Newsletter

Red Rock Regional Theatre and Gallery

Newsletter

Edition 8/17

http://www.redrockarts.com.au

520 Corangamite Lake Road,

Cororooke,Victoria.

Cover: Painting by David Menzies

September 2017 September 2017

2 IN THIS EDITION

Contents:

In This Edition 2

Art Gallery: ‘Ichi-go ichi-e’ 3

Art Gallery: coming up 4

Carolyn Theatre: Mystery in the Air 5

Carolyn Theatre: coming up 6

Focus on Film 7

Been and Seen 8

Let’s Chat: Victoria Howlett 9

Artist profile: Janne Kearney 10

Monthly events 11

Calendar of Events 12

Around the Community 13

As always, there are plenty of initiatives

Welcome to the Red Rock Regional Theatre and

Gallery’s September newsletter.

August has been a huge month in the gallery

with the exhibiting of the annual

Corangamarah Art Prize works. On page eight

this year’s prize winner, Victoria Howlett,

shares about her art practice. Janne Kearney,

who is profiled on page ten, was awarded the

small art prize and the people’s choice award

went to Robyn Mackay.

On Friday September 29th

at 7.30pm RRRTAG

together with Regional Arts Victoria will put on

a great show with Mystery in the Air. We’d

love to see you come along and support your

local theatre venue. For more information

about this show and future performances see

pages five and six. What’s Mystery in the Air all

about?

…this is the show that transports audiences

back to the style, the fashion and - let’s face it -

the sheer political incorrectness of the 1940s.

Of course, back in those days, such luxuries as

a proper cast and a sound effects department

were the norm, but in these economically

stringent times, it’s all down to just our boys -

costumes, sound effects, scene changes, music,

voices - they’ll do the lot. It’s a big ask, and

occasionally they might even succeed.

The People’s Choice Award and also the Colac Area Health 'Packers Prize' –

Robyn Mackay ‘The Ridge’ – intaglio, relief and embossed woodcut.

ART GALLERY 3

4 ART GALLERY NEWS

CAROLYN THEATRE: 5

6 CAROLYN THEATRE:

By Sandra Fiona Long, Presented by La

Mama Mobile, with project partner For the

Crowded House.

What is hoarding? Why can’t it just be

‘cleaned up’?

Genevieve Picot features alongside Sophia

Constantine in this new Australian work

about Hoarding.

Performed in the round to a physical

rhythm of telephone calls, bird calls, lawn

bowls and dance moves, within a

transforming interactive set by award

winning installation artists Joanne Mott, an

ageing mother resists her adult daughter

every step of the way towards an important

inspection. Birdcage Thursdays takes a

theatrically innovative and tragicomic look

at the issue of hoarding and some of the

complexities around communication across

services and the families of those who

hoard.

Sylvia Mary Middleton sailed from Scotland to Australia in 1946

with nothing more than her trunk, a wedding cake and three

bottles of malt whisky. She was to marry her Aussie Flyboy.

Written and performed by Christine Middleton and

accompanied by a violinist and Scottish piper, this production

is a tribute to Christine's mother and the thousands of other

women who travelled to Australia post WW11 to become War

Brides.

2.00pm Tuesday 14th November

Memoirs of a Scottish War Bride

7.30pm Saturday 14th October

Birdcage Thursdays

Hoarding is a serious mental health issue which

affects 1 in 20 households. According to the

Melbourne Fire Brigade, 24% of preventable fire

deaths occur in hoarded homes. Hoarding puts

sufferers and their families at risk of

homelessness, ill health, family breakdown,

isolation and suicide. An estimated 46% of people

who hoard live with someone else, including

children.

