Pamela See | From Moon to Moon
9 September to 2 October 2022
Coinciding with the Moon Festival, the exhibition From Moon to Moon explores aspects of migration to the Northern Territory. The papercut installations illustrate allegories, portraits and an artifact. The Territorians profiled are the celebrated Chinese Australians Lim Lee See, Sue Wah Chin and Ali Hassan. The exhibition was inspired by the nineteenth century introduction of Water Buffalo (bubalus bubalis) to the Northern Territory from South-East Asia. This account has been engaged as a metaphor for the importation of their human counterparts as labour.
Pamela See (Xue Mei-Ling) is a Brisbane-based visual artist who recently completed a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. She studied papercutting across regional China through the support of Arts Queensland, Brisbane City Council and the Australia–China Council. Although she specialises in a contemporary form of papercutting, her style resembles Foshan papercutting. It is endemic to the home province of her maternal grandparents: Guangdong Province. Consistent with the tradition, she regularly represents totemic fauna and symbolic flora. Her application of the medium responds to issues pertinent to Australians, including environmental degradation, xenophobia and COVID-19. She also translates her motifs into a variety of post-digital media including electronic knitting, vector-based animation, waterjet and lasercut steel and 3d printing. The collections to hold examples of her artwork include the Huaxia Papercutting Museum in Changsha, the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra and the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide.
From Moon to Moon
Artist talk
Saturday 10 September 2022 | 10.30 am- 11.30 am
Artist Pamela See (Xue Mei-Ling) will discuss the concepts behind the artworks in From Moon to Moon and the processes she engaged to produce them. During this free event, visitors will be encouraged to try their hand at contemporary papercutting with scissors.
David Kerr | WanD 0830
9 September to 2 October 2022
David Kerr’s exhibition showcases uniquely styled sculptural pieces using found objects and materials combined to produce a contemporary interpretation of pottery forms. David has been exploring the areas of vases which are usually not seen as relevant (the base and the brim), experimenting with their decorative and sculptural aspects to enhance the total form. The overlay of local pebbles and stones accentuates the Northern Territory influence, highlighting the dominance of earth in the local landscape.
David Kerr describes his work as personal totems, representing the interface between his inner self and the external environment. He is inspired by traditional ceramic figures and shapes of domestic vessels. David’s eclectic approach draws on decorative, minimal, modernist and organic ceramic sculpture. The forms are intended to be both aesthetic and tactile, promoting a warm and positive emotional response. David uses re-purposed items to form the industrial terracotta into intuitive items, often combined with gravel and sand to create a natural textured surface.
David Kerr gained his Victoria Diploma of Fine Art - Ceramics in 1985, Ballarat College of Advanced Education. Recent exhibitions include ‘Cups’ – Bega Valley Potters Exhibition, Tathra, Merimbula Arts Society Exhibition, ‘Clay Gulgong’ at Gulgong Ceramics Conference and a solo exhibition at 139 Gallery, Drysdale. David has been trading since 1990 as Wand Ceramics.