Trust

Prominent local artists will draw inspiration from Tasmanian cultural heritage sites in Trust, an art initiative which will explore the meanings — historical, cultural, social and psychological — of the places we chose to preserve.

Following in the footsteps of the Port Arthur Project in 2007, Trust expands the concept of site-specific art installations to encompass five different significant National Trust properties.

Eight Tasmanian artists have been commissioned to create works exploring the culture and narratives of the five National Trust sites, teasing out the conflicting stories embedded in these buildings. What we have chosen to preserve defines the way we interact with these special places: kitchens, gardens, stables, drawing rooms and of course architecture, all form part of the experience.

Using photography, painting, sculpture, installation art and digital media, each artist will bring an individual approach to the question of place, meaning and memory.

§ Home Hill, Devonport: The family residence of the only Tasmanian Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, will be the inspiration for the work of painter and digital artist Mary Scott. She plans to use the objects and spaces of the house as starting points for a series of images, which will be viewed alongside the sources that inspired the works.

§ Runnymede, New Town, Hobart: Photographer Pat Brassington will use her childhood memories of the forbidding walled mansion of Runnymede, and the stories of the volunteer caretakers, as starting points for an investigation of the dark and fleeting fantasies we conjure for ourselves around such places.

§ Oak Lodge, Richmond: The shifting roles that the property of Oak Lodge has served over the years — rectory, residence, school and doctor’s surgery — will serve as inspiration for works by photographer and video artist Ruth Frost.

§ Clarendon, Evandale: Four artists (painter Michael McWilliams, sculptors Julie Gough and John Vella, and installation artist Lucy Bleach) will bring their talents to bear at the site of this Italianate mansion, examining the place as a site of transformation of community through European settlement — from the convict, to the colonial, to the post-colonial.

§ Penghana, Queenstown: Originally the name of an Aboriginal community, Penghana was used to name a mining town and later the mine manager’s house. In collaboration with Aboriginal historian Greg Lehman, photographer and video artist Martin Walsh will focus on the stories of the local indigenous community, and on its contemporary decedents in Queenstown’s community.

The exhibitions will run from 16 March to 19 April (Closed Good Friday). Opening hours are 10am-4pm daily during Ten Days On The Island (27 Mar–5 Apr). On other dates normal property hours apply — see National Trust of Australia (Tasmania).

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