Part of the Audience
The artists on show
Duncan McKay, John Cullinane, Michael Doherty, Connie Petrillo, Kevin Robertson, Peter Davidson, Cynthia Ellis, Caspar Fairhall, Diokno Pasilan, Chelle Bourne and Lynne Norton
I didn’t think the Wild Swan Art Groups show would go ahead as a heavy typhoon was bearing down on the Island of Okinawa but as luck would have it,
the storm went further west and we could land.
At Naha Airport, Okinawa
glancing out to the distant sea
there was this impending heavy grey gloom on the far sea horizon being the
torrential rains which came for a while that
afternoon whilst the Wild Swan Art Groups exhibition was on display.
Okinawa
The Wild Swan Art Groups exhibition in Public
Gallery no 3 within the museum was a very
good idea, for it allows the community to see an international exhibition
and also what their major collection holds all under one roof.
The individual groups or artists that exhibit in these
public gallery spaces have the opportunity to see and
experience the museum’s quality exhibition facilities, especially the
lighting which is vastly different to most gallery lighting systems as iut infused natural skylight with internal lighting systems with brilliant effect and calrity on the artworks. Having the
opportunity to exhibit in professionally constructed museum quality venues is
important to the artists, groups and curators for it allows them to observe
their artworks in a high quality space which really does shift the viewing
experience from just casual to a more forensic analysis. For the audiences/artist
alike, it’s mutually beneficial in the sense it brings new audiences to
experience the museum and your artworks.
Peter Davidson
View from Okinawa Bridge 2015
oil on board
10.7 h cm x 46.5 cm w
The other issue that became obvious in exhibiting
within a museum was the enquiry that the audience was able to do for each
artwork, one noticed they really did take time to peruse each artwork and talk
about it with their friends and when you
spoke to them some of the questions they started asking were really difficult
but pertinent to the show.
For example,
a Chinese gentleman came into the exhibition and started talking about my
artworks especially the magenta markings that were imbued within my image. This caught me off guard as it has historical
precedents to Cezanne, Coldstream and in current personal research to the human
Inner GPS whether that’s true or not as I said to the Chinese Doctor and his
friend, " I don’t know Im not a medical scientist
but it’s something I am researching". What also surprised me was how forensic the
questions were by these Chinese gentlemen and
the depth of their knowledge on art and how they spoke about the subtleties of
tones and hues passionately, it was a long and inspiring conversation with
them.
It was a
successful exhibition by The Wild Swan Art Group,
approximately one hundred people came from the Okinawan and
international tourist community, despite the heavy typhoon rain at times. This was a very good result for the one day
lightening exhibition series.
