History part 3: The Attic of Dorian Grey

That year, in fact just after Kitty, was when I decided that I'd start organising group exhibitions and that I needed a name for it. I wanted something recognisable, something that people would remember. I came up with Omnific Assembly, a group of people that creates all. Looking back, Kitty was the first OA show, I was just a little late with the intellectualising of it.

So the first official OA show was The Attic of Dorian Gray, which was the interval exhibition for Dancing with Strangers Melbourne Fringe Festival show Art Murder, Pictures of Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray was an Oscar Wilde story of a decedent man who never ages. The exhibition was based on the premise that if Dorian had traveled the world for 100 years, what would he have collected in his attic? It was a breathtakingly beautiful exhibition and I was very proud of it. We had costumes, installations, delicate sculptures built from bone, a huge machine rusted and covered in cobwebs, several steel sculptures and a fortune telling machine. The image to the left is (front) Sootie, a costume designer and behind are artists SaraMae Bell (left) and Marlo Spikin(right).

More images can be found at www.omnificassembly.com/oa/dorian.html