MRAG Maitland Regional Art Gallery

Time Capture, 2009. Image of stage and set constructed for shooting the images and video of participants in Time Capture.

At the International Women’s Day breakfast in Maitland in 2007, the idea was borne to capture the lives of women in Maitland at the current time. A steering committee consisting of women from diverse backgrounds was established to advance the project. A concept was developed to prepare a time capsule and the idea evolved into presenting the lives of women in an innovative art installation, to be built into the redevelopment of Maitland’s art gallery, and exhibited at MRAG for next 25 years.

Thanks to generosity of Coal and Allied, Maitland City Council and Office for Women NSW Premier’s Department, funding was obtained to engage artist Lara O’Reilly to develop the concept for the project.

O’Reilly  had previously worked on other site-specific installations; in film and photography mediums, sculpture, performance and sound. Her achievements included the 2004 Basil and Muriel Hooper Scholarship, the 2005 National Marten Bequest Travel Scholarship for Sculpture, and the 2008 Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant. Supported by the Department of Foreign Affair and Trade, Lara created an installation spanning three levels of a deteriorated 300 year old military chapel on Kotlin Island, St Petersburg.

O’Reilly began working on the project in November 2007. One hundred women from the Maitland region were involved, all from a diverse range of backgrounds reflecting the community. In one case, four generations of women from one family participated. Participants were asked to consider a series of questions, and bring objects which reflected their responses to MRAG at a set time for filming. The questions related to each woman’s place in the world, her sense of connection to Maitland and items of personal significance. O’Reilly spent several months compiling and editing footage, which were then drawn together into a series of narrative fragments. Each participant is featured in several fragments. They play at random on a six metre projection wall embedded within the new stairwell of the MRAG building, with viewing stations on both floors of the building.

Click on the page numbers below to see more about Time Capture.