How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow at Orange Regional Gallery

This week was filled with busy preparation for the launch of our new touring exhibition, How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow. Opening at Orange Regional Gallery on Friday 23 March, the exhibition features the works of six contemporary Australian artists and collaborative partnerships who are all past recipients of the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship for emerging artists, presenting their early works alongside recent projects to exemplify how an artist's practice develops over time through research, experimentation and refinement.


With the artworks ranging from drawing to complex sculptural installations with multi-channel video projections, this proved to be a challenging task for the installation team consisting of myself, Mark Feary (Curator) and tech guru Paul Greedy from Artspace, and the staff at Orange Regional Gallery. The day commenced with laying out the works in the gallery space, taking into consideration sound and light isolation between the various video works while still encouraging a smooth flow for viewers to grasp the progression between the works of each artist.


Once the space had been clearly mapped out, we started tackling the installation of the exhibition and accompanying equipment. It began relatively easily with the hanging of framed drawings and photographic prints, followed by the assemblage of Sean Cordeiro & Claire Healy's 1st Draft composed of 16 corkboards with coloured drawing pins inserted to form the central image. Then came the wall mounting of 3 plasma screens for digital video works, 3 more data projectors, media players and speaker sets, 2 sculptural installations with plasma screens attached for Ms&Mr's Frame Drag, and finally Todd McMillan's traditional overhead projector with a twist (featuring an incorporated video device and media player inside). Did I forget to mention Lauren Brincat's fantastic taxidermy cobra as part of her work The Quick and the Dead? Needless to say, there was plenty of drilling, connecting of cables, connecting of more cables, and screen testing.

After some final testing and the addition of theatrical like lighting, the exhibition looked fabulous and was all ready for the launch that evening. Orange Regional Gallery friends, patrons and public gathered to view the exhibition, have a drink and a delicious canapé. Brenda Gray, Assistant Director of the gallery welcomed all and introduced Blair French, Executive Director of Artspace who gave an erudite explanation of the show's concept and an insight into the curator's thinking. Blair outlined the impact the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship and similar opportunities afford younger artists and how this can be witnessed in their practice. After a round of thanks, in particular to the artists Ms&Mr who were in attendance guests once again viewed the exhibition but this time with renewed interest.


How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow is showing at Orange Regional Gallery from 23 March 2012 - 6 May 2012 before travelling to 6 other venues in NSW and QLD.

For more information, visit the M&G NSW website: http://mgnsw.org.au/exhibit/how_yesterday_remembers_tomorrow/

How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow is supported by the NSW Government through Arts NSW as a result of the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy. An Artspace exhibition toured by Museums & Galleries NSW.
A story by Lillian Lim, M&G NSW's Gallery Programs and Touring Exhibition Coordinator.

Image one: Todd McMillan, after the deluge, 2010
Installation view, courtesy of the artist and Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney

Image two: Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro, 1st Draft, 2009
Cork board, drawing pins, 160 x 120 cm, courtesy of the artists and Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney