Orange Regional Gallery has recently completed an ambitious public art initiative, which featured 11 projects culminating in two most recent works: ‘Zanny Begg’s Dancing with Bees and Daniel Templeman, Aperture. These projects were part of Orange City Council’s Future City Plan, designed to revitalise the Orange CBD by engaging local, regional, and established Australian artists in creating high-caliber public murals, installations, and sculptures.
The public art component of the Future City Plan provided a platform for artists to explore the past, present, and future of Orange’s identity while activating public spaces and rejuvenating the CBD.
Zanny Begg, presented ‘Dancing with Bees. This ground breaking artwork merges arts and sciences, prompting viewers to reconsider our ecosystem’s fragility and the passage of time through dance and visually striking imagery of local bee species. The artwork features two screens that function as a clock, keeping real-time and immersing viewers in a thought-provoking experience.
Additionally, Daniel Templeman, introduced ‘Aperture‘. Templeman’s work is renowned for transforming urban spaces and engaging viewers. ‘Aperture’ invites audiences to explore geometric patterns and colours that shift as they move along the laneway, encouraging active participation in the artwork’s unfolding. The installation employs unique materials, with lights filtered through a honeycomb-like structure and a specially formulated film that alters the light’s colour in response to the viewer’s perspective. Inspired by minimalist music composers, Templeman’s creation uses a set of four linear patterns repeated throughout the laneway,
The Future City initiative, spanning four years, was made possible through funding from the NSW Government and Orange City Council, with additional support from CreateNSW and Creative Australia. This collaborative project has not only enriched Orange’s cultural landscape but also fostered community engagement and appreciation for public art.
Find out more – https://www.orange.nsw.gov.au/gallery/public-art/
Zanny Begg | These Stories Will be Different
This UNSW Galleries and Museums & Galleries of NSW touring exhibition is currently on show at the Glasshouse Regional Gallery, Port Macquarie, until 5 May 2024.
These Stories Will Be Different brings together three of the artist’s most significant video installations, including The City of Ladies (with Elise McLeod) 2017, The Beehive 2018, and Stories of Kannagi 2019. Between them, these works reimagine a medieval feminist utopia, probe the unsolved murder of a high-profile anti-gentrification campaigner and explore the connections between love, loss, and language in diasporic communities.
To find out more about the tour, or to host this exhibition, please see HERE.
