An image of the snake eating its own tail, a symbol of repeating destruction and renewal, sets the tone amongst the warm glow of reds, golds, clay, dust, and stone for the current exhibition at Incinerator Gallery, curated by Jake Treacy. Above me as I enter In the Ruins I See the Future, I can see the elaborate portrait of an antique god and beside that the Ouroboros. A wall-text near the entrance explains: “The future is distilled through the icon of the Roman Deity Janus. Depicted above with two faces—one reflecting back on the past, as the other faces toward the future—he is the god of beginnings, transitions, passages, and endings.” I often reflect on the pilgrimage to Incinerator, an almost church-like building in Aberfeldie, with its high-sloped ceilings once filled with furnaces but now home to works by eight contemporary artists harbouring renewal and change. Here is an exhibition that seems to begin with this sense of return, even to see something new.
Scott Mclatchie (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist and musician from Naarm. Scott explores the dystopian in their own work as well as trying to explore the fringes of music by performing with an array of bands and projects. Scott is currently studying a Masters of Curatorship at Melbourne University.
