Events Calendar

Rachel Hirabayashi has her solo exhibition at Hullabaloo - April 22nd to May 5th.
In her continuing search, Rachel Hirabayashi shows works that explore the shift of the sacred into our landscapes. From her studio the displaced figures of religious or consumer females might occupy the vast landscapes of Hirabayashi's paintings. As congregation member or a consumer, each is looking for affirmation and belonging. Once home was in the congregation now it is a purchased lifestyle. No longer do they reside with their congregation or market-driven demographic. Through disbelief, they are now homeless.
In the buildings that identify Hirabayashi's continuing pleasure in the formal qualities of the steeple and church we see the abandoned place. An identified, a named, place drifting back to landscape. The religious structures and details, of her catholic up bringing and subsequence university studies, result in the juxtaposition of the nothingness and emptiness, of eastern and western experience.
Hirabayashi lived in Japan with its quiet temples and restrained surfaces. She also lived in Mexico with its exuberant and unbridled decorative Catholic religion. In traveling Hirabayashi gathers visual memories. Her paintings are psychological remembrances built from her kiwi travels, not literal landscapes.
 
This series is a development from her iconic flock series. Gone are the black voids of people and dogs. There is no one to project yourself on to, just the building and landscape resonate between civilization and the unoccupied scene as our eyes cross to the horizon. Belief, or its lack, in the viewer is provoked. Quizzical or dismissive the only space to reside is the landscape.

Location

Hullabaloo Art Space

15 Melmore Terrace , Old Cromwell Historic Precinct