A Point of View - an address by Stan d’Argeavel at the opening of Richard Morecroft’s 2010 photographic exhibition at the Shoalhaven Regional Arts Gallery.

Richard has been dealing with points of view for many years in the ABC for most of his working life but they have mostly been the points of view of politicians, journalists, spin doctors, police, self interest groups and so on.

Now he deals with his own point of view – through his continued media work and through his television documentaries and most importantly as we see here today through his unique representation of the equally unique Australian Landscape through his still photography and now through sculpture as well.

What Richard has done is turn the notion of landscape on its head – not really though its only 90 degrees away to be able to present portraits of that landscape. The two terms are iconic terms for not only two of the major genres of photography but also for the shape of a painting or photograph.

Landscape deals with the near to the far, but it’s been predominantly the wide approach that is taken by artists. Richard has chosen to extrapolate that view in two ways, firstly by presenting a narrow ultra portrait shaped view and secondly by extending the reach of the near and far from the extreme close-up of the foreground details and elements to the far background detail, leading towards, or even up to, and beyond the horizon.

The images present an almost stratigraphical view of a vertical slice of the landscape, something akin to the fault lines to be seen on geological maps. Again it’s in opposition to the more common view of geological formations that most of us recognise as layered sediments. For me, its no coincidence that you might find a similar effect if you were to place a glass slide in a microscope normally horizontally, then turning the slide around to look at it vertically.

Richard depicts his element assemblages or progressions using 100% nature to portray the sequences you see here. He espouses a fascination by the processes that produce structures and patterns in geological and biological environments and all their details and repeated motifs, such as erosion, sedimentation, fractal patterns in vegetation and the crystalline formations of minerals.

Now he’s looking at a wider view of that horizontal world with the new assemblages based on evolution, both convergent and divergent, either converging from a fractured foreground to a perfect horizon or diverging from a coherent foreground to a discontinuity or distance. But these are not symmetrical slices joined to make a conveniently viewable whole, something you could expect to achieve in a single image.

And he is providing a metaphor for the amazing process of evolution in our natural world, with the many small changes made continuously over an almost incomprehensible timeframe. Richard believes these sequences are akin to the way we actually look at the world, in separate viewings or looks. Our eyes have a very wide angle view of around 160 degrees, not unlike a wide angle lens on the camera, but usually we can only look at one view at a time and shift our eyeball to see the full range in sections. That is separate looks.

But I find the really interesting area in our sight is the peripheral vision we all have. It reminds me of the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, where the spaceship was so black and sleek , you could only see it when you are not looking directly at it.” I would like to attempt to exploit that phenomenon photographically one day.

I find it a bit a bit uncanny that Richard and I share many things, like a love of the landscape, and nature and surfing in one form or another, an appreciation for the geology that makes up our world, photography as our most preferred way of seeing and presenting our views of the world, and, after receiving some notes from Richard on the work for this exhibition, even the way we both know and view that world, in his words ”as just a lot of random atoms buzzing through our universe.” I have recently given up on the notion of a world in harmony, and am now looking for some kind of explanation in the mathematics of Quantum Theory.

And you may think that there is no link in all of this. Well you would be wrong. I just want to look briefly at a bit of history here, and in doing so will come why it is that Richard and other photographers are able to present their work today.

William Herschel was the man who put the Universe in plain view. With his ever increasingly sized telescopes and his handmade mirrors, lens elements and various coatings, he was able to look to the stars, and speculate on space, year by year in the age of romanticism. His work is incorporated in the photographic lenses of today and his most enduring and important discovery in his time was the discovery of the unfortunately named planet, Uranus. What Herschel applied to his work was an incredible level of disciplined observance, and building on that level of observation over a long period of time.

And these are two of the three basic things that Richard possesses, and as a photographer, needs, to succeed. A love and respect for technological development, particularly of all things optical, and an observing mind’s eye, applied to seek out and capture the visual scenario before him, be it landscape, in the street, in the studio or wherever one chooses to operate. The other basic thing of course is that other wonderful stuff that emanates from our best known bunch of random atoms, light and other sub atomic particles from the sun and the other stars and galaxies - the essence of not only photography, but of life as well.

All of this conspires to allow Richard to develop his images, pardon the pun, through the use of extreme depth of field, recording sharply and accurately in focus, the smallest detail in the element of the landscape nearest to him, the blade of grass, the grain of sand, to the rock or tree, to the mound or hill or rock-shelf, to the hill, or ocean, the horizon, the non ethereal sky and even further into outer space.

Richard’s almost unique visions of nature provide a fascinating insight into the depth of nature and show us graphically how our sense of sight works for us to be able to see our world.