For this event, Phase One Intent, we welcome to the Carolyn Theatre

Revival House Project, an interdisciplinary artist's run initiative which

is interested in combining art-song with contemporary film. Louise

Keast soprano, Shikara Ringdahl mezzo-soprano and Mark Connors

piano, will perform two German song-cycles alongside a 'filmic

accompaniment' by artist Alex Hobba. The song-cycles, Gustav

Mahler's Kindertotenlieder and Unvergänglichkeit by Erich Wolfgang

Korngold, touch on themes of immortality and mortality, tragedy,

loss and release. The film that will be screened alongside the live

performance of the song-cycles, is the product of an artist's

residency in Stolzenhagen, Germany, that Revival House Project

undertook in February 2017.

7.30pm Thursday 26th October

Phase One Intent // A Reflection on Mortality

Red Rock Film Society

Spring Season 2017

September 20/21 The Red Violin

A perfect red-colored violin inspires passion,

making its way through three centuries over

several owners and countries, eventually

ending up at an auction where it may find a

new owner.

2h 10min. Drama, Music, Mystery.

April 1999 (UK)

October 18/19

Umrika

A small village in India

is invigorated when

one of their own

travels to America

(aka, UMRIKA) and

details his adventures

through letters home,

sparking community

debate and inspiring

hope....

1h 38min. Comedy,

Drama

2015 (France)

November 15/16

The Fencer

Fleeing from the

Russian secret police,

a young Estonian

fencer is forced to

return to his

homeland, where he

becomes a physical

education teacher at a

local school. The past

however catches up

and puts him in front

of a difficult choice.

PG 1h 39min Drama,

History, Sport

2016 (UK)

7 FOCUS ON FILM

Films

start at

7.30pm

Library

RED ROCK FILM SOCIETY

members have access to all

the movies we have screened

since July 2012. The DVD

library is housed at

Rhodes Veterinary Clinic,

74 Gellibrand St. Colac.

Members are asked to return

the borrowed DVD within a

week.

The library includes films

from the 2012 Season.

Titles include:

A Separation

The Kid With A Bike

Four Minutes

Hannah Arendt

The Babadook

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Cloudburst

The Angel’s Share

A Hijacking

In A Better World

8 BEEN AND SEEN: Corangamarah Art Prize

Peter Kilby, ‘You Yangs’

Victoria Howlett, ‘Picnic in the Hills, Still Life in Imaginary Landscape’

Janne Kearney (Small Art Prize winner) with Richard Riordan and Merle Hathaway (judge)

Marion Manifold, ‘Drowning Raby 1’ Robyn Emerson and Monique Pope ‘A Single Drop’

9 LET’S CHAT: Victoria Howlett

Victoria Howlett is this year’s winner of the

$7,500 Corangamarah Art Prize, a

prestigious yearly award in the Colac region.

Victoria, who has been painting for over fifty

years and currently works from her studio in

Marengo, has her work in many national and

international galleries. Victoria returned to

further study in painting in her early fifties

after achieving much success as a potter.

Your CV is very impressive, Victoria.

You’ve been prolific in the art world for

quite some time…?

I knew from when I was eighteen months old

that I would be an artist. I remember walking

around in my grandmother’s farm house

garden in Mona Vale and staring at the sweet

peas and the vast blue sky with clouds

scudding across it. I’ve written about this in

The Bluest of Blue for my PhD about women,

memoir and art.

Where and how was the winning piece

created?

Currently I work from a studio in Marengo,

near Apollo Bay. My studio looks out on the

Barham River valley. We had a holiday home

in Apollo Bay from the 1970s to 90s so I was

familiar with the area and I moved back a

few years ago as I knew it would be the ideal

place for my arts practice.

This piece, Picnic in the Hills/Still life in

imaginary landscape, took quite some time

to come together. I had returned to one of

my sketchbooks from the 1970s containing

still life with landscape works and decided to

reimagine this as a basis for my

Corangamarah 2017 entry. Working on this

and other pieces can contain periods where

everything flows beautifully and then it can

be followed by months of block. Eventually

this piece came together as you now see it.

As mentioned, your CV outlines an

accomplished list of further study and

exhibitions. Please share some highlights?

