The Brothers Gruchy

The Brothers Gruchy, Tim and Mic grew up in Bundaberg through the sixties and seventies. Five years apart it was not until the mid-eighties that they began working together extensively. Most of their collaborative undertakings are in the performative arts. Together they pioneered the use of video and multimedia in theatre, opera, contemporary dance, musicals and commercial projects. Tim has gradually moved increasingly into the world of exhibitions and installations, whilst Mic works mainly in theatre along with editing and producing film and television. Across an enormous range of activities they continue to work together and separately, informing each others practice and indeed the creative use of technology. Time & Tide is the major work in this exhibition. Made by Mic at the Bundanon Estate Artist's Reserve on the Shoalhaven River, it explores the life of rivers, the tide, and changing flows and geography. A meditation on great Australian rivers which formed him and his environmental appreciation. Tim added a soundscape completing the full audio visual immersion. Last year Tim had his first Australian solo exhibition Imminence at Kronenberg Mais Wright Gallery in Sydney. Imminence is ‘the state or fact of being about to happen’. Tim’s practice has always been focused on the future. The works from this exhibition follow this idea of Imminence, from the perspective of both questioning and looking intently at notions of change. Beauty Unbeauty explores aesthetic values of so called Artificial Intelligence. Moving Mountains examines cultural imposition and development into nature. Boasteel was conceived as a mirror work to Moving Mountains, observing nature reclaiming a post industrial site. Work01 exemplifies an era of degradation in the value of manual labour. To this two other artworks have been added. STORM is an interactive installation themed around concepts of the human transition forward from it's current biological form. Finally Anamnesis utilises vintage slide projectors to evoke personal family histories and memory. The objects themselves as a manufactured item from the early twentieth century evoke a time gone by, whilst the slide show is social memory as presented in the family slideshows of yesteryear. Together the Brothers Gruchy continue their creative journey from Bundaberg into the world using digital media and technology to inform our past and future.

Photos by Sabrina Lauriston