The Harris N845 exhibition opens at Warwick Art Gallery

A local artist has celebrated the history and colour of local journalism with a unique exhibition showcasing an often forgotten part of the newspaper business. Here’s what it means.

Behind the layers of paint, a lingering and nostalgia memory remains.

A visit to Warwick Art Gallery, will put you in front of beautiful and interactive art pieces, stamped with familiar names: Border Post, Daily News, and Chronicle.

In a celebration of regional journalism and the hardworking machines that mass-printed them, The Harris N845 exhibition by local artist Deborah Beaumont is a captivating site.

Darling Downs artist Deborah Beaumont (Photo: supplied/ Deborah Beaumont)

The Harris N845 was a printing machine which served the larger Darling Downs for 30 years, up until 2008.

Organisers say it’s a “nostalgic” celebration of what was once an essential, daily routine in an interactive and compelling medium.

Featuring blueprints of machinery, newspaper spoilage and printing plates, and even a take-home newspaper, the exhibition is a celebration of a forgotten era in news and the people involved.

Warwick Art Gallery exhibition officer Grace Cutmore said it’s a “special exhibition” for the community.

“Those daily papers are quite missed in the community, and I think Deborah is giving it the recognition it deserves and ensuring it lives on and showing that visitors can take that history with them,” Ms Cutmore said.

The echoes of the past have been transformed at Warwick Art Gallery (Photo: NRM)

“It frames something the public had as a big thing in their life as something brand new,” she said.

“It’s always so different and fascinating to see what inspires an artist, and for Deborah it was the printing press, which I think a lot of people don’t know or can’t visualise the process of how it works.”

The exhibition will run until October 12.

Originally published as The Harris N845 exhibition opens at Warwick Art Gallery