By NOEL MURPHY
PORT Phillip Bay has long played a vital role to the life of Geelong and right now this striking image of its links, including via its Corio Bay arm, to Melbourne are taking pride of place on the other side of the bay.
Artist Jan Senbergs’ Geelong Road – a bird’s-eye view of the sprawling bayside city, western suburbs and the industrial heartland stretching out to meet the outskirts of Geelong – is on show at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery.
The Sea of Dreams: Port Phillip Bay 1915-2013 exhibition features bayside links of towns from Geelong right around the bay by artists such as Moriac-born Streeton, McCubbin, Boyd and Nolan.
Dark, brooding images of Shell’s refinery in Geelong feature also but it is Senbergs’ 2004 work that gallery senior curator Wendy Garden said cuts “a torrential swathe through the western coastal plains” adjoining the bay.
“The multi-lane highway gobbles up the rail line and subsumes the bay which almost waterfalls off the paper,” she said.
“The volume of speeding red, yellow, blue, green and white vehicles denote the often-preferred means of transport, especially for daily commuters.”
See more at mprg.mornpen.vic.gov.au.
