Esther Gallery opened on the 15th of January 2013 in the small coastal town of Beachport. Beachport is in the south-eastern region of South Australia, 400 kilometres from Adelaide, or about four and a half hours. The permanent population is around 400 people. The industry is cray-fishing. Whaling was its first industry, and a museum on the main street holds a substantial collection of artefacts from that time. Beachport is an isthmus with the Southern Ocean on two sides and Lake George to the north. There are spectacular views of the wild coastline, as well as a sheltered bay where the fishing fleet is anchored.
Esther Gallery is small, just 5 metres x 6 metres. It is a curated space for contemporary visual art. It shows work from the region and from elsewhere in Australia and overseas. It will host several exhibitions a year, plus one or two non-gallery research projects.
Esther Gallery is, overall, my artist project, or art-project in progress. Besides the gallery, there is a garden to be kept, and a website to maintain. The environment in which the gallery is located is crucial to how the gallery will operate – its ocean, weather, vegetation, colours, people, relationships, animals, and so forth.
The first work that was made for the gallery was a fence: the “Beachwood fence made by Roger Smith”. As it’s name says, it is made of wood collected from the nearby beaches. It creates a small courtyard for the gallery.
The name Esther has this background: it has Persian origins, meaning ‘star’, specifically the eight-pointed star; it’s a book of the Old Testament, The Book of Esther – Esther’s original name was Hadassah (myrtle leaf), she was an orphan who became Queen of Persia; the word is associated with the colour green, made up of blue (water, cool) and yellow (sunlight, warm); it is a family name, it is my mother’s middle name.
Linda Marie Walker
Watch this space: about the website
Over the next several months the website will grow in relation to Esther Gallery to include project details, information about the shop, and a section dedicated to writing.
Fence by Roger Smith. LM preparing for first installation