Summer in Australia

Today we attended an exhibition at the Penrith Regional Art Gallery entitled "Holiday + Memory: 2oth Century Australia at Play". Here is some text from the blurb:

On show in the main Gallery are the works of twenty-nine visual artists, across various media including photography, painting, moving image and installation. The work includes the iconic beach images from Max Dupain, Anne Zahalka, and Narelle Autio, nostalgic homes and landscapes by Chris O’Doherty aka Reg Mombassa and Noel McKenna and vibrant contemporary works by Mini Graff, Joanna Lamb and Anna Carey.

Outside of the main gallery, visitors can view the community slide show, a celebration of the Australian holiday as experienced primarily, between the post WWII and the 1970s period. Responding to the Gallery’s public call-out for fun holiday snapshots, over 200 photographs were submitted.

I found the exhibition surprisingly engaging because the period selected for the nostalgia overdose basically corresponded to my childhood and adolescence. Outside one of the exhibition spaces were these chairs carrying references to the archetypal "Australian Summer" - obviously compiled from some kind of brainstorm session or survey. An astonishing number of these points comprise the lingering afterglow of MY young summers as well.

Oh and we ran into another Blackheath Blipper while we were there. WalkingWombat1 (and CCN), no less.