Silent Entropy

new paintings by Anne McLaughlin
patchwork drawings by Ahn Wells

Opening Night: Thursday 14 October 2010, 6-8pm

Exhibition Dates: Wed 13 October - Sat 30 October 2010


Silent Entropy brings together the works made by two artists that share a studio space at the Newcastle Community Arts Centre. Within this space Anne McLaughlin and Ahn Wells work in different mediums, explore different themes and even work in different ways.

McLaughlin paints, sometimes her canvases are on the floor and she applies from above, other times they are leant against the wall and she works on them with bits of folded card, brushes, plastic knives and squeegees. Then she sits back and contemplates the overall effect, making changes here and there, leaving it for days and then reworking. McLaughlin's mark-making in these works layer feelings and thoughts across the flat surface in nuances of emotion that are otherwise inexpressible.

Wells on the other hand sits to make all her works, starting with manageable pieces of Stonehenge paper. The paper is drawn on using pencils, painted on using gouaches, sewn on using the sewing machine, ruptured by piercing or scratching. Her works are detailed and decorative and are concerned with surface manipulation, texture, order and balance. They are then cut up into smaller squares and brought back together to form the final artwork. Dubbed “Patchwork Drawings” by the artist, these works are the beginning of a new direction in her art practice.

healing: space and place

in conjunction with the 2010 ArtsHealth Symposium
at the University of Newcastle

miranda lawry, kris smith, emily windon, aaron bellette,
patricia casey, ella dreyfus

Opening Night: Thursday 7 October 2010, 6pm

Exhibition Dates: Wed 6 October - Sat 9 October 2010

prior to the public lecture by Dr Esther Sternberg
at the Conservatorium Concert Hall at 7pm


Healing: space and place features the work of six photomedia artists address relationships between the body and its interaction with a spatialised world.

Miranda Lawry is a fine art academic at the University of Newcastle. Her imagery investigates the notion of trace within the landscape, evidencing both historical marking and contemporary presence to redefine notions of identity, memory and ‘place’. Incorporating specific environmental conditions with an awareness of memory, experience, and embedded history the World Heritage listed Hospital de la Santa Crue i Sant Pau in Barcelona is revealed in its current transforming phase.


Emily Windon is a PhD student at the University of Newcastle. Trapping the Midnight - Metamorphes Spectral is a photographic series in which is captured the dream space of the pshyche in a surreal environment where symbols float around a strange feathered figure. This figure both dances through the liquid world of the dream and is trapped in the world of the here and now, raising questions of where dream and real space begin and end.



Deciphering Identity is a collaboration between fine art academic Kris Smith and a participant in an Australian Research Council linkage grant titled Growing up with cancer: a mixed methods examination of how cancer influences the transition from adolescence to adulthood. The project involves researchers from Sydney University, The University of Newcastle and CanTeen working with young adults that have experienced cancer whilst navigating adolescence. Using established research methods alongside innovative qualitative methods this study looks at the effect of this experience on the formation of identity.


Aaron Bellette’s Tearing Light uses medium format film photography to record the visual experience of Dyslexia, where he distorts and layers photographic images to present his own interpretation of time and space. Spatial and temporal planes are rendered onto the film planes in order to physically construct his envisaged world. Aaron teaches photomedia at the University of Newcastle and Avondale College.


Ella Dreyfus is Head of Public Programs and lecturer in photomedia at the National Art School in Sydney and winner of the Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture in 2005. For Healing: space and place, Ella exhibits Blue Chip Tenant a photographic diptych. Ella will also give a paper at the ArtsHealth Sympoium titled Weight and Sea: an interactive artwork that confronts our private obsession with body weight in a very public place.


Patricia Casey is a Sydney artist. Scented Gardens for the Blind is series of black and white photographic prints on cotton with embroidered detail of metallic threads and handmade lace. They are dream-like landscapes hovering on the border where dreams and reality are blurred. They explore our ability to lose oneself and become immersed in a special place.