Kate Withers
The impact of open cut mining on the Latrobe Valley will be explored through art at a new exhibition at Federation University.
The Black Hole Show, an exhibition by Anthea Williams, will be on display at the Switchback Gallery and delves into the theme of conflict.
She uses brown coal derivatives, briquettes and foundry coke as a means of production and subject matter, all the while feeling dismayed and fascinated.
The exhibition will feature 29 works, all of them focused on coal mining in the Latrobe Valley.
The works are a timely reminder of the challenges that have faced the region before and after the closure of the Hazelwood power station.
Ms Williams has exhibited extensively both locally, nationally and internationally and was recently shortlisted for The Manningham Victorian Ceramic Award this year.
“I live and work in the Latrobe Valley, a contrasting landscape of bucolic lush farmland and gritty industrial coal mining with its looming cooling towers, surfaces blackened by dust and the ever present black holes or pits dug in the ground known as open cuts,” she said.
“These open cuts are at the geographic, and economic centre of this place and provide a catalyst for both concepts and the materials used.”
The exhibition will run until Friday, November 1.
