Open Road is the result of the inaugural Emerging Curators Project of the Artists Foundation of WA in collaboration with the Geraldton Regional Art Gallery. With mentoring from both AFWA and GRAG, Bianca McNeair has successful curated an exhibition of fine works, as well as co-ordinated its presentation in both Geraldton and Fremantle..

It's interesting to note how the artists employ any and everything as material for art, from sand and scrub to fencing wire and fabric. For example Marieanne Penberthy reveals a level of lateral thinking by employing both natural and man-made materials to define her own spiritual connection with nature. In her installation Strange Conversations With a Tree, the artists sews Banksia leaves into a wall hanging with a flowing motif and dyes then stitches silk organza into delicate imitations of Banksia pods. In this presentation she is able to turn the mundane into a sense of the mystical.

Pieternella Armstrong's Keeping Ground II employs thorny scrub to construct a 'fence' around a perfectly smooth plot of deep red sand that hosts two bare footprints. Around the outer perimeter of this protected plot many shod feet seem to scuffle about in the thin layer of mixed red and white sand. One can interpret the enclosed area as either a sacred site, a secular spot held special by someone, a public space that must be preserved, or a grave. Any or all interpretations bring us back to one thought, the land is first, last, always.

James Thompson's C type photographs celebrate the beauty of the landscape, in particular the moon over Agnew and the rippled sands of Oakajee. Also appreciated is Amanda Rowland's steel rod and wire interpretation of A Bride for Buddha. Well done Bianca!

Andrew Nicholls curated Spooked, a collection of art and installations produced as a result of two weeks spent in the haunted Teacher's Quarters located in Greenough, some 400km north of Perth. Here we have photographic documentation of some of the installations that appeared in the original venue and surrounding landscape. The exhibits in situ here are impressive however the photographs of the Greenough installations are too small to get a full appreciation of what was presented there. In particular the effect of Dawn Gamblen's Levitate is lost in the small scale.

Susan Flavell's giant cardboard insects creeping about in high corners of empty rooms fascinate. Large spiders with more then eight legs and a huge beetle seem ready to pounce on the unwary. One can more readily appreciate the intricacy of these fine constructions with a close inspection of the artist's more easily accessible Locust Man situated on the floor in another gallery.

Spook Series by Andrew Nicholls involve two large digital prints of a long nosed spirit who seems benign until we see the same image manifested as Vince 2. Here he is a fascinating translucent life size figure constructed of wire and packing tape, complete with blinking red eyes and a small white heart, that soars above us in mid flight.

Thankfully Philip Gamblen's  Spirit Levels protects us as the small camera pans the attic and studio to disclose obvious and hidden entities. Meanwhile Dawn Gamblen's installation of dirt and water filled light globes suspended from a Cast Circle attempts to shed some light on the matter. What we see is a collection of inventive well constructed works of art born of fun, with maybe a touch of fear. Good one Andrew!