On a rainy Sunday in August 2011 we took a drive out into the hinterland looking for nothing really but maybe some serenity, a grounding walk in the mud to Protester Falls. But that hinterland drive turned out different to what we planned as we also found a jewel in the crown that is the valleys, and surrounding hills of The Channon.
The Channon Gallery opened in June, 2011 in The Channon (just around the corner from the markets opposite the pub), and since then has had a series of world class exhibitions that have attracted people from far and wide, as well as a solid local following. David and Peter, who run the gallery are passionate about their work and committed to the artists who have entrusted their work to the gallery. Something must be working, because the gallery has already gained a reputation for the quality of the work exhibited there.
The gallery’s focus is fine, contemporary Australian art to delight and provoke, but there is also an emphasis on exhibiting the work of local artists and championing them to an increasingly national audience via the gallery’s website and web-based networks. The gallery is also engaged in supporting the work of other galleries in the region, mostly via web-based social networks and by word-of-mouth, in an endeavour to elevate the profile of the arts and cultural activities in the region. No ‘man’ or gallery is an island!
Sunday afternoon saw the opening of “The Bride as Banquet” presented by artist Denise N Rall. PhD. The exhibition is an installation in costumed mannequins and wearable art that explores how the dress has triumphed over cake as the wedding’s major consumable. The wedding event stages the bride as the desirable object of display, she becomes a confection of lace and fabric that both provokes desire and seeks consumption by an audience.
The exhibition constructs a discourse between contradictory notions of the bridal costume which has relocated from the garment to a vampire-like “feeding frenzy” where the media comments on the bride, (think Kate Middleton) her pedigree, and her deportment.
A collection of works by Caspah Batchelor “In The Garden of Eden” adorn the walls supporting the major exhibition (I bought two of her pieces).
To keep up-to-date with exhibitions, find out more about the gallery’s artists or to view works held by the gallery, visit their website at www.thechannongallery.com.
