We warmly invite you to the opening of two new exhibitions from students of the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University on Thursday, 9th May from 5.30pm.
There will be a free food trucks, live music and a jewellery stall from the J&SO Collective!
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Grey Street Gallery: Emily Parker
This exhibition results from experience linked to matter, fragments of an endless work. The materials that will identify the geological age termed the Anthropocene are the substances of Parker's art practice. Processed organic matter indexically marked by that vast pollutant - plastic. The making process leaves Parker's work open to unstable, unexpected, and irregular results that enable an investigation of these materials, capturing their hidden forces and relationship with the world. The nomenclature of the Anthropocene points toward the past and a future that is yet to come. It's a delicate yet poignant balance Parker plays, drawing meaning from the meaningless and beauty from waste.
Webb Gallery: John Forno
Chronologically the Dark Rituals/ Weightless (2022) explores both my time living on small islands in Southern Moreton Bay as a child, events leading up to 2019 where I stood on the precipice of death and my subsequent rise above the trauma. Drawing on uncomfortable memories of childhood and trauma from recent events, the installation references both youthful naivety and a sinister past. The memories form a bridge between what I choose to bury emotionally and my current mental health. They drive an ongoing inquiry into how "play' affects my self-esteem, both then, and now and how we view nostalgia from a psychological perspective. My work, in that sense functions as catharsis, allowing me to finally "play' while shedding a spotlight onto objects and iconography of trauma.