While the Drill Hall Gallery is currently closed due to COVID-19, we are moving our engagement with you online. We hope you enjoy the rich content we will upload over the coming weeks and continue to feel a part of our vibrant community.
Dear Drill Hall Gallery Friends and visitors,
As of 26 March the gallery is closed to the public until at least 27 June. Please check our website for updates on the gallery in terms of re-opening. The ANU had already announced last week the cancellation of all events on campus until further notice, a decision taken to minimise the risk of the transmission of COVID-19 among our community and more widely. The ANU is actively working with health authorities. Your health and safety is our top priority. We thank you for your support and understanding.
Given the challenge of this unexpected setback to our activities we are planning to shift as much content onto our website and social media as we can, to maintain our dynamism and to acknowledge the loyalty and affection of our Friends and visitors. We will continue connecting you with artists and artwork from our 2020 program and from our ANU Art Collection. You can join us online through our website, Facebook and Instagram where we will be uploading catalogue essays, artists talks, lectures, insights into our art collection, music playlists and more.
We urge you to stay safe and well and we intend to return to normalcy as soon as we are able. Please enjoy engaging with us online and let us know if we can be of assistance to you. We would love you to stay in touch with the gallery, to share with us your ideas and sentiments, and maintain your solidarity with our Drill Hall Community.
Best wishes from the Drill Hall team,
Kim Chapman, Anne-Marie Jean, Tony Oates, Lucy Chetcuti, Oscar Capezio, Joanne Leong and Terence Maloon
See our news page for new engaging content:
Thursday 26 March: Essay from the recently published catalogue Ham Darroch propeller, by Katie Dyer, Senior Curator, Contemporary, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, 2020
Ham Darroch: Propeller
5 week timelapse: Ham Darroch painting Counter Attack (2020) at the Drill Hall Gallery.
ANU Alumni and Canberra based artist Ham Darroch opened the Drill Hall’s 2020 exhibition program with a dynamic ensemble of colour, geometry and object-based form. In his paintings and object based sculptures Darroch investigates the visual tradition of hard edge abstraction of the 1960’s and 70’s. His works evoke a strong carry over of the enigmatic conceptualism of Marcel Duchamp and he makes wide ranging references to other works of Australian and non-Australian modern and pre-modern artists.
Darroch’s sculptural work re-conceptualises retired everyday objects by over-painting them with two-dimensional coloured geometric configurations. The wall based sculptures co-inhabit a place of remembered functionality and abstract pictorial representation. In the sixth iteration of his recent site-specific, ephemeral wall paintings Darroch uses Uccello’s historic triptych The Battle of San Romano as a compositional scaffold, painting directly onto the western wall of the gallery. Inhabiting the field of the painting his rhythmic geometries create a narrative of tensions between colour, edges and negative space.
Kingsley Street, off Barry Drive, Acton (view map). Click here for more information about visiting.
Parking is available in the Union Court Car Park
