WIND turbines have been gradually filling the landscape around Ballarat in recent years, so it comes as no surprise that someone would see the artistic value in what will be a long term future resource.
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From days of trying to drive her baby daughter to sleep, Wendouree artist Mairin Briody has seen many new additions to the region's landscape and has drawn on that to inspire her latest work, Signal, which is running at the Art Gallery of Ballarat Backspace Gallery throughout August and September
Ms Briody said that while in the car, she would reflect on the state of the world, climate change, political tension and rising nationalism.
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"Basically I see them as a symbol for big optimistic change," she said.
"I started painting them a few years back. Driving around I increasingly found myself at the foot of them, feeling calm about the world.
"I take inspiration from Sonia Delaunay who painted newly installed electric lamp posts in Paris as a promise of the future.
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"Then earlier in the year, I was coming home from South Australia during the bushfire period and stopped into the Horsham gallery. I was thinking about optimism and was starting to question it, then I turned a corner and here is a Sonia Delaunay painting right in front of me, it stopped me in my tracks, and it was called Signal, so I felt I was on the right track."
Gallery Director Louise Tegart said it was important that both local artists and local sites were recorded in the exhibitions
"The Gallery is dedicated to fostering a community of practising artists locally and supporting them to express the Ballarat of today," Ms Tegart said.
Backspace Gallery has now been incorporated into the main gallery site. Ms Tegart said that there were significant advantages to the relocation.
"There were some serious impediments in visiting Backspace in its previous location because of it was out of the main pathways through the gallery and it had limited access for people with disabilities," she said.
"We were finding that only a very small proportion of visitors to the gallery were going into Backspace, which was very disappointing for a space which is integral to the gallery's support of local arts and culture.
"Relocating Backspace into the main part of the Gallery will give the exhibitions more exposure to visitors."
Ms Briody said she was thrilled that as a local artist starting out her work was able to be seen alongside Ballarat's great works from both international and Australian artists.
Signal runs from August 1 to September 25 and is open daily. Entry is free but bookings are essential.
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