My university placement at Penrith Regional Gallery

Monday 04.09.2023

It’s the first Monday morning of Spring, I’ve arrived too early. I wander along the Nepean River and stop in the shade. A Cormorant sits patiently on a tree branch protruding from the muddy water banks. A Currawong flies by. People are getting in their morning exercise walking and running by. Two fire rescue trucks arrive, six men jump out and wander up to the gallery. I wonder if there is a fire.

Lewers House, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023

I’m greeted by smiling faces and introduced to everyone who works at Penrith Regional Gallery. P.H is my primary point of contact, She is the gallery’s registrar, responsible for the gallery’s collection record and exhibition management. The technician (Ernest) gives me a guided tour of the different gallery spaces and introduces me to the history of the property’s original owners and the building’s significance. The site was originally the home of artists Margo and Gerald Lewers.
Penrith Regional Gallery has four exhibition spaces. The Main Gallery, Ancher House, Lewers House and the Loungeroom Gallery. Gary Carsley and Renjie Teoh are busy in the main gallery installing Parlour Parlëur, their creation of a symbolic space that encourages dialogue through the translation of objects, animation, voice, and architecture. There is a flurry of activity here as the artists and three assistants work from the floor to the roof pasting prints throughout the entire gallery space. The scope and size of this installation is truly immense.

Installing Parlour Parlëur, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023

I spend the morning learning about Penrith Regional Gallery’s in house collection of art and professional best practice to handle and care for artworks. Deinstalling works by Brook Andrews, Tracy Moffat, Blak Douglas and Leanne Tobin from the show From The Collection which is Leanne Tobins curation of works from Penrith Regional Gallery’s collection.

Blak Douglas, Anchor House, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023




Margaret Lewers ceramic and Leanne Tobin painting, in collection room, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023

Lunchtime goes fast but so has the day.

I spend the afternoon helping with the installation of Gary and Renjies Parlour Parlëur. I’m working ahead of the installers measuring and marking the vertical and horizontal grids that guide the pasting of prints onto the walls. The grids take inspiration from weaving keylines used by the Outer Western Lacemakers Sydney to create their lace work.

Lace work in progress , Outer Western Lacemakers Sydney, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023




Lace Work, Outer Western Lacemakers Sydney, Parlour Parlëur, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023.

Discussing print as a medium with Gary leads to him recommending that I investigate the practices of Australian print artists Michael Kempson from Cicada Press and Jason Phu and Ben Rak from Throw Down Press.

*Gary’s singing hallelujah

Day two – Tuesday 05.09.2023

Talking to Peta we casually discuss the planning behind exhibitions held at Penrith Regional Gallery. The main gallery, Lewers House, and Anchor House are planned two to three years ahead of time. Planning for the community space; Loungeroom Gallery is shorter, more fluid and open to exhibition by emerging artists.

While working with the assistants installing Parlour Parlëur, I take the opportunity to ask Gary about his practice and his relationship to print as a medium. Gary mentions the importance that developing a unique visual language has had to his career. I raise discussion around his recommended print artists from Monday which leads us to talking about print as a medium that possess a materiality that fits into different social and cultural contexts. For example, the degradation of a print block though repeated use can act as a metaphor for the integration of minority voices that act to dilute dominant social narratives. Gary recommends a David Greenhalgh listing on the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and print works with Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg from a show of their work at the NGV – Significant Others, 2022.

"a political image versus the politics of the image" – Gary Carlsey

Work continues installing Parlour Parlëur. Katrina a visual arts student from Nepean Tafe, Kingswood is leading me through the installation of prints onto the walls.

Installing prints for Parlour Parlëur, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023.

Wednesday 06.09.2023

A full day helping to install Parlour Parlëur. I’ve teamed up with Katrina and we begin to plan our approach to Gary and Renjie’s direction for the installation of sculptures to their exhibition. Penrith Regional Gallery embraces the use of its art collection by artists that exhibit in its spaces. We are tasked with installing Margo Lewers ceramic vases, an orange plate and two of her paintings from the gallery’s collection. Gary has asked us to install two of his cuttings he made in the 1980’s that take inspiration from Paddington Lace. His lace works lean towards a similarity with privacy spaces as curtains that separate traditional home spaces. Gary’s works hold a similar aesthetic to the lace works by the Outer Western Sydney Lacemakers included in Parlour Parlëur. Community is the primary focus of this installation. Combining weaving with architectural building and construction together redefines conceptions of traditional female work through its representation in a different discourse.

There are approximately 4000 A4 pages installed in Parlour Parlëur. The use of A4 paper sheets speak to interrupting material privilege and embracing accessibility to art by people in society who do not have access to creating large scale works. A3 sizes and larger are more expensive. A4 can be printed by almost anyone with access to a printer.

A cutting work by Gary Carsley, circa 1980’s,Parlour Parlëur, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023




Margo Lewers plate and paintings installed, Parlour Parlëur print install, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023

There are approximately 4000 A4 pages installed in Parlour Parlëur. The use of A4 paper sheets speak to interrupting material privilege and embracing accessibility to art by people in society who do not have access to creating large scale works. A3 sizes and larger are more expensive. A4 can be printed by almost anyone with access to a printer.

