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From Then to Now: Geelong Exhibition

From Then to Now: Designing Old New Again (Geelong)

Creativity Cluster presented the exhibition From Then to Now at The Reimaginarium in Geelong. The Reimaginarium bills itself as ‘Australia’s home for the best products made from reclaimed materials’.

The exhibition featured products using second-hand or repurposed objects converted into new forms with new uses. This included brooches from street trash; garden furniture repurposed with mosaic inlays; 3-dimensional décor integrating old doilies and lace; artworks on glass shards; wall hangings from reused wool; and collages from vintage posters and textbooks.

The exhibition was part of both Geelong Design Week from 18 – 28 March, and Melbourne Design Week from 26 March – 5 April 2021. Six of the Creativity Cluster artists displayed their works. A ‘sister’ exhibition with the same title was held at The Old Auction House in Kyneton, where works by eight Creativity Cluster artists were on show.

Connected with the exhibition was a workshop called Design a Miniature Cityscape facilitated by NancyDee Sculptures. Participants enjoyed playing with Nancy’s collection of found objects – and some brought their own – to create a range of designs. Once they had decided on their favourite, they glued it to take home.

Lindsay Hussay and Deidre Ogilvie hanging collages by Marina Chamberlain at The Reimaginarium
Workshop participants hard at work creating their miniature cityscapes

Deidre Ogilvie
Deidre Ogilvie with her works.
Top left: New York, New York, 65x49cm mixed media collage
Top right: From Valley to the Mountains, recycled raw sheep wool
Top left: Rag Rug, 79x86cm
Bottom left: Fields of Sunshine, 21x30cm
Bottom right: Fields of Sunset, 21x30cm. Both tiles on canvas board.

Top left – Small platters, 18cm diameter, decoupage on papier-mâché

Bottom left and top right – Trivets made with alcohol ink on 20x20cm found tiles

My works in this exhibition have all been created by recycling or upcycling. Rags left over from manufacture of clothing, old magazines, tiles left over from renovation, wool from a weaver. Scraps and icons that no longer exist, things that were and are no longer. Most of the materials were destined for landfill, but are now recycled and will hopefully enrich somebody’s life.


Luna Cameron-Parrish (Amethyst Moon)
Garden furniture: Simpatico I and II (matching chair and table), ceramic mosaic on upcycled wirework base; Entwined (table), marble mosaic on upcycled wirework base.

Triquetra, 15x15cm mixed media mosaic
Entwined – close-up of table top

When I learned the basics of mosaic making in my art school days, I became hooked. However, I had limited knowledge of the long and rich tradition of this amazing medium. In 2008, a trip to Italy enabled me to study ancient techniques and to see both traditional and contemporary mosaics. Since then, I have explored making mosaics in many forms – murals, furniture, garden pieces, sculpture, wall art – both practical and fine art works. As well as the traditional materials of smalti, marble and stone, I enjoy working with ceramics, glass, found objects and polymer clay.


Marina Chamberlain
Framed collages by Marina Chamberlain using vintage books, old photos and magazines
Distant Prospects, 35x25cm collage with acrylic paint
Hybrid Abstraction II, 35x25cm collage
On a Rainy Day, 35x25cm collage with acrylic paint
La Vie en Rose after Covid, 32x25cm collage

In my collage art I like to reuse old papers to compose a new contemporary artwork. I have been greatly inspired by Matisse’s cut-outs and call it painting with paper. The versatile collage process allows me to express something personal to me, at the same time leaving it open for interpretation by the viewer. From pure design to social commentary, the possibilities of collage are endless. Yellowed pages from vintage books frayed at the edges, old photos and magazines, sheet music stained by time – these are my prized materials. The old and discarded, scraps and off-cuts, very little is wasted in my artworks or my jewellery.


Nancy D Lane (NancyDee Sculptures)
Nancy D Lane with her works on display atop the old radios at The Reimaginarium
Land of the Long Grey Cloud, 19x41cm, made from found cylindrical and flat pieces of metal, mounted on ply
Rustic Cityscape 2, 14x33cm, featuring found tiles, wood amd rusted metal from the streets
City by the Sea 1, 3x30x6cm, featuring driftwood and metal found in Geelong
Miscellaneous brooches made from found objects from the streets
Billabong, 21x21cm, using wood, deteriorating metal sheets and a marble from the streets
Rustic Cityscape 1, 12x21cm, using weathered board, tile and pieces of metal, found on the streets of Melbourne
Cap-tivated, 8x36cm, using rusted bottle caps and beach pebbles found in Darwin

My passion is designing quirky, imaginative wall sculptures and brooches from the metal, wood, tiles and plastic I gather from the streets and beaches of Melbourne and other cities where I work and travel. The weird assortment of identifiable and unidentifiable bits and bobs that have been lost, dropped or discarded in the gutters or washed up by the waves constantly amaze me. I hope that my creative use of such unloved and unwanted found objects will inspire others to refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle.


Pat Duncan
Pat Duncan with her works based on a stained glass window by Marc Chagall
After Chagall’s Window, 77x44cm, oil on recycled wooden door
Detail of Flautist, 30x30cm, oil on hardboard
Scenes from Chagall’s Window, alcohol ink on glass shards, various sizes

From Then to Now is the theme of this exhibition by Creativity Cluster. My rendering of a stained-glass window by Marc Chagall reuses part of our old kitchen, dismantled 30 years ago. The pieces were stored for just this opportunity to create something new again. All the elements of this group of artworks use old and discarded materials. I paint mainly in oils, but enjoy the challenge of using different materials. Alcohol ink brings the broken glass to life as shards from the stained-glass window.


Lindsay Hussey
Lindsay Hussey with her textile collages incorporating hand-dyed second-hand doilies and lace from op shops
Between the Lake and the Mountains, 55x36cm, textile and mixed media
Small works ready to hang
Top: Metro Velocity, 24x24cm
Bottom: Alpine Heather, 25x34cm
Top: Surrounded, 23x18cm
Bottom: Within, 20x25cm

Lindsay Hussey was originally attracted to old op-shop doilies and table linen as a way to add texture to her textile work. Now she also wants to extend the life of these once valued household items, often discarded to op-shops when mothers and aunts pass away. To these she adds scraps of lace and fabric, left over from other projects. While the subject matter of each work is different, it’s her use of discarded textiles that brings the past – From Then – to Now.