The Young Curators Development Program offers learning and mentoring opportunities to young people in Boroondara. This series of free learning modules and mentoring by Town Hall Gallery curators helps develop curatorial knowledge and skills for young people interested in the gallery and museum sector.
Alongside modules in Collection Management, Exhibition Design and Display, and Marketing for the Visual Arts, the 2023 participants recently completed an introduction to Working with Artists and Art Writing. They gleaned insights into the industry from guest speaker Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen, a writer, journalist and critic who writes about arts and culture.
Participants were encouraged to develop their own reviews or creative texts in response to the artworks and artists featured in major exhibition ‘Light Sensitive’. Each writer took a different approach, some using the essay format and others who preferred poetry.
Step into the light
By Benjamin Chesler
When you walk into an art gallery, you may not think of looking up at the lights. Even if you tried, you may struggle to find them. These appliances are usually concealed, quietly turning their beam – and our attention – towards whatever artworks are on display. However, a new exhibition at the Town Hall Gallery reconsiders the importance and artistry of light. Through the works of six artists, ‘Light Sensitive’ redirects our gaze, inviting us to step into the light.
The exhibition features a sweeping range of works that play with both the medium of light and audiences’ perceptions. You may find yourself inexplicably drawn towards the warmth of a neon tube or the rainbow refractions of a clear prism. I took a double-take when I first encountered Sanja Pahoki’s multimedia ‘A message from the future’. The piece simultaneously explores perception, life, eye health, and more amidst humorous clips of her parents playing time-travelling aliens.
Other works may leave you scratching your head. One spin on a classic optical illusion is Taree Mackenzie’s hypnotic ‘Pepper’s ghost, triangles, cyan and red’. With little more than a mobile, lights, and a clear pane, the artist creates illusionary shapes that melt into and out of existence.
Leslie Eastman’s installation may also leave you befuddled as he combines colours to form unexpected combinations. Attempting to understand how these pieces work, or even what is real, is similar to picking apart a magic trick. Like magic, I suspect we also don’t really want to know the answer.
If you find yourself curious to experience these works in person, stop by ‘Light Sensitive’ you may find the experience illuminating.
Response to Jazz Money’s ‘dissolve your edges’
By Jas Shalimar
At first glance Jazz Money’s work is a series of blank pages, but as you move your body through the space and shadows fall a string of elusive words appear.
Their delicate presentation asks gently for your attention.
These provocations of sorts conjure a feeling akin to a thought passing through your body or sand falling through an hourglass. Her work is light, or weightless and porous.
‘Light Sensitive’ was on display at Town Hall Gallery from 26 April until 15 July 2023, and can be viewed as an online exhibition.
