A collaboration between Hawkesbury City Council
and Baulkham Hills Shire Council

SYNTHETIC SPACES | 8 June - 22 July 2007

< Jo Ernsten < Glenda Ewin < Fida Haq
< Alan Jones < Robyn Ryan < Jason Wing

300 George Street, Windsor
Open Monday - Friday 10am - 4pm, Saturday & Sunday 10am - 3pm (closed Tuesdays)
T: 02 4560 4441
E: gallery@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au
W: www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

Synthetic Spaces includes six artists who have conceptually explored and interpreted change and the ideas surrounding the synthetic space. Their work directly relates to North West Sydney - the Hawkesbury and Hills areas, while drawing on the broader resonance of change by examining the impact of new media and how it informs our notions of space and belonging.

The notion of a synthetic space has resonance in the present day. Contemporary life depends on our embracing the multitudinous changes that have occurred over the last suburban century. While the Hawkesbury, through geographic circumstance, has remained less developed, the Hills district is known for its subdivisions and housing boom. An archetypal ‘synthetic space’, the largest shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere is being built in between these two areas where previously market gardens and farming were the only commercial activities.

Jo Ernsten explores ideas of randomness and interconnectivity with Touch/Swerve. Monotone portraits peer out of small round, 1950s Bakelite frames purchased on eBay - a community unrelated to geographic location. Jason Wing, conversely, relates directly to the area with site-specific art installations and by participating in cultural connectivity through a process of negotiation with landholders.

Moving through space and location along the same roads as Wing, Fida Haq digitally documents his journeys across Western Sydney emphasising the inherent frustrations experienced. He also typifies the cultural connectivity of the region with his collaborative work with Writers’ Groups.

The house and home and notions of identity are again explored in the work of both Alan Jones, who plays on his name and his personal experience of North Western Sydney with his sculptural work The Jones’, and Robyn Ryan who subverts real estate signage to highlight the changing nature of the area.

Taking notions of spatial interpretation literally, Glenda Ewin explores how expectations trick the viewer, with a trompe l’oeil conceit forcing the viewer to re-adjust their spatial awareness to where the gallery begins and ends.

Kathleen von Witt

The exhibition tours to Castle Hill Community Centre, 27 July - 26 August 2007, corner Pennant and Castle Streets, Castle Hill. Phone Stuart Slough for more information on 9843 0199.