The seed began to form when Katherine Elizabeth Mary Charles first stepped into a house on 7 Bryce street; a house that was later to become her home, studio and finally the exhibition space for the event known as the Inside Out Project Gallery. The down lights revealed empty space, that would be a perfect canvas to start something new. That something would later become a project gallery and a space to be filled with art produced by talented, creative, and underground locals who had been hiding out in the shadows.
The idea was stimulated to grow by the fact that she wanted to create a different kind of exhibition one that could be enjoyed by all and with all kinds of features to entertain and involve;
“I’ve been to many exhibitions, the art has been amazing but just as the drinks start flowing, connections and networking begins, 9:30 rolls around and everyone turns into a pumpkin. The night is over and we are left wondering where to go. I wanted people to enjoy art, enjoy each others company, hang out and be able to relax in the same environment with no one telling us where to go.”
But it wasn’t just the environment that needed a change. Katherine wanted to give local artist the opportunity to show what they had.
“Primarily I wanted to create a visual platform for artist who love doing what they do, enjoy creating art but don’t necessarily have the confidence to approach someone to exhibit”
The idea spread, grew legs and cycled on a marshmallow coloured bike around town… People became inspired and felt encouraged to be part of it. The date was set and the work began. Katherine worked hard for over six weeks, taking overstretched lunch breaks to email and organize the main event. The picket fence swung wide open and artist started flooding in, by the final day of hanging, twenty artists in total used every empty space inside and out of the house to display the project they have been working on.
“Many of the artist that I worked with had never exhibit before or framed their work, little own hung their work on a wall for perfect strangers to see.”
After all the work, which has now become a very real career path for Miss Charles the event involved over 20 artists from all genres of photography, print, paint, and sketch, 3 major installations including restored and functional art based woodwork, stitched up sustainable recycled clothing, beautifully designed jewellery and accessories, an abundance of talented local musicians performing on the back deck AND 3 short film directors with amazing skateboarding movies which were all screened on the back shed!
Katherine was incredibly proud of all the talent that she was surrounded by and how incredibly supportive everyone was; artists, friends and family. Katherine particularly enjoyed working with all the artists to create the gallery from start to finish; cleaning and clearing the space, hanging art, hammering nails, setting up the bbq, collecting beers, the lot, and was above all so excited by how stoked everyone else was becoming in the process.
“Working with underground and emerging artists is by far the best, you can see how happy it makes them to see their work actually up on a wall and to have people appreciate it. Most of the artists were more than enthusiastic to create the visual platform for their work and to really demonstrate how the work came about. The night was definitely focussed around installations and showing the creativity and the inspiration for all the pieces”
A raffle and sausage sizzle was held on the night with proceeds all going to the Blackdog Institute for Mental Health. Prizes for the raffle were donated by very supportive businesses, many of which take part in supporting art, surfing and skateboarding, both local and further afield. In particular local company The Art Park supported the cause but are also committed to supporting art around the world and have established an Artist Network to help expose talented artists, film makers and writers. Sponsors of the event included The Critical Slide Society, The Art Park, Stone and Wood Brewery, Lyloh, With Love from Lauren Rose Real Graphic Design and Tara’s Way. As the raffle was being drawn many Artists jumped on stage and pretty much threw their art into the draw, showing exactly what the night was about, supporting a good cause and supporting underground art, emerging small business and independent film.
The future for Beyond the White Picket fence?
“ Im going away to work on a boat back home in Western Australia for 6 months but I will be back next summer. This experience has been a massive inspiration for me and it’s been truly amazing working with other artists from all genres. I would like to establish an Art House in the future, a collaboration of all art based projects under the one roof, all working together, all inspiring each other and creating exhibitions just like this one but maybe quarterly. I have so many talented friends who I would love to work with and I believe in their passions. I couldn’t think of a better way to work definitely better than flipping tofu burgers”
