Sardone to take sculptures to Shed with Attitude

A BIG contingent of Bendigo and region arts and crafts people is gearing up for a different kind of festival that will take over Loddon Valley from 3 to 5 October.

Loddon Valley Arts started as a conventional trail, and has morphed into a network of exhibitions and events in many of the shire’s heritage venues.

That includes the magnificent wEast Loddon Woolshed, just outside Serpentine. Designed by Bendigo’s famous colonial architect W J Vahland for the pastoralist and inventor, John E. Ettershank, the 1871 building is spectacular inside and out, with huge wooden beams and vast spaces.

Andre Sardone, whose studio is on the southern edge of Bendigo, will take his sculptures to the East Loddon Woolshed, where he’ll join Castlemaine painter Jeremy Forbes, Strangways sculptor Greg Turbitt, Ballarat printmaker Amanda Western and Newstead portrait artist Chloe Neath, for a show that will use the historic venue to display artworks for the very first time.

Sardone said he’d not heard of East Loddon Woolshed before being approached to exhibit there as part of the “Shed with Attitude” exhibition, but was pleased to join the lineup.

“It is a great opportunity to display my work in a beautiful and historic space,” Sardone said.

“A location can certainly influence how the artwork is seen and perceived by the viewer. And the location is then influenced by the artwork in return. It is very symbiotic.”

The sculptor, who works mostly in metal, says he will be installing some of his larger pieces for the Loddon Valley Arts show.

“I am looking forward to seeing how my whimsical sculpture will sit within the historical space,” he said.

The Shed with Attitude show is only one of the venues being opened up for art exhibitions for the first time.

In Dingee, at the unusual corrugated iron Memorial Hall, Bendigo Woodturners will be part of WoodWorks, featuring everything from fine furniture to wooden spoons. In Calivil, renowned for its oval and sporting complex in the middle of beautiful park-like surrounds, the show “Beasts Birds Beyond” includes artists from Gunbower through to Strangways, with a special addition of prints by First Dog in the Moon artist Jon Kudelka and Bendigo illustrator Chris Kennett’s characters from his School of Monsters books.

“It sort of evolved”, organiser Rosemary Sorensen said. “As more and more venues said yes, they’d like to be part of Loddon Valley Arts, gradually more and more artists in the region also came on board.

“We say it’s out there, in every way, because it really is.”

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