Critic's Picks

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday February 25, 2005

Tracey Clement

LYNNE ROBERTS-GOODWIN

Lynne Roberts-Goodwin's solo exhibition Disappearing Act is a photographic journal of her recent adventures on the World Heritage-listed Frankincense Trail, an ancient Middle Eastern trade route. Roberts-Goodwin photographs vistas of rocky cliffs, orange sands and bright-blue skies. In some, the approach of tiny distant trucks gives a sense of scale to the vast expanse of desert. Elsewhere, young men who sell petrol along the trail pose for the camera like tourists in their own landscape. In Petrol Boy Take 4, even the camel manages a grin. Sherman Galleries, 16-20 Goodhope Street, Paddington, 9331 1112, Tuesday-Friday, 10am-6pm, Saturday, 11am-6pm, until March 5.

JACQUELINE FRASER

In her sumptuous installation The Ventriloquist, New Zealander Jacqueline Fraser pokes fun at the superficial glamour of fashion. Fraser pins life-size photos of pretty boys and girls to gold-and-white striped wallpaper. She dresses them up like giant paper dolls in gleaming sequins, skimpy negligees, fake fur and bad-hair-day wigs. The paper models mince and preen, while text panels reveal her wicked, cryptic commentary. In one, the Ventriloquist says, "But style queen, you blood sucker you. You've unstuck that dry faux rattle snake's hiss." Rosyln Oxley9 Gallery,

8 Soudan Lane, Paddington, 9331 1919. Last days today and tomorrow, 11am-6pm.

CHRISTIAN HALL

Some boys never get tired of their toys. In his exhibition Domestic Departure, Adelaide designer Christian Hall fills the gallery with tiny planes, motorcycles, cars and caravans. Hall uses industrial techniques to produce miniature vehicles from folded sheet metal. Some of these vehicles are turned into jewellery or small lights, others are simply playful objects. Most of Hall's work is matt-black aluminium, but one shiny red plane is suspended overhead, caught in mid zoom. Object Gallery Project Space, 415 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, 9361 4511. Last days today, tomorrow, Sunday, 11am-6pm.

PHILIPA VEITCH

Indulge your inner child with Philipa Veitch's mixed-media exhibition Dug Out, which resembles the wild creativity of a bunch of talented hyperactive kids working on a school project. Veitch's frenzied abstract pencil drawings in bright scratchy colours are like oversized obsessive doodles. Collections of newspaper cuttings on themes such as immigration and culture are arranged on bits of coloured card using wads of sticky tape. Veitch also knits strange sentence fragments in wool and lets the words droop off the wall. Scott Donovan Gallery, Room 4, Level 1, 168 Day Street, Sydney, 9261 2991. Thursday-Saturday, 11am-6pm, until March 5.

WWW

WWW is a frenetic display of works by 12 female artists from Australia and New Zealand, selected by Julian Dashper. The innovatively installed exhibition looks like the fallout from a bomb filled with art. A range of minimal, hyper-real and text-based paintings seem to have been splattered along one wall of the gallery with explosive force. Judy Darragh's fluorescent yellow twine web and glistening beaded teardrops add yet more colour to this eclectic installation. Mixed-media sculptures and a video piece are also scattered across the floor. Kaliman Gallery, 10 Cecil Street, Paddington, 9357 2273.

Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5.30pm, until March 5.

Tracey Clement

© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

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