Power of words showcased in art

by Bonnie Collings
The Warragul library became a temporary art studio recently when local artists Sue Acheson and Russell Lilford created their latest collaborative piece, "Words Collapsing".
Over the course of a week, Sue and Russell created a painting using the medium of words. The pair covered a 4m x 1.5m sheet of paper with assorted words, layered on top of each other in different shapes, styles and colours.
Library users and community members were invited to share their words to add to the final piece.
Based on Sue and Russell's ongoing theme of #toomanywords, the artwork created a visual representation of too many words in the world and not enough action.
"The idea of Words Collapsing is (representing) the mass of words that we get (thrown at us)," Russell explained.
"Information that we get in words off the internet, everywhere we go, there's signs either telling us to buy something, sell something, do this, do that. It's continuously this huge barrage and I think, especially on social media, things lose context and they just become meaningless and corrupted."
The power of repeated words is also represented in the painting.
"The more you repeat something, the more likely someone is to believe you, even if there's no truth behind it in the first place," Sue said. "We've tried to show that in the painting."
Beginning as a blank sheet on Monday, the artwork developed each day. Sue described the creation week as "intensive."
"It's really intensive and time disappears when you're working intensively," Sue said. "All of a sudden you think I have to stop because there is this chaos in front of you of all the words and you can't see straight and you can't think straight."
By lunchtime on Wednesday, Sue and Russell had completed a painting, but didn't feel it had captured the impact they were aiming for.
"We said, right, that's it, let's make another one," Russell said. "And consequently, (the second) one was probably more considered in some ways. The first one was really good because it helped educate us to how to do this one."
With words being the central theme, Sue said working in the library aided the creative process. "Being surrounded by words is really important as well," she said. "There were points where I wandered around and picked words off books.
"It's really lovely to be able to merge the art forms as well, we had music around us in the library, which has been brilliant."
Words like "peace", "love" and "happiness" made a lot of appearances in the community submission book.
"It was really interesting to have the book there and have people be part of it," Sue said.
"We've used words that were appropriate for the whole composition, that fit in and flow. Sometimes we've actually painted over them as well, so they're there in the background but not at the forefront."
Sue said their intention when creating the artwork was to make people think.
"Artwork isn't just a pretty picture on the wall," Sue said.
"There's different kinds of artworks, there's artworks that make you think, make you question, have some kind of a response. That's what we wanted, we want people to think about what we're doing."
"I think that's why it's so exhausting for us because we're putting all of ourselves into it, all of our experience and our dreams and wishes and thoughts. People may not recognise that it's in there, but we know it's there, so it's meaningful," Sue said.