a place of refuge for inner peace, inspiration and creativity. There are invisible ties that bind us to where we are born that form an evolving dialogue between where we begin and where we find ourselves at any point in our lives. We go back to visit who we were, who we are and who we are becoming. There are some places that in return remember us, whether it’s from how we have changed the landscape or what we have left behind. In Imprint, Place & Memory we are privileged to be the cultural benefactors of artist Bethany Wheeler’s relationship to the Red Bluff cliffs in Black Rock, Victoria.

The works presented in this exhibition have been a lifetime in the making, the entire lifetime of the artist. Complex and multilayered, they make the threads of a rich tapestry visible that tie this artist to the place of her beginning.

My first memory of this place is being a little kid and my dad taking me and my brother to the beach at the end of our street. Under the monolithic structure of the cliffs he told us stories about it being a place of pirates and treasure. The place took on a sense of magnetic and surreal wonder.

Bethany WHEELER, Binds, 2015, slip cast porcelain, found and altered glass bottles and found lens blanks, 8 x 8 x 3.5 cm each. Image courtesy of the artist.

Bethany Wheeler, 2015

Strata, one of the first works created for this body of work, masterfully presents a composition of the landscape that can only be comprised from visiting the site. Wheeler has described the journey and experience of walking the cliffs for us. By taking progressive photographs, then layering the images one on top of the other under lens-like domes. The images reference Australian 3D postcards from the 1950s. In Strata we are given a sense of the compositional depth of the space and the complexity of the landscape that would otherwise only be available to those who have experienced the place.

Returning to the site of her childhood and teenage years as an established artist, Wheeler’s first response was to collect organic material and abrasives to see how they would interact with the glass she works within her practice every day. The glass captured traces of the landscape in the same way that a photograph captures light particles on a photographic plate.

There is a playful sense of exploring the traces left behind and the ties that bind us to a place in the multilayered work Binds. Wheeler has used a collection of beer bottles to present beautifully fine slip cast knots. The beer bottles are similar to those found in the secluded coves amongst the cliffs where she partied as a teenager. The porcelain holds traces of the rope that has burnt away; we see only the porcelain remains as a skin. The knots work on the paradox that their use is to hold fast and secure; but this security is fragile in porcelain and that through fire, only traces remain in the landscape.

Within this impressive body of work it becomes clear that Wheeler has been drawing,photographing, mapping and making sense of the experience of the Red Bluff cliffs at Black Rock her entire life. Her highly innovative and insightful works enliven and enrich the history of Australian artists such as Streeton, Beckett and Boyd that were drawn back in by the mysterious Sandringham landscape time and time again. It is a privilege to see a place of such cultural significance through the eyes of one of Australia’s evocative new artists.

Jasmine Targett | 5th February 2015

Bethany WHEELER, Gatherer, 2015, fused and slumped glass with found objects, 16 x 16 x 10 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

Bethany WHEELER, Strata, 2015, fused and slumped glass with fired photographic decal and copper, 48 x 48 x 8 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

Opening hoursWednesday - Friday 11 - 5 pmSaturday & Sunday 1 - 5 pm

VenueThe Gallery @ Bayside Arts & Cultural Centre Brighton Town Hall Corner Carpenter & Wilson Streets Brighton (Melway 67 F10) Entrance on Wilson Street

EnquiriesPhone: (03) 9592 0291Email: bacc@bayside.vic.gov.au

Above:Bethany WHEELER, Vacating Plat, 2015, fused, slumped and engraved glass with fired photographic decal and copper, 15 x 46 x 46 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

Cover image:Bethany WHEELER, 13th March 2014, 2015, fused glass with fired photographic decal and oak, 12 x 12 x 2.5 cm each. Image courtesy of the artist.

This exhibition has been supported by The Australian Artists’ Grant, a NAVA initiative, made possible through the generous sponsorship of Mrs Janet Holmes à Court and the support of the Visual Arts Board, Australia Council for the Arts.