Chapter House Lane, the first four months
Justin Lee Williams’ opening show, Chapter House Lane, 2011
The inaugural exhibition at Chapter House Lane was 'Midnight Mountain Dancing’ by Justin Lee Williams. The show ran over the summer months from 11 November 2011 – 2 January 2012. Chapter House Lane was thrilled to exhibit Justin Lee Williams and grateful for his considerable vision and belief in us and our space.
Born 1984, Williams lives and works outside Melbourne, Victoria. In his Ferntree Gully studio, Williams works on this ongoing series of watercolour portraits, which depict a range of peculiar and comical encounters. Freely constructed, faces emerge from washes of colour and relaxed brushwork partners with occasional handwritten fragments of story.
Inspired by Mount Dandenong, where light filters through dense foliage, throwing a mysterious cloak of blue and green over everything… Williams’ stories evolve in the gap between reality and imagination. Memory blurs perception, emerging with a life of its own. In this collection, he paints from memory, creating new characters, cheeky or haunting interpretations of the original.
We followed the first show with Jelena Telecki’s 'Februar'.
Though Telecki’s paintings may depict people tripping, slipping, the mundane or futile, there is the promise of something else – something better – which justifies it all.
Telecki is hesitant to brand action or inaction as failure, as different cultures and systems define it differently. Similarly, in her work, foolishness and pointlessness are only surface traits; what’s more lies beneath.
In March, we collaborated with Sugar Mountain Festival to host Chaco Kato with her site-specific installation: ‘Liquid Neurology’. A founding member of the Slow Art Collective and educated in fine arts in Tokyo, Boston and Melbourne, Chaco Kato’s creative practice crosses genre and form, focusing on sustainability and eschewing gross consumerism. Best known for ephemeral, playful installations, Chaco brings her sense of humour and signature string construction to Chapter House Lane. Responding to the site, she employs versatility and flexibility to transform the space, developing a gradual understanding of the immediate environment and the way it’s viewed.
In its second year, the annual Sugar Mountain Festival brings contemporary musicians and visual artists together to highlight the collaborative nature of the two art forms, and the way in which they each influence the others’ creativity.
April: Rowan Conroy ‘ATHINA’. Conroy’s interest in archaeology – past and present – has taken him to places rooted in the ancient, yet foraging for a foothold in contemporary times. Photographing Athens from a height helped him document its high-density construction, endemic to the modern day metropolis.
The images present the urban landscape as a calcified accretion. The city can be compared to structures like anthills, coral reefs or lichen: colonies of organisms that grow, replicate and eventually spread across the land inhabiting every available crevice. With no horizon in sight, the viewer must contemplate the built environment in light of current environmental challenges, such as climate change, population growth and sustainability.
Having previously exhibited in Sydney and Cyprus, this is Conroy’s first Melbourne show. Currently on display, Rowan Conroy’s ‘Untitled #5', from the series 'Athina' has been short listed in the Josephine Ulrick Win Schubert Photography award.
