Exhibition illustrates the enduring challenge of change
X-ray films overlaid with images and paintings of landscapes and plants feature in Janine Healey’s work
The constancy of change and the capacity of individuals to respond to its challenges is explored in Scenic Rim Regional Council’s next exhibition, Enduring.
Combining two sensitive exhibitions, Nature of Change by Bonny Shore and Imagined Worlds – inside out by Janine Healy, Enduring will be opened at The Centre Beaudesert on Saturday 20 August by Scenic Rim Mayor Greg Christensen.
“Both artists’ works offer unique perspectives of human emotion, identity and resilience in the face of extreme personal change, both physical and environmental,” he said.
“We live in a rapidly changing world and the underlying theme of the Enduring exhibition, which celebrates our resilience and capacity to cope, is that the only constant in life is change.
“Through two very different exhibitions, using materials as diverse as textiles and x-ray films and techniques including embroidery and laser-cut timber collage, we see the artists’ responses to the challenge of change in their own lives and in the world around them.”
Scenic Rim artist Janine Healey has taken self-portraiture into another dimension, combining x-ray films overlaid with images and paintings of landscapes and plants to consider the internal and external environments.
Some 30 years of medical procedures, including a two-level spinal fusion, left her with ‘a mountain of imaging’ in the form of x-ray films and CT scans and a fascination for science which has enabled her to move, change, adapt and grow.
Through a physical and emotional journey, Janine became intrigued by the mechanics of the structure of pedicle screws, wire cages and bone grafts embedded within her and how quickly these foreign objects became one with her ‘frame’.
“It revealed to me, too, how nature adapts and takes over, and I was reminded of seeing trees engulf fence posts and barbed wire and how saplings often swallow up the supports that assisted their growth,” she said.
“This series of portraits tastefully explores the artist from the inside out. It’s a story of survival, of partnering with science for a positive outcome.”
Beaudesert-born artist Bonny Shore has also experienced a life of changes, beginning with her family’s move from the Scenic Rim to Wynnum, overlooking Moreton Bay, after which she spent 20 years in outback Queensland, where her children were born.
After many years in tropical Queensland, she has returned to the Scenic Rim area of northern New South Wales and, through her work, has established her identity as a carer, partner, professional, creative woman and artist.
“As a springboard from domestic, utilitarian stitching - once part of the female 'Domestic Sciences' - I work primarily with textiles and print, layering fabrics and papers to create artworks, stitched with motifs about identity, journey, place, and current environmental changes, searching for answers and theories,” Bonny said.
“Art, like science, seeks meaning, answers, and solutions to the questions of life and change.
“My intention is for others to consider identity and place, and seek solutions to changes in their own lives and place, society, and the wider environment."
Members of the Scenic Rim community are invited to the free exhibition launch event on Saturday 20 August, which includes morning tea from 10.30am, and to meet the artists who will be sharing insights into their works.
Bookings are essential and can be made online by emailing thecentre@scenicrim.qld.gov.au or telephoning (07) 5540 5050.
The free Enduring exhibition runs from Saturday 20 August until Saturday 15 October and is open from Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 4pm and Saturday from 10am to 2pm, excluding public holidays.
“Enduring continues the theme of our thought-provoking 2022 cultural program, understanding our world through arts and science, and I look forward to welcoming the community at the official launch,” Mayor Christensen said.