Artlink continues to show new artwork and welcome gallery visitors during ‘lockdown’ by taking an innovative approach to maintaining its exhibition schedule at the Saldanha Gallery.
Working with artist and animator Mark Cullen, Artlink have reproduced their gallery at Fort Dunree in virtual form. Now anyone who wants to visit can virtually ‘wander’ through the exhibition rooms, at any time during the day or night, using just a computer and a mouse to navigate.
This month the gallery will be opening a new exhibition featuring work by the Artlink studio artists, Patricia Spokes, Martha McCulloch, Matthew Porter, Janet Hoy and Rebecca Strain, who have responded to the theme “Still”.
Artist Rebecca Strain explains the choice of title, “We have all been missing the community and inspiration we get from working on site at Fort Dunree. But – still – we can find creative inspiration in what we experience around us, even if our world has shrunk so dramatically to our own household and a 2 km radius. In a sense everything stopped still during lockdown, but we are still artists and can still communicate with each other and an audience… so, in a sense, we wanted to make that statement and demonstrate the positive effect creativity can have on people during these strange times.”
The artists ‘met’ regularly online to collaborate on the exhibition. Working with Mark Cullen they have explored the potential of animation to present their work in new ways, that would not be possible in the ‘real’ world. “This has been a real learning curve for us, discovering new ways to bring our work to an audience” says Rebecca “we hope people will enjoy the virtual experience of an exhibition opening online!”