Space Shapers

CS Gallery Windows Commission 2021

The annual CS Gallery Window Commission invites an artist to create an artwork that will be reproduced as a large-scale digital print for the windows of CS Gallery in Caroline Springs.

The annual commission responds to themes of importance to local communities. The 2021 commission offered an artist the opportunity to provide a playful response to the Growth Project through a series of children’s stories that informed the artist’s work.

The Growth Project reflects on the contemporary story of change of the City of Melton as it transforms from an outer-fringe network of disconnected communities into a city the size of Canberra in the next 15 years. Right now, the city is developing rural green fields into thousands of new homes, in one of the last major ‘growth corridors’ of Melbourne, while more established suburbs experience changes in the social fabric of their neighbourhoods. And the impact of this change, on culture, economy, intercultural relationships, built and natural environment is enormous.

Our community is also very young, with a large proportion of our families with parents between 20-40 years old, with many young children 5-12 years old.

The 2021 Commission recipient was artist Carla McRae. McRae successfully responded to the theme with her artwork design - Space Shapers. 

In this artwork, the children are at the centre of the action and their world, learning in the ways they like best — playing together, spending time in nature, parks and playgrounds. They jump, hide, stack and slide their way through ball pits, toy boxes, puzzle pieces, slippery-dips and building blocks that drift through the hexagonal frames, depicting the experience of playing and learning through colour, shape and symbols.

The geometric architectural structures and stacked shapes give a sense of progression and something being ‘built’. Colour-blocking and open, simplistic forms provide opportunities for children to create their own narratives about growth and change, and hopefully encourage visual starting points for thinking about their own artwork.