Tara Gilbee
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Exhibitions: 3x3 = Six Degrees of Separation Do I have to repeat myself ….. <space in between> at Allans Walk
Tara is a sculpture photographer based in Central Victoria. Her skills include curatorial, grant writing and community arts. She has recently returned from a three month residency in France.
As a new comer to Central Victoria Tara didn’t let one second slip to immerse herself into contemporary art activity of Castlemaine and Bendigo. Tara was awarded an Arts Victoria grant to develop Velvet Light Series 2 in February 2004. She has exhibited the first arrangement of this sculptural photographic work at Allans Walk Artist Run Space, Bendigo.
Velvet Light Series 2 builds upon Tara’s practice of the Space in Between of a number of years. Tara has explored this theme in both her personal practice and as a curator.
Velvet Light Series 2 sat inside Allans Walk as a number of Perspex boxes. In each box one of the six panels was a mirror, the opposite to this panel to the mirror a transparent image of a mirrored face breathing upon a reflective surface. The boxes range in sizes and groups capturing reflection and light according to how they were installed and lit. The boxes were arranged in such as way to mingle reflections and so that a viewer to was required to stop and untangle the image.
It is the personal space that is the space in between Tara is examining in Velvet Light Series 2. The body and it relationship to the inner unconscious warmth of our existence, breath on glass quickly frosts magically alerting us to our hidden life within. The examination and reflection upon our inner life in front of a mirror is a personal closed activity. It is an uncomfortable experience suddenly to become aware of another entering this space and catch you examining your reflected self. Your personal space quickly retreats and the inner thoughts are hidden from view. The images of Tara’s breathing people are quiet and relaxed, they appear unaware of their viewer. Their space is with themselves; calmly aware of their own breath and reflection.
Allans Walk is located in the heart of Bendigo, in an old run down, once beautiful and ornate arcade. Allans Walk is also a challenging space for the shopper out and about “down the street”. Allans Walk is a shop front, similar to the old TCB space, or like Platform, on a larger scale. Artists exhibiting will often find that the general public is a little reluctant to step inside the space because once inside to view the art the viewer is also the viewed.
Art within a public space does generate comment, different to comment generated in a closed gallery environment. Public comment about Tara’s work felt that her work did not “fill” up the space. Sometimes this is a challenge for conceptualists working within a regional location without a long history of viewing and seeing conceptual art, especially out side of formal gallery spaces. Allans Walk requires exhibiting artists to interact with a non-art audience and its locale, simply because it is regionally sited.
Tara states “… you can not impart/resonate knowledge about concepts without creating an experience within them. In that if the audience relinquish passive observation, they become engaged and the passage of information follows through to a conceptual realization.”