By Holly McGuinness
A new gallery on Grundy Street in Westmeadows invites viewers to look to the ground for an alternate view of Hume’s ecosystem.
Formed from a collaborative workshop at Moonee Ponds Creek with artist Melinda Hetzel and photographer Pia Johnson, participants were invited to express themselves within the local landscape.
The creative process drew on Ms Hetzell’s background in theatre and performance, using different elements with props introduced, including coloured fabrics to encourage play between participants.
“It’s an artwork grounded in place,” Ms Hetzel said.
Encouraging social interaction and ecology, Ms Hetzel wanted to highlight the connection between people and place.
“There’s a lot of connection to nature stuff out there, we come from a meeting point between social ecology and creative practice,” she said.
The workshop was documented by Ms Johnson who, among many other things, specialises in documenting performance art in a sensitive, non-invasive way.
Photographs captured by Ms Johnson were then analysed by the group, creating a gallery that best expresses the project’s themes.
“Pia and I had a small window to put together two different series. We knew how many there would be and how they would be linked but it was only after we created the images that we could sit back and see how they sat together,” Ms Hetzell said.
“It was in that process where we created these two series around colour and form. We have a blue and green gallery and a red and gold gallery that arose out of participants’ choices.”
The pavement gallery is open until Thursday, 20 October.
