Artist Sharon West has always been fascinated by visual portrayals of Australian history, from Sydney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series to the late 19th century art movement known as the Heidelberg School.
Her most recent exhibition, Menagerie Merveilleuse: curious beasts of Bundoora and beyond, is her portrayal of past events and also signifies her place as Bundoora Homestead Art Centre’s inaugural artist in residence.
The year-long program includes this solo exhibition plus a lecture at the centre’s Talk and Tea series and painting workshop, coming up in November.
West says artists relish the opportunity to be an artist in residence, as it’s acknowledgment and recognition of their work.
West is a worthy recipient: she won last year’s Darebin Art Prize, has participated in past exhibitions at Bundoora Homestead and teaches visual arts to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island students at RMIT Bundoora.
West has always had an affinity with the area, having grown up in Reservoir. She had a childhood fascination with Bundoora Park’s Mount Cooper and in 2002, received an award at the Darebin Art Show for her painting of the ‘‘mini mountain’’ she used to climb as a girl.
West describes Menagerie Merveilleuse: curious beasts of Bundoora and beyond as “a reworking of Australian colonial history, looking at colonisation and explorers, but making up narratives, or reconstructing a narrative like the signing of Batman’s Treaty”. Other works are based on Melbourne locations such as Healesville and along the Yarra.
The collection is displayed throughout many rooms of the homestead, and includes oil paintings, an assemblage of found objects (think plastic crocodiles and toy soldiers) and dioramas and digital photography of similar artworks.
West’s reworking of Australian colonial history also acknowledges European and indigenous mythology, with bunyips, yowies and hybrid creatures all making an appearance (Batman’s Treaty is shown to be interrupted by a ‘‘kangarooster’’).
There’s also a self-portrait, depicting West as a colonist. “I majored in drawing at art school and did a lot of illustrations and cartoon work and that comes through in my painting.”
Bundoora Homestead Art Centre is at 7-27 Snake Gully Drive, Bundoora. It is open 11am to 4pm Wednesday to Friday and noon to 5pm Saturday to Sunday. Admission is free. Menagerie Merveilleuse: curious beasts of Bundoora and beyond runs until August 26.
