Perth Voice Interactive

TURNER GALLERIES have kicked off the year with three eclectic  exhibitions that include everything from Mexican religion to jarring thoughts.

If artists were good with words they’d be authors says Perth sculptor Harry Hummerston, demonstrating the point when I phoned him last week.

“Trying to explain the work becomes a struggle to replace images with text and is usually done clumsily,” the North Fremantle artist says.

Thankfully he was better on email, giving an overview of his exhibition Don’t Blink Twice, where he experiments with materials like epoxy resin to explore the relationship between unrelated images.

“Forcing an unusual relationship between them in the hope that this coincidence will spark some sort of emotive response in the viewer,” Hummerston says.

“The title refers to those moments fleetingly glimpsed; that niggling something that slid briefly behind the inside of your eyes and disappeared somewhere down the back of your brain.”

Pmara Nuka, Our Country features hand-coiled terracotta pots made by the Arrernte people of Central Australia.

The pots are on display across the nation and reflect the Arrernte people’s deep connection to the land.

Last but not least, Elizabeth Marruffo draws on her Mexican/English heritage in Worthless Remains.

Her works are inspired by her childhood in a small border town in Mexico, where tiny toys were made from pipe cleaners, tin cans and wire, and religious votive paintings were fashioned from repurposed tin.

Mexico’s streets and going to church with her English grandmother infuse her small, detailed paintings, which have sculptural frames and delicate textiles.

The three exhibitions are on at Turner Galleries in Northbridge until March 9.