Image Workshop photographer Sharon Blance is pleased to be featured in a brand new exhibition staged by the National Trust exploring the enduring legacy of Picnic at Hanging Rock.
40 years ago the film galvanised Australian cinema with its dreamy, surreal visual interpretation of an already-iconic mystery story. Picnic at Hanging Rock – both the book and film – are deeply etched on the Australian psyche and hold a special place in the cultural consciousness.
Such is the enduring legacy of Picnic that the National Trust is staging a unique multimedia exhibition titled ‘Return to Hanging Rock’ that revisits the enigma from multiple angles.
Staged within the rooms of Mulberry Hill – the historic home of Picnic author Joan Lindsay – the show features period garments, historic images, and an eclectic mix of period and contemporary multimedia artworks exploring nuances of the story, film and the haunting Hanging Rock itself.
Image Workshop photographer Sharon Blance is delighted to have been invited to exhibit two photographic portraits she created of iconic actress Anne Louise Lambert. Anne’s image has become synonymous with the character Miranda and the Picnic film.
Sharon was privileged to be able to photograph Anne when she paid a rare visit back to Hanging Rock, four decades after her captivating portrayal of Miranda was captured there by Peter Weir in the film.
Anne Louise Lambert at Hanging Rock in 2014, photo by Sharon Blance
Visitors to the Exhibition are treated to a vareity of works including illusory light installations, sculptural taxidermy and ephemerous scent art, all intermingled with original art pieces owned by Lindsay on display in her home.
Other objects of note include Joan Lindsay’s personal copies of the novel, the typewriter on which it was written, and other curios such as a mysterious photograph of a young blond girl Joan kept in her writing room that nobody has been able to positively identify. Perhaps a portrait of Joan as a child… or perhaps a mysterious real-life Miranda?
Joan Lindsay’s typewriter, on which she wrote Picnic at Hanging Rock in 1967 over a period of just four weeks.
Unidentified portrait in Lindsay’s writing room – the real life Miranda?
Return to Hanging Rock exhibition – on now until 27 March 2016
Mulberry Hill Homestead
385 Golf Links Road, Langwarrin South
Exhibition days: Wednesday to Sunday
11:00am to 3:30pm (Last entry 3:00pm)
For further information, contact 03 9656 9889 or email [email protected]
If you, like Sharon, love the Picnic enigma it’s well worth a trip to see this unusual show that mixes the original with the contemporary. To get you in the spirit of things, here’s the song ‘Miranda’ by English band Slowdive set to scenes from the movie that perfectly evokes the surreal Picnic sensibility.
