Long-time partnership on display

A CELEBRATION of life and collaboration is forming the thematic basis behind the next exhibition at Ross Creek Gallery.

Next month, local artists and partners Sarah Lloyd and Geoff Bonney will display decades of creating together as part of a joint show called The 2 Of Us.

Both practicing artists since the 1970s and having first co-exhibited in Tangier in 1989, Lloyd said the show will showcase their shared love for art and each other.

“It’s an opportunity to celebrate the fact that after all the years we’ve been together, which are many, we’re still making art respectively together and supporting each other,” she said.

“We’ve been creating art in each other’s company since 1988.”

The show will feature about 10 sculptural pieces from Bonney as well as 40 oil paintings from Lloyd ranging from still life to landscape to abstract subjects.

Each sculpture piece was crafted from a disused piano based at Learmonth’s Art Hall, which the pair established in 1998 out of the town’s former mechanics institute.

“I’m celebrating the hall as well and the history behind it. This is almost silent music, the sculptures,” Bonney said.

“The piano would have been played at hundreds of balls and footy club dos but it’s worn out and no longer playable. They’re all called piano pieces because they would’ve referred to the music played on that piano.

“The sculptures are all in the last year. We’ve had health problems in the last few years and when I was on chemotherapy, I couldn’t do large sculptures so I started making these smaller works at the kitchen table.”

The message behind the show is made more palpable with both artists having recently undergone cancer treatment over the past two years.

“We’re in a celebratory mood,” Lloyd said. “Why that particularly came to mind is that we’ve both been busy surviving cancer.

“It’s a point of saying we’re still here and making art. It’s a celebration of how funny and creative life can be.”

The 2 Of Us will open 14 September with a launch from 1pm to 4pm, after which it will run until 29 September.

Ross Creek Gallery is open Fridays to Sundays from 11am to 4pm or by appointment.