Trio explore war, death, mourning

Miriam Salomon -'Room for Charlotte Salomon', Kate Maurice - 'Momento Mori' and Shaun Gladwell - 'Afghanistan' at the Lismore Regional Gallery.

THREE very different exhibitions are currently running at the Lismore Regional Gallery until December 9.

Shaun Gladwell's Afghanistan, a group of experimental videos, paintings and photographs he made when he was attached to the Australian Defence Force in Afghanistan, are on show together with Momento Mori by local artist Kate Maurice.

Also on show is Miriam Salomon's multi media installation, Room for Charlotte Salomon.

The installation is a tribute to the Jewish German artist, Charlotte Salomon, who was murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz when she was 26 years old.

The work includes a projection, an existing piece of music by Charlotte, and objects which allude to her last years, when she worked restlessly to complete her life's work

Miriam spent considerable time researching Charlotte Salomon's life and work.

"I came across her when I was studying modernism," Ms Salomon said.

"I have wanted to do something about Charlotte for nearly eight years. "She was the last Jewish student to be admitted into the Berlin Academy of Art when the Jewish quota was just 1.5%.

"She also won an award for her art while she was there but was unable to accept it because she was Jewish.

"I felt most accountable to Charlotte when I was making these works.

"Her main work comprised of nearly 800 gouaches that had accompanying text and music notation."

Miriam Salomon was the recipient of the 2011 Lismore Regional Gallery Graduate Award. The annual award goes to a graduating visual arts student from Southern Cross University and gives the student an exhibition at the gallery the following year.

"The outcome of the Award is that the artist acquires tools they can use to promote their work and seek future opportunities," said Brett Adlington, Lismore Regional Gallery director.

Also in the gallery is the work of Mullumbimby based artist, Kate Maurice. The work is a collection of fastidiously stitched, mended, managed and engineered assemblages. The work draws inspiration from the Memento Mori, a term which is applied to a broad genre of artworks, dating back to the early history of Christianity, and which share a purpose of reminding people of their mortality.

Ms Maurice has worked with materials and forms that ponder the dynamics of relationships and draw inspiration from the practice of mourning.