Craft / “Site Specific – artists respond to Rusten House”, Rusten House Arts Centre, Queanbeyan, until April 30. Reviewed by MEREDITH HINCHLIFFE.

NETWORKS Australia, a group of practising visual artists based all over Australia, was invited to respond to Rusten House – its history, its architecture, the surrounding heritage garden, uses of the building and relationship to the community.

This exhibition includes artists – in all media – who are based in Canberra.

Rusten House Arts Centre is a NSW Heritage-listed building, renovated for reuse as a gallery and workshop facility. It opened for the first time to the public as a community arts centre and gallery in mid-April 2021 and is operated by the Queanbeyan Palerang Regional Council. For many years it was a hospital, and most of the artists have focused on this aspect of its life.

Eleven artists are included in this exhibition. After a considerable amount of research encouraged and provided by the council, each artist developed her own artwork. There are many stories.

Most artists have referenced the medical activities that occurred in the building. Susan Hey is exhibiting a work from an open weave gauze-like fabric to represent bandages and shrouds. The fabric is stained with patches of red – depicting blood. Valerie Kirk has also drawn on the early history of the building, incorporating the symbol chosen in 1864 to identify military medical personnel and their patients in armed conflict. Layers of fabric in her works represent the various uses Rusten House has served in the past 160 years.

Several works draw our attention to the gardens surrounding Rusten House. Sandra Obst, in her work “Rusten House” reminds us that the early years were harsh with no domestic water supply for eight years, and faithful and diligent care ensured survival and growth of the plants and shrubs – a metaphor for the story of Rusten House.

Wendy Dodd’s three works lighten the rather sombre mood of the exhibition. She has selected three cloth nurses’ caps, titled “Restoration”, “Spring Fever” and “A Stitch in Time”, and they bear appropriate embellishment.

Rusten House is a beautifully restored building, and undoubtedly many of those living in and around Queanbeyan will share the  stories depicted in the works in this exhibition. It will be an excellent addition to public art spaces in Queanbeyan.