Our wonderful artist of all things Canberra, Trevor Dickenson has an exhibition at The Front at Lyneham Shops aptly titled Fresh Canberra Classics. In this show featuring around fifty new creations Trevor has brought to life many widely known Canberra views with a new Dickensonian take. I love his work and it is all still there till Monday January 3. The website below takes you to the details.
3 September 2016 – 15 January 2017
This is an exhibition of otherness for me. Gardening is not my thing. However I have always had a sense of awe at well designed outdoor spaces. As a parallel to the historical exhibition next door the State Library of NSW has an exhibition of contemporary, beautifully designed and executed gardens.
Some of these gardens are small geometric and highly structured. Others are more rambling and follow more free form look. As I looked through the large format photographs and back lit screens I concluded that none of these gardens were low maintenance.
The gardens have a beauty in the way they combine landscape, buildings and plants of various kinds shapes sizes colours. While not into this I love the creativity and devotion people put into this type of activity.
Pics and web page below
http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/planting-dreams-grand-garden-designs
3 September 2016 – 15 January 2017
The State Library has huge resources when it mounts historical exhibitions. Planting Dreams: Shaping Australian Gardens takes a look at the practices that Europeans have developed in forming gardens in Australia over the last couple of centuries. True to form the State library has mined the archives and produced fabulous books, illustrations, photographs and objects of interests from a dominant field of social activity. I am not much of a gardener but have been surrounded by people who are wonderfully creative in the work they do in their gardens.
Hours can go by in an exhibition like this because the objects are always so well supported bu well written text on the walls and in the display cases. I have included below a selection of pictures but I am sure a complete recording of it would take over 1,000.
http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/planting-dreams-shaping-australian-gardens
In the Information Centre at the National Arboretum there is a gorgeous multi faceted exhibition that tells the story of the great project that is the National Arboretum.
The exhibition is mounted in a dozen large glass topped display tables and each interestingly shaped tables that are topically laid out with great photos, embedded objects and great information panels. The Arboretum is a project that is working on lots of levels. There are the trees. There is the idea of 100 Forests. There is cultural heritage. There is species conservation. There is international cooperation. The bushfire recovery is also part of it. The display takes all these elements and weaves them into an attractive and informative narrative.
Pics below but as it is all under highly reflective glass they do not do the displays justice.
The current exhibition at the National Arboretum is titled Celebrating a Living Collection. The panels allow you to see a photographic exhibition of the history and progress of the National Arboretum Canberra, as well as some of the plans and designs for the future. It is in the Village Centre 9am-4pm seven days a week. As a fan of the Arboretum from the beginning it was a marvelous wide ranging set of informative panels.
The exhibition illustrates the stories behind the design concept, forests, buildings, landscape and people. Ten panels of photographs focus on lots of aspects of the life at the Arboretum. Below are a selection of pictures taken from the panels.
Friday 6 November – Sunday 29 November 2015
For Canberra lovers this is wonderful exhibition. It is simply an exploration of the thinking about the redevelopment of the public housing precinct on both sides of Northbourne Ave from Dickson into Haig Park. The designers take visitors through the history of the precinct through to the options for recreation of a truly vibrant community. The sketches and design panels are developed to show some delightful options.
The plans are too detailed for me to put up on this site but I have included some of the give away picture cards of the current location.
http://gad.org.au/exhibition/front-door/
21 Oct – 15 Nov 2015
I Teach year 7 and the students are looking at ways to improve the livability of their suburbs. Today I saw an exhibition at the Belconnen Arts Centre of landscape design students from the University of Canberra. The UC students produced three panel mock ups of solutions of a feature to make communities better. It was inspiring to me just to absorb the wide range of considerations that were woven into their designs so I will use their approach in teaching the students on Monday.
Their projects included some park solutions at Marulan, a park facility at Mulligans flat, a landscape response to embed the Islamic centre into the southern suburb of Monash and an art/ sculpture park at Queanbeyan. Each project was addressed by two students with different emphasis and all of them wove wider considerations into their project. The panels were huge so it is hard to put them with this post but I will include some detail shots I liked.
http://belconnenartscentre.com.au/exhibitions/transpire.html
This was a beautiful exhibition embedded in a love for nature in look and materials. I am glad that part of it was behind glass because its exciting texture look made me want to touch most bits.
Each of the little squares in some of the work below have different surfaces and composition in a delightfully varied way.
http://www.formstudioandgallery.com.au/Current_Exhibition.html
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-life/capital-life-jane-and-amy-dunns-joint-show-form-in-queanbeyan-opens-20150609-ghjvch.html
The Gallery of Australian Design occupies a distinctive place in the Canberra exhibition spaces. The display the work done by the great Australian design community and the curators include a complex range of contributors.
The current show is titled Site Seeing which celebrates 10 years of landscape architecture. The focus is on public landscape rather than private domestic projects. The exhibition consists of large digital pictures accompanied by some designer plans and a QR code to access more information. I would have preferred some more explanatory text on the wall about the context of the project. The photos are marvelous and it was good to catch up with this gallery which has standard office hours so I only get there during school holidays.
GAD link
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