I asked Peta about traditional print medium work that might be in Penrith Regionals collection. Like screen printing, monoprinting, or etching prints excluding commercially printed photographic works. The gallery holds works by Brook Andrew and Barbara Hanrahan in their collection.

*Its been a solid day installing. getting my steps in.

Leanne Tobin leads the afternoon in a coming together of all people involved in the installation as a recognition of community endeavour and its place within country. Leanne is a multidisciplinary artist of Irish, English and Aboriginal heritage descending from the Buruberong and Wumali clans of the Dharug, the traditional Aboriginal people of the Greater Sydney region. The gathering includes all people from Penrith Regional Gallery who have had physical contact with the work and its process. Leanne anchors the gallery and the exhibition into an Indigenous historical and contemporary setting by acknowledging her country, ancestry and living Indigenous people’s connection to place and the land that Penrith Regional Gallery sits on today.

Thursday 07.09.2023

Installing works for Feras Shaheen exhibition: Show me the Way.

Sculptural installation into the garden in front of Lewers House. The sculpture is two semi circles mounted on steel poles that are wedged into the ground. I drilled mounting holes into the Perspex, hammered the poles into the ground and fixed the sculpture together in place. The sculpture blocks a pathway through the garden and challenges people to experience the place in an alternative way.

Garden Sculpture, Show me the Way, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023

I am tasked to prepare and install a large yellow perspex tongue in the Anchor house kitchen. I drilled a mounting hole into the Perspex and attached a stand. Painting a timber weight to prevent movement and hold the tongue in place against the wall. This work amplifies the architectural qualities of the heritage kitchen in Anchor House.

Feras Shaheen, Show me the Way, Anchor House Kitchen, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023

There is a lot of walking today, I’m on my feet all day.

While ordering a coffee from the café I had a brief conversation with Nina Stromqvist the curator at Penrith Regional Gallery. A casual conversation about how the gallery finds and invites artists. She asked about my practice and background. Time is short, conversation is cut short by a request for her assistance.

I Install a television into the Loungeroom community gallery for the Show me the Way exhibition.

Feras Shaheen, Show me the Way, Loungeroom Gallery, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023

Friday 08.09.2023

Peta asked me to start at 8.30am today. It is the final day before the galleries open with their new shows. Feras Shaheen is onsite creating interactive videos that incorporate his site-specific sculptures with performative dance. The work will be held by Penrith Regional Gallery as an ongoing work for children to interact with the sculptures and the gardens.

Dumbbell installation for Feras Shaheen. Perspex is very rigid and cracks easily. I am careful not to force the dumbbell together. After finding the centre I drill holes into Perspex rods and discs then fasten them together with fixing screws. The holes and screws are very tight, the Perspex melts if I drill it for too long. There is a little bit of pressure to prepare the work in time for Feras’ performance.

Feras’ exhibition Show me the Way is a learning project that prompts audiences to consider Penrith Regional Gallery's gardens and outdoor spaces in new ways that can uncover hidden stories. Feras’ sculptures change the way people move through the space, a type of restriction. As a restriction they question how restrictions play out in life. People move through and around the sculptural pieces in their own unique way. Through movement the artworks become realised. Physical, social and emotional responses to restriction are ways people can recognise what is needed for them to overcome and liberate themselves from constraints.

Preparing sculptures for Show me the Way, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023.




Feras Shaheen practices his performance, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023

I follow a walkthrough of Parlour Parlëur by Toby Chapman the director and Nina Stromqvist the curator. The walkthrough is an introduction to the exhibition for casual volunteers who are minding the space and responding to questions visitors may have for the duration of the show. Nina discusses the cultural and institutional context of the exhibition. She expands on how institutions are holders of knowledge. Parlour Parlëur actives the main gallery as a site that contains many entangled stories, the gallery becomes a parlour, a place of community, storytelling, and shared experience, a domestic space superseded by the living rooms of today. French for talk, the Parlour is a call and response between objects within the space. The exhibition contains works from Penrith Regional Gallery’s collection of paintings and sculptures by Margaret Lewers. Weavings by the OWLS (Outer Western Lacemakers Sydney) are representations of the flowers in the Lewers gardens that offer an intimacy and proximity of the parlour to the historical significance of the garden site.

Parlour Parlëur is a way to rediscover humanity within contemporary society. it gives voices to groups of people outside of dominant social structures through queer and feminist interpretations of contemporary place. The exhibition appears as a ruin, a metaphor for the loss of types of artmaking. Parlour Parlëur is a rupture to proximity and loss, it explores the trace like a frottage drawing, traces of people past and present, it is a metaphor for the loss of colonial structures and narratives as well as the disruption and loss of indigenous culture. By inviting people to gather in the space and participate in lost artforms, like tracing, weaving, and writing a letter Parlour Parlëur entangles and exchanges community and identity with new ways of accessing and interpreting the gallery site and its collection of art. The domestic origins of Penrith Regional Gallery as a home to the Lewers family was the original premise of Parlour Parlëur, a convergence of influences and forces between family, community, art, the gallery collections, and its space.

Parlour Parlëur, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023




Parlour Parlëur opening, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023.




The OWLS, Outer Western Lacemakers Sydney, Parlour Parlëur, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2023