Febrary 4th - March 11th
WTC Wharf Gallery, Atrium Lobby, World Trade Centre

An art exhibition that pays homage to the people and communities slowly rebuilding their lives after Victoria’s devastating Black Saturday bushfires. This is a rare opportunity to see the impact this terrible event had on the people of Victoria and the overwhelming sense of hope that has defined the recovery process. It also acknowledges the important contribution of Victoria Police, Country Fire Authority and the SES.

Reflections & Regeneration will open to the public weekdays from February 4 to March 11 in the atrium lobby of the WTC WHARF GALLERY at Melbourne’s World Trade Centre (WTC). The exhibition is free and features more than 60 photographs and artworks from ten artists touched by the catastrophic fires.

The ten - each affected in their own way by the tragedy - were chosen to showcase their works in the inaugural exhibition from a pool of more than 100 Victorian artists who had applied to take part. They include CFA volunteer Trevor Vienet, who documented the approach of the firestorm from his mountain-top home at Clonbinane, north-west of Kinglake. Mr Vienet, who nursed a badly injured neighbour and his dog until help arrived, managed to save his house but lost $300,000 of outbuildings and equipment in the fire which claimed the homes of 12 of his neighbours and the life of another.

Other locals to capture images of the hellish fires and their brutal aftermath include St Andrews photographer Lloyd Goodman, still mourning the loss of several friends to the blaze; Cottles Bridge painter Trudi Factor, who fled for her life with her family; Strathewen local Fern Langmead; and artists from the Kinglake Arts Alliance, who found themselves in the heart of the Black Saturday firestorm.

The works span the gamut from photographs to paintings and silk screens. Reflections & Regeneration begins with images and artwork embodying the communities prior to the fires, the horror and devastation of Black Saturday and the heartbreaking aftermath of the most ferocious bushfires in Victorian history. The exhibition progresses from heartbreak to hope with visual evidence of communities and landscapes rising resolutley from the ashes.