From little things big things grow

WHEN the Art Gallery of Ballarat invited Castlemaine artist Eliza-Jane Gilchrist to develop a children’s workshop based on a work in their collection in 2011, she chose James Morrison’s miniature paper mâché sculpture Mount Hesperus.

This tiny white sculpture of a strange almost prehistoric scene of weird plants, a bird with teeth and a lizard all covered in minute pen drawings, became the inspiration for Ms Gilchrist’s Strange Garden exhibition opening on Sunday, 16 December at the Gallery.

Ms Gilchrist developed a love of working in cardboard as a consequence of running the original workshops, scaling up the shapes to larger pieces constructed from corrugated cardboard.

While the gestation of the exhibition has been considerable the pieces on display were created earlier this year, based on enlarged shapes from the natural world such as plants, shells and seed cases.

“I love the properties of cardboard, even though it’s just ugly rubbish, it is easy to love beautiful things, we have to learn to love ugly things,” she said.

Ms Gilchrist describes cardboard as having the cellular memory of being a plant.

“I feel like I am sort of coaxing the plant back out of the bland flat material [that is] cardboard.

“It is almost like the ghosts of the plants and trees are in the cardboard.” She sources cardboard from the Good Guys store in Mair Street.

“I take the large fridge boxes flat packed, the bigger the box the more exciting it is.”

Strange Garden opened on Saturday, 1 December continues to Sunday, 17 March with free entry.

Ms Gilchrist will present two Strange Garden workshops on Thursday, 19 January at 10am to 12pm and 1pm to 3pm.

The exhibition includes up a free drop-in art activity where visitors are encouraged to construct and decorate their own plant form using recycled cardboard.

The activity is designed to appeal to all ages and will be available every day during the run of the exhibition.

Strange Garden, part of the Gallery’s summer program along with the Locals Rule and Echoes exhibitions, will be celebrated with a public event on Sunday, 16 December at 2pm to 5pm including artist talks, a performance by local band The Winter Berries and free kids’ art activities.

Local Wadawurrung artist Deanne Gilson, who is launching a range of scarves based on traditional Indigenous seasons of the year, will present a pop-up talk in the gallery shop.