When I was straight out of matriculation, I

tried to enrol in art school in order to study

Industrial Design but at that time in the

1960s I was told “girls don’t do Industrial

Design” and I was redirected to study

pottery. This led me to a successful career as

a potter. Then in my early 50s I went back to

art school at the Victorian College of the Arts

and continued painting, something I had

always done. I have taught art in many

institutions to a wide range of students,

been in many mentoring roles and also led a

lot of women on creative trips to the

outback, including women writers, painters,

photographers etc. I would often return

home from my different teaching roles at

RMIT, the VCA, other positions and various

field trips, pumped with excitement at the

creative spark and engagement with

students. My teaching career has always

remained on a sessional basis in order to

protect my own arts practice.

For future information about Victoria

Howlett’s upcoming November exhibition

see Metropolis Gallery’s website:

http://www.metropolisgallery.com.au/artists

/victoria_howlett/index.htm

For visits to Victoria’s studio please contact:

howlettvictoria@gmail.com

Suzanne Frydman spoke to Victoria Howlet on 9th

August

ARTIST PROFILE: Janne Kearney 10

RRRTAG is very privileged to have

exhibited the work of Janne Kearney in

both 2016 and 2017 for the

Corangamarah Art Prize. Janne Kearney’s

work has been chosen for the Small Art

Prize two years in a row – in 2017 for

‘Love’ and 2016 for her work titled

‘Don’t’.

Janne Kearney is a Geelong-based artist

who came to art later in life when she

started painting at the age of forty three.

Since then Janne has mastered the

photorealistic portrait form and her

recent work ‘86’ has been chosen as one

of only 53 finalists from over 2,500

entries from 90 countries for the BP

Portrait Award’s 2017 exhibition at the

National Portrait Gallery in London. The

National Portrait award has been running

for 38 years and this year runs at the

National Portrait Gallery from June 22-

September, 2017.

Janne’s 2017 Corangamarah art prize

piece titled ‘Love’ recently sold to a lucky

member of the public. Janne’s portraits

combine and present her passion and

dedication to presenting thought-

provoking and emotionally powerful

subject matter and viewers who have

passed through RRRTAG have been drawn

to these works and much discussion and

pleasure has been generated. Thank you

to Janne Kearney!

For more information about Janne’s art

practice see:

http://www.jannekearney.com.au/

Love, 2017

Run, 2017 Don’t, 2016

11 Other events at RRRTAG

Saturday

9th

September

Wednesday

27th

September

CALENDAR OF EVENTS 12

13 AROUND THE COMMUNITY

WINDOWSPACE BEEAC

September 2017

Lunette Lights, (2016)

Lunette Lights, (2016), is a series of five

photographic images that acknowledge

the substance and profile of the

landforms along Main Street Beeac. The

lunettes, or ancient sand dunes, are

understood to have formed over the

millennia as grit from the lake, driven by

winds from the south west, built up in

the north east a short distance from the

lake perimeter. To the contemporary eye

looking from the west, the lunettes

present as a simple graceful horizon line

waving about ten to fifteen metres

above the general land level.

Approaching from the east they present

as very buxom landforms, apposite

given the matriarchy of their Gulidjan

custodians.

The photographs document an

installation of December 2016 - January

2017: strings of small solar-powered

lights sought to draw attention to the

lunette profile. Entry to the Stinchcombe

property and assistance is gratefully

acknowledged, as is the photographic

collaboration of Tim Lucas.

More images/info at: http://windowspace-

beeac.blogspot.com.au

AROUND THE COMMUNITY 14

Please contact Suzanne Frydman at newsletter@redrockarts.com.au with any queries, ideas and feedback.

Deadline for items in the next edition – September 21. Thank you for your ongoing support.

If you no longer wish to subscribe to our newsletter, please let us know.

Spring Madness

ISHA PAASSE

First solo exhibition by Isha Paasse,

showcasing a collection of mixed media,

honouring her favourite artist Monet.

A burst of colour and serenity that aims to invite

the season of Spring happiness into your life.

Exhibition Dates

September 1 – 30

Studio 92

70 Murray St

Colac