Ruth Maddison, An Abundance of Caution, 2024. Repurposed cotton doily oversewn with embroidery thread. Image courtesy of and copyright the Artist.
22 April 2024
Bega Valley Shire Mayor, Russell Fitzpatrick will officially launch two exciting new exhibitions at SECCA (South East Centre for Contemporary Art) at 12noon on Saturday 27 April.
Council’s Acting Manager, Community and Cultural Services, Yvette Parker said independent curator, Deborah Ely will join the Mayor to celebrate the opening of artist Ruth Maddison’s exhibition, An abundance of caution 2024 in SECCA’s Chambers Gallery.
“Ruth Maddison lives in Eden and is one of Australia’s foremost photographers. For more than 45 years she has been exploring ideas surrounding relationships, working lives and communities through portraiture and social documentary photography.
“An abundance of caution 2024 features Op Shop doilies, which traditionally carry a history of households, women’s work and working from home.
“In this body of work, Maddison repurposed the doilies with embroidered Corona virus-related expressions, creating a social documentary that highlights a particular history when the connotations of ‘working from home’ shifted all over the world.
“The exhibition is a conduit to narratives in her personal history, linking to memories of her maternal bubbeh (grandmother) who arrived in Australia from Odessa and ‘made her mark’ on immigration papers, and of the crocheted lace tablecloth she brought with her, which is part of the exhibition.”
Ms Parker said the Saturday event will also launch Western Australian artist Bruno Booth’s exhibition, Body Shots in SECCA’s Gallery One.
“Body Shots is a nine-channel video installation with nine-minute videos playing on a loop,” Ms Parker said. “It will be the first time this work has been shown on the east coast of Australia.
“The videos show candid views of the disabled body juxtaposed with familiar landscapes and scenes to address traditional views of the ‘disabled body’ and acknowledge the beauty created by such unique forms.
“The number nine is a reference to the 9% of visual artists who identify as disabled. It is used throughout the exhibition to draw attention to this statistic and asks the question of why is it that disabled people are under-represented in contemporary practice.”
Both exhibitions have free entry.
SECCA is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm and Saturdays 10am to 2pm. The gallery is closed Sundays and Public Holidays.
