Walk the plank at the gallery

ARGH, me hearties! The Art Gallery of Ballarat’s latest exhibition is all about pirates.

Under the Black Flag showcases a range of work from the Gallery’s diverse and historic 11,500-piece collection which explore the idea of piracy.

Gallery director Louise Tegart said the curation of the show, both serious and fun, was inspired by Creswick brothers Lionel and Norman Lindsay, and a selection of their pieces are on display.

“Once I started looking into the collection, I found a whole lot more works related to the theme of piracy,” she said.

“We’re showing that those early works by the Lindsays are very much concerned with the romance of pirates, and the idea of them being a 17th and 18th century notion.

“The show was also inspired by a recent donation of works by Sally Smart, which are based on research into female pirates. Her take is around gender, so there are contemporary issues underlying some of the works.”

First Nations contemporary artist Tony Albert questions whether Captain Cook was a pirate through his work within Under the Black Flag, and art by Daylesford’s Maureen Watts looks at the experiences of Vietnamese refugees.

“About 8000 boat people successfully made it out of Vietnam, but about 3000 were lost at sea, whether through their boats failing, or being attacked by pirates,” Ms Tegart said.

“Piracy is still a contemporary issue, even though we can sometimes have a romantic view, with films like Pirates of the Caribbean reinforcing that historical nature of it.”

Upstairs, visitors can see a big pirate ship that the Gallery commissioned in 2017 for exhibition Romancing the Skull.

A range of pirate-themed art, craft and storytelling activities will run over the school holidays and into term four for children.

Under the Black Flag will be presented until Saturday, 21 January.