Jacques L’Affrique & Vernon Treweeke

Overview

Hands up anyone who’s ever dreamed of touring with the band? The heady mix of hedonism and the seductive lure of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll? David Porter dreamed such dreams and realised them under the pseudonym Jacques L’Affrique, photographing the rock scene in Melbourne as it was gathering momentum in the 1970s. He has an archive of 3000 negatives, and it is of these that the current exhibition, Unreal Rock, is comprised. Black and white, small and intimate, the images present the archetypes of the provocative '70s rock musician and adoring audience. My only criticism of the exhibition is that, while the display may present a nice walk down memory lane for anyone of that vintage, to a younger crowd, styled in the slick planning of contemporary rock studio photography, the images seem a world away.

UV3D is, similarly, a survey of the past. Vernon Treweeke presents his early work from 1966 through to contemporary work created just this year — all of which is made acutely current by the advent of 3D TV. Treweeke’s paintings show a hyperreal world that is very much created in the here and now, citing influences such as Salvador Dali, art therapy, Brett Whitely, Leonardo da Vinci, Sydney’s Gallery A and the Yellow House artists. Treweeke says his aim "is to create an artificial world in each work of art … to challenge the conventional concept of reality", and the result is a truly individual aesthetic and intricate inventories of other worlds, which call to mind Surrealist landscapes. The translation of 2D visual art into a 3D display likewise presents Treweeke and viewers with an ‘other world’ and a unique technique "whereby I paint and sculpt at the same time".

A free, curator-guided tour will take place for both exhibitions on Saturday, June 12 at 11am.