By NATALIE GALLENTI-BREKALO
Stuart Hames will be exhibiting his latest exhibition in Altona. 119194 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
ONE hundred years after Australian soldiers landed in Gallipoli, a Werribee artist is taking a different approach to commemorate the occasion.
Brought to Light, an exhibition hosted by Stuart James, will begin at the Louis Joel Arts and Community Centre from this Friday evening, and will give audiences the opportunity to view paintings and lens-based images that evoke a less familiar Gallipoli than what they are used to.
Interested in aircraft landings, relics and photography, Stuart’s work looks at the time between when aircraft vessels landed on Gallipoli and soldiers were transported ashore.
His pieces, involving built stick constructions which are then photographed and transferred to a computer to become manipulated prints, offer a grim look at the ocean that carries the bodies of fallen soldiers.
“The imagery is skeletal and a little bit ghostly,” Stuart told Star.
“There is the stillness of the seas evoking the waste of war.
“The dark colours are a homage to the lives lost and the black stillness of the sea.”
A professional artist, Stuart is interested in the effect Gallipoli has had on Australian culture.
“When I was younger, I grew up with these men, the diggers … we knew them. But now there is a real nostalgia surrounding that era.”
