Sidespace Gallery Salamanca Arts Centre
Level 1/77 Salamanca Place, Hobart, TAS.
Dates & Times Exhibition is open to the public:
14th to 18th April 2016
Hours; Thurs / Fri 10am-7pm Sat – Mon 10am – 5.30 pm.
[Date & Time of Official Opening:
Thursday 14th April 5.30 – 7.30 pm.]
Short Description
Local Huon Valley artist Henrietta Manning’s current exhibition ’Nesting Series’ is not your usual nest exhibition! Manning’s first Tasmanian exhibition, explores the transience of life and the commercialization of our homes. With more than 50 nests painted from life many have been combined with collaged panels juxtaposing painted specific bird nests with collaged material such as wallpapers, newspapers, old photos and real estate text. Exhibiting since 1985 Manning is an established artist and a finalist in many art prizes including The Wynne1994/1996.
Full Description:
A contemporary realist Manning works predominately from life in acrylic on board. ’Nesting Series ’is her first solo in Tasmania since moving here in 2009.
The series developed while renovating her Tasmanian home and studio. Adjusting to the new surroundings she observed the wildlife, in particular the birds.
‘The words ‘nesting’ ‘feather your nest’ ‘empty nesters’ ‘nest egg’ took on new meaning as I watched the ingenuity of the different birds nest building skills. All strong, warm and safe, perfectly adapted to surroundings and materials available, yet so transient and vulnerable once left behind. I saw a parallel between these ’homes’ and the ones I and other people were making. Our homes are also only transient and will eventually, like ourselves, disappear.’
Fascinated by the layering of wallpaper/newspaper and hessian found in old houses as successive generations make their mark and are then covered over by the next, the artist combined these with old photographs and real estate related text to form small abstract collages. These were then juxtaposed with the nest paintings. The beauty and individuality of the nests stand out from a distance, but close up, reading the text, the viewer is made to consider the world of real estate and finance.
Manning looks at how homes are presented and sold to us through real estate agencies. Buying and selling ‘homes’ is big business. Packaged not to meet actual needs but as a way of living, an opportunity, ‘lifestyle’, choice impacting our quality of life and inexorably linked to a sense of social status and our financial security for the future.
What is really important about the homes we seek ? What damage is our ever larger footprint doing to the ‘homes’ of other creatures?
Manning is currently working in the southern midlands as part of the Oatlands Gaol Artist in Residence Program. A retrospective of her work will be held next month, 27th May – 11th June at MAC [Moonah Arts Centre].
Henrietta Manning
