Melbourne Transformed!
The Transformation Exhibition, the latest installment of the Moving Galleries travelling exhibition of art and poetry, was launched at Flinders Street station on a chilly morning in the middle of June. Peering through their winter woollies, artists and poets in attendance were able to view their work inside one of the trains that will usher the exhibition through the arteries of Melbourne.
The exhibition, the fifth in the Moving Galleries ‘Moving Melbourne through art’ series, features the musings of 23 poets and sublime creations of 26 artists on a series of posters dotting the walls of our city trains....
The artwork was curated in partnership with our art partner, Creative Spaces, an initiative of the City of Melbourne and Arts Victoria. Creative Spaces is a digital resource promoting the use of urban and rural locations for creative projects.
Transformation was chosen as the theme for this exhibition in order to showcase some of Victoria’s transient site-specific arts projects created in such diverse locations as Melbourne’s laneways, parklands, shops, racecourses, even a supermarket! A call also went out to the poets of Melbourne (both budding and withered!) to explore the theme.
Rob Hudson, Victorian State Parliamentary Secretary for the Arts officially opened the exhibition and talked about the importance of the Moving Galleries Project for Melbourne. It was noted that projects like Moving Galleries distinguish Melbourne as the cultural capital of Australia, providing a unique venue for artists and poets to showcase their work to a wider audience. Robbie Rowlands, an artist featured in the exhibition, also commended Moving Galleries to the arts communities of Melbourne and Victoria. He was especially enamored by the ability for the ephemeral works in the exhibition to be able to “live on” in the trains.
Moving Galleries hopes the audience will experience some form of transformation, big or small, by engaging with this current exhibition. Please visit the on-line version of the exhibition on this website and don’t forget to join, vote and comment on this website and let Moving Galleries know what you think and feel about the artwork you see and the poetry you read. Also let us know what you think of Moving Galleries?
The People’s Choice Awards were also announced for the Innocence exhibition. The People’s Choice Awards is a prize to the value of $500 given to the public’s favourite artist and poet at the end of each Moving Galleries exhibition period. Congratulations to artist Ella and poet alicia sometimes!
A 60-page catalogue of the Transformation exhibition is available for purchase – contact Jessie Doring Moving Galleries Project Manager through the website.
