This exhibition is the result of an ongoing exploration of staging alternatives ways of seeing and living. For Banyard, the commune symbolises an otherworldly place, a haven of experimental ideas, and the romanticism she imposes upon these places is integral to their construction. These works are about the idea and not the reality of living on the land.
Similarly, her nostalgic attraction to out-of-date optical devices, like peep-boxes, faceted lenses and kaleidoscopes, focuses less on technological advancement and more on reinventing those simple manual technologies that have long fallen into disuse. The work is about reinvention and habitation, about what happens in the studio when these forms merge.
Galerie pompom
May 15 to June 9, 2012
Melbourne
Cosmic Tudor, 2011, oil on canvas, 34 x 40.6cm
Courtesy the artist and Galerie pompom, Sydney
