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Over the past couple of years there has been a noticeable change in the landscape of artist-run galleries in Sydney. An entire generation of successful galleries has experienced difficulties as a result of a lack of government support (from either the New South Wales Ministry for the Arts or the Australia Council) and escalating rental prices in the property boom leading up to the Olympics. With the closure of spaces such as Pendulum, and serious recent doubts over the survival of veteran First Draft, it would seem that artist-run spaces in Sydney are under serious threat.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this situation is the recent spate of new galleries. In the last six months two new spaces situated in the city, Herringbone and Gallery 19, in addition to the re-location of Particle from Clovelly to Annandale, is evidence of a renewal of activity.
The most prevailing and consistent of these relatively new spaces is Regent Street Gallery. One of the most interesting exhibitions to occur there this year was titled Accumulated Errors and featured the work of Harriet Parsons, Natsuho Takita and Lisa Owen-Burke.
In the first room of the gallery Harriet Parsons suspended a strange conical structure from the ceiling. Glass Sponge Endoskeleton was woven and crocheted from wool and cotton, which were combined to form a loosely delicate yet relatively lifeless object: the work resembled an abandoned cocoon. Parsons’ interest in insects and their remarkable life patterns is also evident in other works of hers. The series of embroideries shown last year, for example, consisted of exoskeletons of various small insects, such as dragonflies and beetles sewn with the artist’s auburn coloured hair onto midnight blue