Most families are lucky if just one of their number shows any talent for art. Well it seems the Macfarlane Reid clan has won the fine art and craft lottery as each member displays skill in one form or another. Just about every method and medium available is employed in this exhibition from glass and porcelain to cast or welded metal and turned or carved wood, with gouache paintings for good measure.
Linde works with layers of coloured glass to produce table and wall pieces. I prefer the hanging pieces where the attractive designs extend beyond the limits of the mirror's frame and function. The horizontally aligned Risveglio del Mattino (Morning Awakening) has a red glass disk hovering in the top corner over and above a collection of opaque white glass clouds that drift across the mirrored surface. I would like to view this exhibit where more light could strike the mirror, as it might reflect off the surface and through the coloured glass to enliven the work.
Jo is the porcelain painter. Her use of rich red, dark blue and black together with a lavish use gold lustre demands our attention. On these small, simple shaped bowls and bottles, Jo's choice of strong colours and geometric or linear patterns work beautifully. I particularly appreciate the perfume bottles with 'gold nugget' stoppers crafted by Robin Reid.
Robin's Wandering Albatross Project involves 14 bronze towers. Each tower has a stirling silver bird anchored to it and when you lift the tower's tip in reveals a compass. The towers create a 'collective sculpture', as with each one purchased a silver 'flightline' is drawn on a master map linking individuals and eliminating boundaries around the world. The green patina on the towers gives them a sense of timelessness and permanence, which nicely contrasts the wandering bird with outstretched wings.
Lisa presents gouache and acrylic paintings inspired by her stay in India. Her compositions consist of that culture's traditional motifs of fantasy birds and gentle women in park-like settings. All are drawn with fine black line, filled in with rich colour and surrounded by decorative borders. Her appropriation of the Indian stylistic is well done, however depicting eastern inspired subjects in western perspective, and setting them around Lake Josephine, produces a clash rather then blend of aesthetics.
Tim and George give the exhibition its punch and vigour. George's A Table for the Cognoscenti greets us on entry and it's hard to go past it as we marvel at its presence. A slab made of recycled oregon stands on two legs (more like plinths) one carved as a cog, the other as the chess piece of a knight. On the table two wooden bowls, beautifully carved and turned, sit atop small carved limestone stands. The wood has been 'rubbed' with white paint which relieves its sense of weight without detracting from its strength. It will serve well as a groaning board. George also presents leaping fish in bronze. Their fluid shape and economy of line are sufficient, there's no need for the red glass fins.
Tim's sculptures provide an eclectic array of narrative compositions and contemplative structures. For example we wonder at the story revealed when we open the turtle's copper shell 'doors' to reveal a seated flute player of steel in Raaf Tukka. Then Lucy's Awakening offers a sense of religiosity as it resembles a monstrance, one that holds a rose up for veneration, not the sacred host. Tim works the individual metal petals of the flower to give it a certain delicacy.
This is an impressive display for it's sheer number of exhibits and
variety of styles and practice. One would have thought living and working
together would see a similarity in the exhibits but obviously each artist
is courting their own individual muse. It's well worth a visit to the gallery,
it's a lot closer then Gidgegannup.