Up Front in Canberra
I launched my first art exhibition on Thursday, 8 April 2021 at The Front. The pieces are a mixture of digital and ink on paper works. I drew people and places from the National Library of Australia, the Canberra Light Rail and cafés of Canberra.
Marcus Hughes, Director of Indigenous Engagement at the National Library provided the acknowledgment of country. Conor McCarthy, Director of Philanthropy at the National Library launched the exhibition. This is what he said:
‘Hello everyone.
‘My name is Conor; I'm Director of Philanthropy at the National Library, and it is my great pleasure to say a few words to open this exhibition of Bobby Graham's art.
‘I’d also like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet today, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, and paying my respects to Elders past and present, and to First Nations people here with us this evening.
‘There's a description of the drawing process that's attributed to Paul Klee, where he describes drawing as 'taking a line for a walk.' And that comes to mind here this evening because Bobby's drawings take us on a tour around Canberra - her lines not only go for a walk, they catch the tram, they go to the café, they visit the Library, they navigate their way around the urban spaces of Canberra and they capture the people they find in those spaces.
‘As an artist, Bobby is very much an explorer. One of her beautiful books is about the art of packing for plane travel - apparently trying to fit your every possession into a large collection of suitcases is not the way to go. This is a lesson I have yet to learn, but to be a good explorer, it seems you have to travel light, and to leave some of your encumbrances behind you.
‘And there's a great deal of exploration taking place in these artworks - this is, after all, urban sketching. As we look at the drawings of spaces around Canberra displayed around the walls here, they seem to form a kind of imaginary map of the city - not the out-of-doors city of office blocks and traffic lights with the mountains off in the distance, or not even, as somebody said on social media this week, the city that has an autumn soundtrack of acorns falling on expensive cars, but rather an intimate view of the city, a warm, welcoming, and interior view of the place we all live.
‘The building that Bobby and Marcus and I all work in, the National Library, has a very grand, imposing, and perhaps slightly forbidding exterior - you have to toil your way up many steps to reach the front door. But Bobby's drawings reflect that building's interior life, its intimate scale. Sometimes they take us behind the scenes. So if these artworks are an exploration of the city, they map it out on a human scale - they're very social artworks. As you look at the drawings of people chatting, you might find yourself leaning in to try to overhear what stories they're telling. And as some of you might know, these are also sociable artworks - when Bobby shows people the drawings she's made of them sitting on the tram or in a café, they're often delighted, and that leads to a conversation.
‘Explorers and artists have always relied on technology, but again, you can travel a little lighter these days. You no longer need to haul around your canvas and easel on your back while trying to read your map and compass, you can find your way, and perhaps even create your artwork, with a piece of technology you can keep in your pocket. So you'll notice that while some of the artworks on display here this evening are old-school ink on paper, others are produced not in a sketchbook but on an iPad. And what I particularly love about these drawings are some of the wonderful animated time lapses that Bobby has of the picture being built up, line by line, layer by layer, gradually coming together into the final artwork that will then move from the virtual across to the physical, iPad pixels becoming ink on Hahnemuhle paper.
‘I've mentioned that Bobby and I both work at the National Library, which is a place that collects memories in the form of pieces of paper. And when we were talking about this exhibition, and these drawings, so many of which are located in cafés, Bobby shared with me some fond memories about her father. One of those was about how she would go with him to the café, a magical place where, with total disregard for any such thing as health guidelines, you could add sugar cubes to your cola to make it fizz, or squeeze all the cream from your chocolate éclair in order to eat the most delicious part first. Another was about how her father would bring home international magazines, from the Library, and so she would look at the legendary Saul Steinberg's cartoons in the New Yorker. And so, I think when we gather together here, and we see all these drawings of cafés, yes, we're getting some lovely glimpses into the everyday life of the city of Canberra and the people who inhabit it, but Bobby is also sharing with us just a little bit of those childhood memories of chocolate éclairs and New Yorker cartoons.
‘And when you look at Bobby's drawings, you too may recognise a place for which you have fond memories - I know I can spot a few. All the more reason, then, to think about taking one of these beautiful artworks home with you.
‘And with that, I'll hand back to the artist. Ladies and gentlemen, Bobby Graham.’
With thanks to the following:
Thomas Graham for hanging the exhibition
Elise Knotek for designing the marketing materials
Lucent Imaging for scanning and print the artworks
GraphX for producing the massive wall artwork
Friends, family and colleagues for attending the launch
