By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
It’s taken 58 years for Noble Park artist Martin Heatherich to show his whimsical wares in his first solo exhibition, Suburban Creative.
Most days, the retired auto-parts sourcer works on his art in his shed, creating hundreds of found-object works.
But he was only prompted to put on this exhibition at Dandenong’s Walker Street Gallery by an admiring friend who told him: “You’ve got to get recognition.”
Heatherich describes the opening night this month as a crowning moment, surrounded by his children, grandchildren and friends.
The 77-year-old puts to use his engineering background by making intricate treasures out of polystyrene packaging.
He has reinvented trash as bright aeroplanes with jar lid wheels, butterflies and a square-faced bloke with Texta lid fingers named Mr Con Suum. Look hard inside Mr Suum’s stomach and you’ll see fish bones and sardine cans.
Heatherich finds his packaging in a dumpster at an electrical goods store. There are plenty of parts to choose from, he says. “I don’t have to look for ideas. If I have to do something, I find a way to do it.”
Also in the gallery is a representation of corporate greed: a multi-headed crocodile made from bark chewing on a human limb. The victim represents the “99 per cent of us being eaten by the 1 per cent”.
Aside from the political commentary, Heatherich also sets his sights on the cosmos, painting some of the stunning nebula images captured by the Hubble telescope. He wears a recent gift — a T-shirt of one of his cosmos paintings, dubbing him ‘Mr Universe’.
The show also features his early abstract paintings, including his first, done in his native Holland in 1954 — a golden field reminiscent of paintings by his idol, Vincent Van Gogh.
One work, Impending Doom — a painting of a dystopian city scene — was completed before he came to Australia. Happily, that prophecy didn’t come true.
Suburban Creative is on at Walker Street Gallery, corner of Walker and Robinson streets, Dandenong, until Saturday.
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