Shaping Canberra is an exhibition that opened this week at the ANU School of Art Gallery. Curated by Ruth Hingston, this is an intriguing collection of works by Canberra artists, that approach Canberra from a personal perspective, one that is completely at odds with the widespread views of the city propagated by Australian media.

I found the work engaging and thoroughly interesting. I was immediately drawn to the textile works of Annie Trevillian (one of my former teachers at the ANU) whose works represented the divergent lives of herself and her twin sister. Trevillian used digital printing to turn studies into frocks reflecting on their lives in Canberra and Oodnadatta.

Installation view, Parallel Universes, Annie Trevillian 2013

Parallel Universes detail of the Oodnadatta dress, Annie Trevillian 2013

Parallel Universes, detail of the Canberra dress, Annie Trevillian, 2013

Brenda Gogg’s tapestries, Home Ground I and II were just amazing. A great concept that was beautifully realised.

Installation view, Home Ground I and II, Brenda Goggs, 2013 tapestry and skin of an Eastern Grey Kangaroo. (Apologies for the shaky camera work)

Detail, Home Ground I, Brenda Goggs , 2013 tapestry.

Equally engaging were the digital images of Josh Dykgraaf, whose perspective on Canberra was a wild mash-up of Canberra buildings – a sort of Howl’s Moving Castle meets the National Capital Authority. I also wrote, (yes you are invited to), in one of the altered books made by Ampersand Duck  (Caren Florance).

This is definitely an exhibition that you can spend plenty of time at. There are numerous works I haven’t mentioned and the standards are consistently high across them all.

Shaping Canberra: The lived experience of a changing landscape, 18 September to 19 October 2013, ANU School of Art Gallery.