By Renee Wood
On Thursday 5 August Clare James’ exhibition ‘Hideaway’ opened to the public at YAVA Gallery, but it was just a few hours later the state was sent into a lockdown that would last three months.
“This exhibition Clare got one day and it’s so heartbreaking for her, we went to all this effort to install it and of course this body of work takes weeks and months to prepare – so we were both in tears,” Dakani Maddock Gallery Manager said.
But now the time has come for the gallery to reopen its doors and welcome visitors back on Saturday 6 November, with Clare’s exhibition still up on display until the end of November.
Artist Clare James said she’s grateful YAVA could hold the exhibition and the body of work will still be seen.
“A solo show is an enormous amount of work to put together, and I was pretty devastated at the thought of it not being seen, which I thought I would have to go and pack it all up, because there were shows after mine,” Ms James said.
The Hideaway solo exhibit shines a light on the artist’s love for the forest and how she is grappling with the climate emergency.
Clare will be in the Gallery from Wednesday to Friday next week, with those interested in her work invited to come and speak with the artist.
“If people want to chat with me about any of the artworks or have an artist run gallery tours, I’m very happy to answer any questions or show people how I made things, it can always help.
“A tour with an artist can tell you about the concepts behind the work or even about how the piece was made, it just brings so much more to the experience.”
Three other shows have been moved into next year’s program due to the lockdown however, YAVA will still be open for the remainder of the year and a new exhibition will open in December.
“We just want to try and encourage everybody to get back out there and support the arts because it’s a sector that’s been really badly hit by Covid across all the arts genres, so get out their community and support your artists,” Ms Maddock said.
Those attending the gallery are reminded of the Covid-safe requirements of QR and vaccination check-ins.
