Art in the Dark

Karen Ferguson

Teacher - VCE Art Making & Exhibiting

As part of Unit 2 Art Making & Exhibiting, Year 11 students recently visited Buxton Contemporary Gallery to view the exhibition Nightshifts. 

Nightshifts includes works by 28 artists and explores the metaphor of the night as a time when we work alone, in the quiet. This show is about the thinking and creativity that happens ‘beneath the surface’.  

During the excursion, the students were guided through the exhibition by the Buxton Education staff, who provided insights into the ideas explored by the artists as well as their working methods. They also discussed the presentation of the artworks in the gallery. 

Nightshifts is a great example of exhibition design being used to enhance and communicate themes and ideas to viewers. This is an important area of knowledge in VCE Art Making and Exhibiting.  Later in the day we visited the National Gallery of Victoria (International) to see how they display their various collections as well. 

The visit to Buxton was a great opportunity for the students to once again experience art forms such as installation, sculpture and video in person. Many were captivated by Lisa Sammut’s installation ‘How the earth will approach you’, presented in a darkened room with chirruping crickets, a video projection and elegant rotating sculptures. Another artwork that students responded to was Shaun Gladwell’s video Maximus Swept out to Sea (Wattamolla), which was projected onto a large screen covered in glitter. This artwork explores ideas such as endurance, and the patience needed to be an artist. 

After the excursion, our students will be writing a

proposal for a thematic exhibition that they will devise themselves.

They will select three works from Nightshifts and three additional works of their own choosing, analyse relationships between the works, and discuss how they would install and display the work. 

Click on our photos to enlarge.