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Coodabin/Shoodabin opens at USC Gallery
6 July, 2005
The University Gallery will kick off the second half of its 2005 program with a sideways glance at the mushrooming communities on our beautiful coast.
Coodabin/Shoodabin by Coolum artist Blair McNamara will be officially opened by well-known architect John Mainwaring at 6pm on Thursday 21 July at the University Gallery.
The exhibition ponders the paradoxes of the current construction craze brought on by the 'sea-change' phenomenon in the artist's seaside community.
By using painting, photography, mixed media and sculptural form, McNamara sets up a dialogue about Coolum past and present.
"During the 70's and 80's my mates from Maroochydore criticised Coolum as too hippy. By the nineties they had all moved here!" said Blair McNamara.
"So often when I have discussed local issues the could-have-been's and the should-have-been's have entered the debate.
"Are we feeling sentimentally-challenged?…. We all knew this paradise would get popular!" he said.
USC Gallery Curator, Dawn Oelrich, said the exhibition will be bittersweet - some of the images evoke memories of the past 20-plus years in Coolum and others are paintings of contemporary views.
"McNamara's work is colourful and fun but with a bite. He is saddened by some of the new development and imagines that this is exactly how the traditional people felt - threatened and maybe bemused by the new people moving in," Ms Oelrich said.
The exhibition peels away the present to reveal forgotten gems of the past and Coolum is re-presented as a case study covering all the positive and absurd pressures that continue to impact our fragile coastal communities.
The work, although based on Coolum, is relevant to communities from Hervey Bay to Bermagui.
"If someone ponders my paintings and photographs in another 25 years, what will be their response?' said Mr McNamara.
"Will anyone be interested or care? What COOD we have done here?….what SHOOD be done now?" he said.
The University of the Sunshine Coast Gallery, located at the University campus on Sippy Downs Drive, Sippy Downs, is open to the public from 10am to 4pm Monday to Friday and Saturday from 1pm to 4pm. The Gallery is closed Sundays and public holidays.
The 2005 USC Gallery Exhibition Program is proudly supported by Coastline BMW.