Visual artworks tell a thousand words

THIS month’s SHAC Solstice exhibition at Ballarat North Bowling Club will aim to nourish attendees’ senses.

A collaboration between the Soldiers Hill Artist Collective and Words Out Loud, poetry and prose are being produced in response to the presented visual artworks.

Co-curator Cliff Adeney said this was the third collaboration between the two groups.

“On this occasion, the artists have produced their work, based on the theme of winter solstice,” he said.

“The artworks have been randomly assigned to the writers.”

Ekphrastic writing is the creative written response to a work of art, Adeney said.

“The writers have had several weeks to write their responses,” he said.

“The exhibition is where all the art and all the written responses are displayed together.”

He said a collaboration like this provided a rarely seen convergence of visual art and the written word.

“The process of creating one’s own art in response to another’s is very challenging,” he said.

“Personally I have found these events difficult to fulfil to my own satisfaction, yet ultimately I have found them very rewarding.”

There will be a mixture of 2D and 3D work, including oil paintings, ceramics, woodwork, photography and jewellery influencing the writing.

“There is a huge variety in the art that has been created,” Adeney said.

“Although the theme is winter solstice, each artist’s interpretation is wildly different, and I suspect the same might be said for the writing.”

Ballarat writers Kirstyn McDermott and Jason Nahrung founded Words Out Loud in 2016. Nahrung is the other co-curator of the exhibition.

The free SHAC Solstice will be held on Friday 19 June at 6pm. It will continue on Saturday 20 June and Sunday 21 June from 10am to 4pm.

Throughout the weekend, Melissa Watts will run a writer’s workshop. Ian Kemp will host a photography workshop.