Yalawapanpi: Michelle Earl
2 April to 3 August 2024
Darkinjung/Wonnarua artist, Michelle Earl rescues many preloved items from the side of the road during her travels. She never passes up the opportunity for upcycling. First it was vintage metal and other items that inspired her creativity, and now timber stools. Michelle has always loved the look of vintage pieces in quiet corners throughout her home – they add the warmth and welcoming presence of a bygone era, their patina and marks adding emotion and essence.
Stools are an art form in themselves. They are familiar objects. They can prompt us to sit and stay awhile so that we take the time to reflect on our surroundings – Yalawapanpi. Using paint and the symbols of her Aboriginal and European Heritage, Michelle tells her own stories, enriching and continuing the story of each stool.
Michelle Earl, ‘Honey Ants’ 2023-24, acrylic on timber, 60 x 40 x 40cm.
LiddellWORKS
Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre 6 June to 3 August 2024
Singleton Arts and Cultural Centre 8 June to 11 August 2024
TimBLACK | MarkBROWN | SuellynCONNOLLY | PennyDUNSTAN | AnnaRANKMORE | AndrewFRENCH-NORTHAM | ToddFULLER | HuwJONES | FionaLEE | WillMAGUIRE | RachelMILNE | RebeccaRATH | KirryTOOSE | FranWACHTEL | LisaWISEMAN | KaraWOOD
In the two months ahead of the Liddell Power Station closure in April 2023, sixteen artists visited the site. They explored, collected, and created new artwork to mark this historic event. LiddellWORKS is the resulting exhibition, spread across two galleries – Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre and Singleton Arts + Cultural Centre.
The selected group of artists responded to Liddell: the sound, the light, the scale, the machinery, the workers, the crafted infrastructure, the layers of coal dust, and history. Many artworks include the very fabric of Liddell – recorded and reworked sounds, textures collected by rubbings, actual parts or moulds of parts, memories from staff, or toxic by-products preserved in resin. Others feel replete with imprinted echoes, just beyond hearing. If some artworks have an elegiac quality, steeped in recollection of a time that had to pass, others are curious or celebratory. All the artists reacted with wonder at this imposing place few people visited, and its coming metamorphosis as the Hunter Valley begins its shift into a post-carbon future.
The LiddellWORKS program was conceived by Arts Upper Hunter and developed in partnership with AGL, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre and Singleton Arts + Cultural Centre, with funding from the Department of Regional NSW and AGL. Arts Upper Hunter receives core funding from Create NSW and the following local government bodies in the Upper Hunter Region – Dungog Shire Council, Muswellbrook Shire Council, Singleton Council, and Upper Hunter Shire Council.
Rachel Milne, ‘Open Floor’ 2023, oil on canvas, 45 x 40cm
Power Play: from the Collections
6 June to 12 October 2024
‘Power Play’ brings together works from the collections that have a connection (abstract or otherwise), or are partly influenced and inspired, by Liddell Power Station and surrounds.
After almost 52 years, Liddell Power Station, opened in 1971, will be no more than memories – lived, remembered, and here captured through art. The station played a critical role in powering homes and businesses across the nation and made a significant contribution to the Upper Hunter.
‘Power Play’ is a nod to the passing of an industrial icon that provided thousands of jobs for generations of people. It is a salute to the folk who worked in the industry and those who throughout the years have captured a time, a moment, an image related to, or an aspect of Liddell Power Station – to those who were part of a bigger picture of juxtaposed landscapes and objects, country and industry, related services, employees, and of course some characters who lives were inextricably connected to Liddell in one way or another.
Christine Pike, ‘Open Cut #1’ 2012, charcoal, ink, pastel and gesso on paper, 107 x 79cm, Muswellbrook Shire Art Collection, Finalist, Muswellbrook Art Prize 2013, purchased by Muswellbrook Shire Council
Powering Our Future: Muswellbrook Preschool
6 June to 12 October 2024
Marking the closure of the Liddell Power Station after over 50 years of powering the Upper Hunter Region and beyond, the children from Muswellbrook Preschool celebrate the possibilities that lie ahead for each of them. Just as Liddell Power Station powered our lives, our children will power our future. The artworks created in ‘Powering our Future’ capture the aspirations of future scientists, artists, teachers, and philosophers – an invitation to imagine their future, and a call to nurture their dreams.
