FLOODS, junk mail, and the humble water pipe are among the quirky inspirations behind three exhibitions currently showing at Noosa Regional Gallery.
Growing up in the suburbs with a plumber father meant Erica Gray’s young years were spent surrounded by pipes.
These are brought to life through whimsical soft sculpture in Pipe Dreams – an exhibition that celebrates the mundane, the absurdity and the functionality of the humble pipe.
Artist Joolie Gibbs drew inspiration for her abstract Flood Language 2 exhibition from the floods she’s witnessed during 20 years in Gympie.
“The shapes made by the debris speak to me like another language, and they are quite beautiful, even though my response in my work is not representational, but more abstract,” she said.
Ange Leech, meanwhile, brings blue-eyed monsters, dancing kangaroos and one-eyed monkeys to life in her exhibition A Puppet Project.
Leech creates stop animation puppets from recycled cardboard, unopened junk and potentially important mail, catalogues, plastic bags, wire, left over paint and old X-rays.
Receiving a $12,000 Noosa Travel Scholarship in 2011 led Leech to the Sculpture Department at Oxford University England, to puppet studies in Prague, and the high desert of New Mexico to create public sculpture with the Institute of American Indian Arts.
“The scholarship has been enormously beneficial … I now have a fresh outlook on the value of art and how it can be used in the broader community,” she said.
Her works reflect her travels here and abroad.
Noosa Regional Gallery is located at 9 Pelican Street, Tewantin. The three exhibitions run until January 25.
