Darebin Art Collection

Untitled, winner of the Darebin Art Show (2010), conveys a sense of summertime in the inner northern suburbs. The vivid blue sky dominating the top third of the painting infuses great energy into a mundane scene, while the everyday beauty of the neighbourhood is revealed in the bright, harsh light of the Australian summer sky.

Jason Emilianowicz captures a familiar, local streetscape: a suburban fence line, adorned with imposing graffiti, backs on to a public path following the South Morang railway line and the Merri Creek. A woman strides briskly along the path with her dogs that are just disappearing from view.

Untitled © Jason Emilianowicz

In Nyx, Georgina Cue reinterprets early 20th century police photographs depicting the sinister landscape of a crime scene where murder is committed or death is unexplained. In Greek mythology, 'Nyx' is the ancient Greek goddess of the night, daughter of 'Chaos'.

Employing a monochromatic palette interspersed with dashes of colour, Cue’s process of thickly weaving the image into a lush, tactile surface eliminates visual cues or information provoking only pure sensation in the viewer. In doing so, this delicate work attempts to explore how artefacts of the everyday can become imbued with a heightened level of mystery as our attention is deferred onto the obsessively captured peripheral detail of the scene. Creating a quintessential noir effect through the intricate process of free-hand embroidery and stilled lighting illusion, Cue manipulates the perceptual experience of the viewer; a deliberate act to disorientate and query our understanding of reality.

Georgina Cue is an installation artist who examines the effects of light and time as a way to create immersive environments which traverse between the pictorial and physical, past and present, fictional and real. Her practice is diverse, encompassing large-scale installations which combine embroidery, woodcarving and set design. She has exhibited widely throughout Australia and her artwork is held in the National Gallery of Victoria and Artbank as well as private collections in Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

Nyx © Georgina Cue

Elisabeth Bodey’s abstract paintings are presented as ‘conversations’ in paint', reflecting ideas of landscape imbued with sensations of the topography of the Central Australian desert. In Small Songs, Bodey creates a dialogue between different cultural points of view with ideas of what constitutes the notion of ‘place’.

Bodey has exhibited widely along the east coast of Australia in solo and group exhibitions for almost three decades, during which time she has conducted residencies in Australia, Italy and France. Her work is held by the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Monash University, Artbank and in private collections.

Small Songs © Elisabeth Bodey

In Lachesis, Georgina Cue reinterprets early 20th century police photographs depicting the sinister landscape of a crime scene where murder is committed or death is unexplained. In classical mythology, 'Lachesis' is that one of the three Fates who determines the length of the thread of life.

Employing a monochromatic palette, interspersed with dashes of colour, Cue’s process of thickly weaving the image into a lush, tactile surface eliminates visual cues or information provoking only pure sensation in the viewer. In doing so, this delicate work attempts to explore how artefacts of the everyday can become imbued with a heightened level of mystery as our attention is deferred onto the obsessively captured peripheral detail of the scene. Creating a quintessential noir effect through the intricate process of free-hand embroidery and stilled lighting illusion, Cue manipulates the perceptual experience of the viewer; a deliberate act to disorientate and query our understanding of reality.

Georgina Cue is an installation artist who examines the effects of light and time as a way to create immersive environments which traverse between the pictorial and physical, past and present, fictional and real. Her practice is diverse, encompassing large-scale installations which combine embroidery, woodcarving and set design. She has exhibited widely throughout Australia and her artwork is held in the National Gallery of Victoria and Artbank as well as private collections in Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

Lachesis © Georgina Cue

In Krampus Wreath, Paul Compton portrays the infamous folklore figure, Krampus, in the middle of a traditional Christmas wreath. Centred amidst the customary decorations of holly, ivy, bells, balls, trumpets, candy canes and stockings is the hairy half-beast, half-demon complete with horns, long pointed tongue and piercing black eyes. Legend claims at Christmas time Krampus takes the presents of naughty children as punishment for their misdeeds and keeps them for himself.

Compton’s art practice comprises drawing, book and zine making, and creating objects and animations. His work pursues an ongoing interest in vignettes, the uncanny, animism, outsiders and all things Victorian. Compton has shown his work in a number of solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows around Melbourne. His work is held in public and private collections in Australia, the UK and USA.

Krampus Wreath © Paul Compton

Michael Camilleri evokes a medieval-like atmosphere in Monk in Landscape – Merri Creek as the lone figure of a crusading monk travails the banks of the Merri Creek. Sword in hand, his mission is to keep the urban space of the creek safe much like other costumed, modern day, superheroes. Bringing us firmly back to the present is the depiction of a walking path to Rushall train station and, behind that, one of Northcote’s large public housing estates.

Monk in Landscape – Merri Creek is inspired by Camilleri’s illustrations from the Fighting Monk series originally published in the literary journal ‘Going Down Swinging’ No. 30.

Monk in Landscape – Merri Creek © Michael Camilleri

Trevor ‘Turbo’ Brown loves animals and has created a body of work entirely based around them. This large painting shows two big wombats and one smaller one, standing outside their dark burrow. They are surrounded by a border of white clouds in a blue sky. 'Turbo''s work may seem naïve with its simple forms, but there is a great energy and skill in his use of composition, colour and line. He uses bright colours and bold outlines, painting quickly with unmixed acrylic paint. The painting is a public favourite within the City of Darebin, and has often hung in public spaces including Darebin Libraries and Bundoora Homestead Art Centre.

Living rough on the Mildura streets and the Murray River bank, 'Turbo' has said that animals were his only friends. He was adopted by Herb Patten and his wife, Aunty Bunta and moved to Melbourne where he took up boxing and became a keen rapper and breakdancer. Uncle Herb and Aunty Bunta enrolled in a diploma of visual arts at the Bundoora RMIT campus and took 'Turbo' along. There he began to paint. It soon became apparent that he had a talent for expressing on canvas the stories and images from his mind.

'Turbo' holds a Diploma of Arts (Visual Arts) from RMIT Melbourne, which he completed in 2004 and his first solo exhibition at the Koorie Heritage Trust in Melbourne, was a sell-out.

The painting Summer Storm features the Merri Creek. It illustrates this iconic waterway in this area detailing the native vegetation and the intrusion of the power lines and skyscrapers. The painting also makes reference to Giorgione’s painting The Tempest paying tribute to the power of nature as the lightning bolt on the horizon seems to have carved out the creek. The site of this painting is from Yarra Bend Park where NMIT is located. It was all once part of City of Northcote. The new boundaries put all of the open space south of Heidelberg Road into the City of Yarra. So it is very near Darebin's border. The area is easy to walk to from nearby car parks. It shows the view of the city that we have from the City of Darebin.

Crafted from fabric, quilting, beads, silk and plastic, Teacosy Number 34, Bundoora Homestead is a tribute to former times when teacosies were a practical, yet highly decorative domestic accessory. The rich, luxurious colour shadings of burgundy and brown together with the use of hand embroidery techniques convey a sense of history and formality. A small plastic horse adorns the teacosy acknowledging Bundoora Homestead’s original use as a racehorse breeding stud led by the champion stallion Wallace, sired by Carbine, winner of the 1896 Melbourne Cup. The teacosy is embroidered on both sides with a swallow that appears prominently throughout Bundoora Homestead’s interior stained and painted glass scheme and the fabrics reflect some of the homestead’s original paint colours.

Tara Badcock is a Tasmanian based conceptual artist and designer working primarily with textiles. Her work is held in a number of private and public collections including the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery and UNESCO’s Collection Permanent in Paris, France.

Teacosy Number 34, Bundoora Homestead © Tara Badcock