GALLERY ANNEXE WALL COMMISSIONS
2023 - jay van nus, here
“I have created a design that encapsulates the memories I have been fortunate to make throughout my childhood growing up Here in Ballarat and attempt to pass on that experience to the mural's passersby.
“I want to give Ballarat's youth an opportunity to interact with Ballarat's art world as I did - with wonder. I want to give long-time Ballarat citizens time to reflect - like the lands' abundant water - back on their own memories in this beautiful city fondly. I want visitors and new arrivals to see the value of this place, through my eyes. This design touches on key-memories in my upbringing - visiting the Ballarat Botanical Gardens and Lake Wendouree with my nature-obsessed family, falling in love with my fiance, spending time bird watching with my late grandpa, and following the wombat footprints down the Art Gallery's alley alongside my Abuelita as a child. The design pays homage to the Traditional owners of the land, the Waddawurrung people who welcomed me and my Noongar family into the community, my Chilean mother who bravely brought our family here, and the beautiful location, nature and art community in Ballarat.
“I have included traditional Noongar symbols for water, development (eggs), and community, and I constantly revisit both water bird symbolism to encapsulate the Ballarat environment and development, and childhood memories and upbringing.
“This mural is part of the City of Ballarat’s public art program which invests in sensitive and appropriate temporary and permanent public art and is responsible for the creative activation of public space. This has been funded by the City of Ballarat.”
Jay Van Nus, artist - Here - Art Gallery Annexe Wall
2022 - jay rankine, Metamorphosis
Living in a historic regional city like Ballarat we are reminded daily of the past, we’re all surrounded by it, but we also have aspects of technology seeping through. Is our present being overlooked and lost by reflecting on the past? In Metamorphosis, the current artwork installed on the Annex Wall in Alfred Deakin Place, artist Jay Rankine attempts to create something that embraces this moment in time and takes a snapshot of our present relationship with technology. Meta being relevant to what is happening currently with the Metaverse and the use of technology in virtual reality and augmented reality. Morphosis relating to the transformation of the design from the real world into a digital one, like how society is transitioning with new technologies. This artwork transforms the wall at Alfred Deakin Place beyond the physical and add a digital component using Augmented Reality. The work becomes a sculptural piece within that digital space. The audience can use Instagram or Facebook on their device to load an interactive AR effect to make the elements in the mural animate off the wall and scatter around the historic blue stone laneway.
With a career spanning 30 years, Jay Rankine aka Merda is a self-taught visual artist who was a pioneer of Melbourne’s early graffiti scene. During the late 80’s he helped bring 3D lettering styles to the world, and in doing so helped firmly establish Australia’s graffiti reputation and influenced a generation of writers. Inspired by everyday surroundings, Merda adapts his approach by using different mediums and ways of making to create unique works that incorporate clean lines and subtle minimalist colour.
Working as a professional graphic designer and illustrator for over 2 decades, he has worked with clients including Hertz, Australia Post, Red Bull, Kraft, Vegemite, Just Jeans, Absolut Vodka and Myer. Featured in multiple international street art publications, Jay has work held in National Gallery of Australia, and has held numerous solo and group exhibitions including at the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Victoria. In recent years he has completed a commission for QV Melbourne, painted at the Wonderwalls Festival in Port Adelaide and has been selected as a feature artist for Wacom’s Next Level publication and exhibition.
2021 - george goodnow, mirror MAZE
George is a multidisciplinary artist and curator and their work for the Annexe Wall features a fictional architectural arrangement of the Police Lane site. George utilises painting (designed through hand-drawn and digital processes) to adjust existing architecture, illuminating how spaces reflect, orientate and hold bodies. Recent work explores feelings of disorientation, binaries and queerness within suburban and urban landscapes.
“The artwork speaks to the historical architecture of this area, while exploring the idea of changing understanding of space. Space is bent, bulged and repeated, in this painting, like a mirror maze. In this way, it will inspire playfulness, curiosity and thought, by transforming the way we observe, move through and engage with public space”, said George.
George Goodnow has exhibited and produced public art installations around Australia and overseas and has collaborated on projects with the Melbourne Fringe Festival, SIGNAL Arts, Juddy Roller and the Abbotsford Convent. They were the curator of Intermission Project at the Collingwood Yards in 2018, and they are a curatorial advisor for Science Gallery Melbourne.
2020 - BRIONY GALLIGAN, open every door & a lover not a fighter
Artist Briony Galligan took the Gallery Annexe Wall to a new level by installing two artworks in the year period instead of one. Open Every Door consisted of two wall paintings, each will remain at the site for 6 months, and they were supported by a website publication. Each abstract wall painting references queer histories and art makers and the history of Alfred Deakin - the namesake of the public space. Briony referenced abstract drawings made by Alfred Deakin’s Spiritualist contemporaries, such as Georgiana Haughton (1814-1884). In 2021 Briony brought an additional artwork A Lover not a Fighter to the venue.
“Alfred Deakin Place is an important cultural site and meeting place for protests and rallies including support for Black Lives Matter and Marriage Equality,” said Briony. “The work Open Every Door draws on the history of the site, Alfred Deakin’s spiritualism, as well as queer histories in Ballarat. For example the text for the work, ‘A lover not a fighter, a fighter not a lover’ is drawn from a shirt at the Ballarat Frolic Festival. The painted works are very intricate to make as I will be working in various sized brush strokes to make the images appear hand-drawn.”
2019 - josh muir, roots
The inaugural Gallery Annexe Wall was installed by Gunditjmara, Yorta Yorta and Barkindji artist Josh Muir. Josh Muir’s work, Roots, was the first temporary artwork to be installed on the Gallery Annex Wall on the approach to Alfred Deakin Place, Police Lane in Ballarat Central.
Josh grew up in Ballarat where he was well known for his fresh and contemporary take on indigenous art. Josh represents a growing group of First Nations peoples who are permanently settling in the city and bringing with them a vibrancy and a voice. Josh’s used high contrast and strongly delineated characters to express his stories, all of which is fed by his experience as a street artist and his pleasure in providing art in public spaces.
Roots is a powerful piece. The viewer’s experience with the work is a feeling that it is not negotiable. Containing the strong features of a traditional elder, Roots is the face of an ‘uncle’ looking out over humanity, community and Western society. Josh had a strong connection to his culture and is well known within the arts community both locally and nationally. His work Heaven’s Gates won the People’s Choice Award at the 2014 Victorian Indigenous Arts Awards, and in 2015 he won the Youth Award in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Art Awards for his work Buninyong. In February 2016, his works were projected across the expansive facade of the National Gallery of Victoria for White Night Melbourne. Still Here, Josh’s White Night series, told the story of Aboriginal people in Victoria before and since white settlement.
Josh Muir died in 2023 but he has left a mighty legacy.
