Former Local Artist Project 'The Gas Imaginary' On Display at the Gallery & Museum

Former Local Artist Project 'The Gas Imaginary' On Display at the Gallery & Museum

'The Gas Imaginary: Broken norms, unconventional extraction, drawings and other collaborative acts' is currently on display at the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery & Museum until August 13. 

Within the exhibition, artist and writer, Rachel O’Reilly explores modern versus unconventional gas extraction methods.  The exhibit is part of an ongoing project that began in 2011 featuring two series of drawings, in addition to a video work with O’Reilly's commentary.

The first series, 'The Gas Imaginary' (2014) traces the difference between modernist imaginations of underground mining and contemporary fracking regimes, with a focus on the ongoing wage-labour concerns.  This series was developed by O’Reilly during a residency at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Netherlands.

The second series, 'Gladstone, Post-pastoral' (2016) was commissioned for a Brisbane exhibition, 'Frontier Imaginaries' with the support of Arts Queensland in collaboration with IMA, Brisbane. This series comments on the drama of approvals surrounding the expansion of the Port of Gladstone into a gas export hub for Queensland.

This is the project's first exhibition in the artist’s hometown of Gladstone and has been produced in collaboration with PA/LA/CE Architects (Ben Reynolds and Valle Medina) and artist, Rodrigo Hernandez.

O'Reilly now teaches Art Theory at the Dutch Art Institute in Berlin, Germany.  For more information on the artist, visit https://racheloreilly.net/

The Gallery & Museum is open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday, with FREE admission.

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