Movies, Monsters & Spooks - Video Days
Days are getting shorter (false), trees are changing colour (in full bloom), and there’s a chill in the air (depends on the day: it is Melbourne). Lies though these all may be, down Tyler Street in Preston there’s an art exhibition that could convince you it just might be true. With just eight artists in the show, this exhibition takes up the interior window space of Video Days, a vintage movie store trading in nostalgia.
The show, centred on the titular movies and monsters, is the coming together of a community for a moment of joy. The exhibition is unashamedly fun, a reflection of its location. I didn’t expect to be reviewing a show half displayed on VHS tapes, but for this it works.The distinctly homemade feel makes the exhibition all the more endearing. Composed of works on paper and some sculptural pieces, including masks, the window setting of the exhibition mimics an altar, an ode to the horror movies that defined the genre. All of the included works are bright, fun and almost coordinated in their sense of spooky, whimsical play. Emily N3ver’s gouache paintings on pine coffins line the exhibition like the candles of this altar. The neon and black works drew my eye immediately, their shape reminding me of the (fake) gravestones that used to dot the yard of my childhood home in October.
The centrepiece of the exhibition for me are Claudia Belt’s digital paintings of reimagined movie posters. The horror movie posters from Alien, Hellraiser and The Exorcist transport me back to a time pre-Marvel movies. A time where we’re not trying to showcase every actor that is in any movie ever on the poster, but is actually giving a real sense of what you’re about to watch and what you’re about to experience. Her poster for “The Thing” was my personal favourite- the linen finish paper the works are printed on adds so much to the digital paintings
Kalindy Williams’ some things never change was created not just for the exhibition, but for the store. The only work in the show not for sale, it is a custom VHS case, open it up and even the tape has been altered to be fit for purpose. Weird Kid Club’s masks have echoes of Melbourne street art- though 3D, from afar the works look like they could be graffiti, the acrylic paint mimicking the airiness of a spray can.
If you head out to Preston to experience this for yourself, get ready to get close to the ground- the exhibition, while wonderful, is nowhere near eye level, meaning a lot of squatting took place to get a good look at the bulk of the works. This is by necessity- who wants to cover up natural light, really- but did make for a slightly encumbered experience. The exhibition blends in with the store, making it an immersive space. If you had told me that it was just Halloween on Tyler Street year round, I may have believed you.
Movies, Monsters & Spooks is on at Video Days until November 2.
Featured artists: Emily N3ver, Matt Durston, Brigit Lambert, HalloweenQueenHelen, Claudia Belt, Weird Kid Club, Kalindy Williams, and C.J. Kraus.