By hoot and glide

Whereabouts: A Print Exchange Folio and Exhibition
Curated by Rona Green

Genesis Baroque
commission for Genesis Baroque’s 2024 season

In the gaps, lately, we’ve swung by the Yarra Bend colony to marvel at the arrival of Little Reds (Pteropus scapulatus, Little red flying fox), on the Fairfield side of the Birrarung. They are recognisable by their smaller size, the luminous peach hue of their wings as they catch light, the way they hang in a grape-like cluster worthy of a medieval manuscript, one atop the other, and the aroma of aniseed.

With most of our Grey-headed flying fox pups now at the Soft Release Enclosure also by the river, and the ringtails, also, about to depart, let us take a moment to look at some paper animals who, too, have relocated. Whereabouts: Printmakers Respond, having recently concluded at Art Gallery of Ballarat is now headed for New Zealand, to Solander Gallery. This time under the mantle, Wherabouts: Artists Respond, as of Friday the 22nd of March, 2024, you’ll be able to see an Eastern grass owl (Tyto longimembris) drawn by Silvester Diggles from ‘Ornithology of Australia. Volume 1, commences with Acquila and ends with Smicrornis’, ca. 1863–1875, and a Sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps) drawn by James Stuart from ‘Natural history drawings of marsupials, reptiles and rodents’, ca. 1831–1841, once more paused in a gallery setting, alongside the beautiful prints of several others.

Whereabouts: Printmakers Respond
Friday 22nd of March – Saturday 4th of May, 2024
Solander Gallery, 218 Willis Street, Wellington, New Zealand

Whereabouts — the place where someone or something is.

This exhibition includes work by 56 emerging and established Victorian artists who were invited by leading Australian printmaker, Rona Green, to respond to the word ‘whereabouts’ in any way that resonated with them. The artists have depicted real and imagined places in the built or natural environment and explore concepts relating to memory, history and family.

Each artist has created a new work in a range of genres and styles to a standard size (380 x 280 mm) using their printmaking technique of choice including etching, lino and woodcut, lithography and digital media.

Exhibiting Artists:
Sue Anderson, Elizabeth Banfield, Matthew Clarke, Paul Compton, Miranda Costa, Fiona Davey, Rachel Derum, Mark Dustin, Grace Eve, Philip Faulks, Kevin Foley, Eleanor Franks, David Frazer, Tyronne Gietzmann, Silvi Glattauer, Jackie Gorring, Rona Green, Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Gregory Harrison, Bill Hay, Judy Horacek, Anita Iacovella, Kyoko Imazu, Deborah Klein, Gillian Kline, Anita Laurence, Dianne Longley, Michael Lye, Marion Manifold, Cassie May, Aaron McLoughlin, Glenn Morgan, Carnegie Muir, Angela Nagel, Billy Nye, James Pasakos, Jim Pavlidis, Catherine Pilgrim, Michael Reynolds, Cathy Ronalds, David Rosengrave, John Ryrie, Libby Schreiber, Gwen Scott, Heather Shimmen, Glen Smith, Ruth Stanton, Neale Stratford, Sophia Szilagyi, Helen Timbury, Clayton Tremlett, Peter Ward, Deborah Williams, Joel Wolter and Jessi Wong.

For those of you who may have missed seeing the exhibition whilst in Ballarat, and cannot make it to New Zealand neither, please tour the below (installation photographs by Cathy Ronalds). We also have editions of our print, By hoot and glide available through our online store, alongside editions of Pollinators, Remy & Pip, created ahead of the 2023–24 Grey-headed flying fox pup season, for our 40x40 print for The Australian Print Workshop’s 40x40.

We recently had the pleasure of creating four collages and the design for Genesis Baroque’s 2024 season.

Tap your toes, and book a ticket or four.

Concerti Grossi
To open its 2024 orchestral series, Genesis Baroque returns to the Concerto Grosso with a new perspective, examining its voices and ideas through a different lens. In this popular Baroque form, we usually find an electric dialogue between a handful of virtuosic soloists and a Greek chorus of instrumental ripieni.

Paris Quartets
In his two volumes of Paris Quartets, Telemann distinguished himself as a master of the French Sonate en Quatuor; a uniquely French style that contrasted the trio sonatas of Germany and Italy. Telemann published his first volume of six quartets, Six Quadri, in 1730 in Hamburg, which were then reprinted in Paris in 1736.  In response to their enormous success in Paris, Telemann travelled to the city in 1737 for several months, where he received high praise and honour, inspiring him to write a second volume of six quartets, Nouveaux Quatuors en Six Suites, published in 1738.

Dresden Concerti
The Dresden court was an opulent cultural hotspot in the early 18th Century under the ambitious reign of King Frederick Augustus II, who invested in developing the city as a brilliant centre of art, music, and architecture. The king attracted some of the most inventive composers from across Europe, who developed a dynamic style that reflected the rich tapestry of their musical backgrounds. Dresden Concerti explores works that epitomise the Dresden court style, and the musical traditions that influenced it, from Leipzig to Venice; a celebration of galant style in all its shimmering glory.

Fête Champêtre
The fête champêtre was a style of garden party adored by 18th Century French aristocracy and the popular at the Gardens of Versailles. Parties would incorporate feasts and music, with musicians performing in lavishly prepared pastoral settings and palace gardens to entertain and accompany dancing. This program celebrates the fête champêtre with the musette, small French baroque bagpipes that were highly fashionable at the time, particularly in pastoral settings.

In these digital collages, like our print, By hoot and glide, we continue to play with the silhouette and what might be on the reverse. The process remains the same whether digital or analogue, like our series of collages created especially for World Book Night 2024’s theme, In praise of birds, in which a leftover palette of birds take flight in search of green. But more on this to follow. For now, we leave you back by the river, only this time, fittingly, it is for the chance sighting of an Azure kingfisher.

Image credit: Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, By hoot and glide (detail), 2022, especially for Rona Green’s Whereabouts: A Print Exchange Folio