secrets + stories....

Every one has a story to tell...
Some just know how to compose it, write it, or verbalise it...
While others just let it sit within...
I remember a few years ago, I started to feel that a teenage memory of a funny experience was ready to come out in the form of a short story. Why? I have no idea, I just knew that I needed to get it down on a piece of paper and record that particular moment in time...
I never published it, or let people read it...
It was just something I had to do for myself, a cathartic way of letting go of that teenage girl that was still inside me and wanted to talk!
In a way that is what happened when a Sydney designer and a group of Dulwich Hill high school students collaborated on an exhibition project which is now showing at Object Gallery. The show is called secrets+stories and the premise behind the installation, which you can see above, is that every family has a secret that lies beneath the surface.


Michael Alvisse, one half of the Sydney design duo Schamberg+Alvisse , had just visited Bali and was inspired by the shadow puppetry and theatre sets he found while travelling there. When he came back to work with the students, he realised that this idea of creating a life size pop up book or 'set' in the Balinese style, could be the perfect platform with which to visualise these family stories that lie hidden from view...

As you walk through the giant Balinese arch, you are then confronted by hanging vines + mythical animals; each one representing a student...

As you reach the end of the maze you then turn to go back to the beginning, only to realise that behind each animal there is a hand written story by each student; each one telling a family tale...of discovery, loss, tragedy, humour, or memory...

It's a brilliant idea... and you really get a sense of each voice...each secret...each story... that is being presented to you...

It was a combined effort to build all these creatures and hang them up on a massive bamboo structure that envelops the round gallery space.....

To complete the exhibition...Object gallery, Michael and The Dulwich Hill students will be conducting a free mask making workshop at Object gallery on Saturday 25th September.

It runs from 10.30 - 12.30pm and will surely be a brilliant morning of crafting !!

If you would like to know more... head to the Object gallery website... here!

Secrets + Stories closes on Sunday September 26th so Id head there lickity split to experience it!