BACH CELLO SUITES BY CANDLELIGHT - Performance Sold Out
Friday 12th November at 8pm in the Octagon Artspace
Tickets $25 are strictly limited to ensure the intimacy of this event
Bookings can be made on 6238 1682

David Pereira plays solo J. S. Bach's cello suites 1 in G Major, 3 in C Major and his composition, Black Mountain Views, interspersed with open discussion of the inner games of playing and listening.

An intimate evening with this leading Australian cello performer, teacher, writer, recording artist and prominent musician on both the national and international scene. His playing aims for perfect listening and emotional responsiveness, uncompromised by thought or technical limitation. He is currently director of Australia’s only cello focused subscription series of recitals.

In this concert in the upstairs Octagon Artspace will resonate with the beautiful sound of David's wonderful old Italian cello made by Guidantus and dated from 1730 and generously on loan from the family of Nick Holmes.

The Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach are some of the most performed and recognizable solo compositions ever written for cello. The suites contain a great variety of technical devices and a wide emotional range. It is their intimacy, however, that has made the suites amongst Johann Sebastian Bach's most popular works today, resulting in their different recorded interpretations being fiercely defended by their respective advocates.

David gives a personal view of these works which have remained the cornerstone of the cellist's repertoire. He is only the second Australian to have recorded the Six Bach Suites with interpretations full of the romanticism one has come to expect from him, but tempered by a thorough understanding of the historical requirements of these seminal masterpieces.

David opened the Judi Power Thomson HOT COLOURS and Chan Dissanayake COOL WATERS exhibitions at 11am on Saturday October 2 with a improvised solo performance addressing one each of Judi and Chan's artworks inviting those present to follow him on a journey of musical exploration of the works. The large crowd attending the opening were spellbound by the beautiful sounds of David's cello that resonated in the Octagon Artspace to provide such a wonderful experience. Of the space David said, "I'm inspired by upstairs . . . very intimate and real."

DINNER AND JAZZ WITH THE KEVIN HUNT TRIO

Saturday 29th MAY from 6.30pm

A Night of fine foods and fine Jazz with Kevin Hunt (piano), Hannah James (Bass) and Ed Rodrigues (Drums)

AN EVENING WITH RICHARD MORECROFT

Saturday 24th April from 4.30pm.

RICHARD MORECROFT has been one of Australia's most visible personalities appearing as the ABC Televisions News Presenter for 25 years. Since retiring from that role Richard has pursued other Media interests including Television Documentaries and Corporate media events. His main passion is Photography and he presents an amazing approach to the unique Australian Landscape.
Richard will be presenting a talk on his life in the Media and in the Arts through his photography at Cafe Woodworks on Saturday 24th April. Following the talk Chefs Eric and Ric will present a three course dinner (see menu below)

Renowned Victorian furniture maker David Emery has recently shipped two tables to Bungendore Wood Works Gallery.

David Emery's professional interest is in making furniture of a clean uncluttered nature, with an emphasis on balance and proportion. His skills are mainly in the use of timber, with an emphasis on veneering as this allows greater flexibility in design avoiding the limitations of solid timber construction. All veneers are pressed in his own workshop, after components have been cut to size and had timber lippings applied to their edges.

He believes his veneering process gives a better edge detail than can be achieved using pre-veneered board and gives greater versatility in the ways the veneer can be applied within the project. He uses materials such as glass, metals and stone in his work and is especially interested in working with architects and designers, especially when he is able to become involved in the design process. Many of his works over the years have evolved into his "Studio Collection" which are now being made as small production runs.

Wye Dining Table

Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design, National Gallery of Australia, Robert Bell officially opened the Gallery's Signatures 25th Year Exhibition at a special function on Saturday 20th September. (see Current Exhibition for details of participants and works in the exhibition).

Robert Bell opening the Signatures exhibition in the Octagon ArtSpace. Left to right Robert Bell, David Mac Laren, Stan d'Argeavel, Phil and Jo Telford, Frank and Joan Wiesner.

Welcome to the new Bungendore Wood Works Gallery and Café Wood Works websites. The Gallery believed that while our original website has served us, and our clients, very well over the past 10 years, it was time for a change. The need was there for the site to be more dynamic and for information to be made available to our clients and visitors on a more immediate basis.

With the help of Spitfire Internet Services from Canberra the Gallery’s site is now generated via the Drupal interface and hosted by Spitfire to provide an up to-date and fully comprehensive site that will grow in time.

There are now many more pages for you to visit covering all aspects of the Gallery, its Resources, News, Exhibitions, Events, Product lines in the Gifts, Furniture and Fine Arts areas and information on our in-house Café Wood Works. And we will be presenting video on the site in the near future so you will be able to take a virtual tour of the Gallery, its exhibitions and events.