Pipes, floods and monsters at Noosa Regional Gallery

Floods, junk mail, and the humble water pipe are among the quirky inspirations behind three exhibitions opening at Noosa Regional Gallery this Friday.

Growing up in the suburbs with a plumber father meant Erica Gray’s young years were spent surrounded by pipes.

These are brought to life through whimsical soft sculpture in Pipe Dreams – an exhibition that celebrates the mundane, the absurdity and the functionality of the humble pipe.

Artist Joolie Gibbs drew inspiration for her abstract Flood Language 2 exhibition from the floods she’s witnessed during 20 years in Gympie.

“The shapes made by the debris speak to me like another language, and they are quite beautiful, even though my response in my work is not representational, but more abstract,” she says.

Ange Leech, meanwhile, brings blue-eyed monsters, dancing kangaroos and one-eyed monkeys to life in her exhibition A Puppet Project, also opening this Friday.

Leech creates stop animation puppets from recycled cardboard, unopened junk and potentially important mail, catalogues, plastic bags, wire, left over paint and old X-rays.

Receiving a $12,000 Noosa Travel Scholarship in 2011 led Leech to the Sculpture Department at Oxford University England, to puppet studies in Prague, and the high desert of New Mexico to create public sculpture with the Institute of American Indian Arts.

“The scholarship has been enormously beneficial … I now have a fresh outlook on the value of art and how it can be used in the broader community,” she says.

Her works reflect her travels here and abroad.

The three exhibitions will be launched this Friday, November 28, at Noosa Regional Gallery from 6pm. Guest speakers include Michael Eather, Director, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane and Professor Ross Woodrow, Centre for Creative Arts Research Deputy Director, Research and Postgraduate Queensland College of Art, Griffith University.

Noosa Regional Gallery is located at 9 Pelican Street, Tewantin, RSVP for the opening to gallery@noosa.qld.gov.au

The three exhibitions run until January 25.

For more information visit Noosa Regional Gallery's What's On page or phone (07) 5329 6145.

27 November 2014