12/07/2019
ReCollection Revisited at Riverfest | 12-14 July 2019
If you've ever had a home or business affected by floodwaters, you know all too well the thick black mud that sticks to everything left after the waters recede. Michelle Black's contributions to ReCollection are inspired by stories of flooding from the early days of the city. She's used the mud from the river to print with, combined with stories from old newspapers, representations of flood levels and row upon row of tiny boats rising with the incoming waters.
So popular was the works printed from mud that most of it sold in 2018, but she has a couple of works left - one with the original sample prints that helped to shape the works in the exhibition and another that tells the story of "The Big One"... On Sunday 20 January 1918, Rockhampton woke to blustery conditions with a cyclone hovering off-shore northeast of Mackay. The Fitzroy River was already in a minor state of flood at this point. The following 96 hours saw rainfalls of 604mm. After a short respite, the rains returned to dump another 100mm on Rockhampton, and even more in the surrounding districts. By Friday 1 February in 1918, 100 years ago, the Fitzroy River reached a new flood record of 9.73m. Rockhampton city became marooned, an island within the swollen, muddy flood waters. The artist books were been printed with mud from the Fitzroy, the same stinking, oozing black mud that is left in the days and weeks once the floods recede.
Other works have been created from copies of the original news articles from the times of great floods in Rockhampton's history, captured in polyester lithography, with swirls of muddied water appearing to engulf the news.
See the results for yourself - along with the rest of the ReCollection exhibition works at the ReCollection ReVisited at Riverfest exhibition during the Rockhampton River Festival 2019. Don't miss your opportunity to revisit this fabulous exhibition from THIS FRIDAY at 5pm at 'Artways' off Fish Lane (75 East Street).
Friday 12 July | 5pm-10pm
Saturday 13 July | 10am-10pm
Sunday 14 July | 10am-4pm
This project was made possible by the Regional Arts Development Fund, a partnership between the Queensland Government and Rockhampton Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland. The artists also acknowledge the support of Arts Central Queensland Inc and Capricornia Printmakers Inc.
