18 Acrobates on Albury Station

“Mining The Collection” was an Albury Regional Gallery project which invited community members to choose items from their collection. Four artists were then invited to choose item/s to respond to .An inidentified photograph from 1895 called “Nine Men on Albury Station’ was the one that called to Ponch Hawkes.

“….I had to acknowledge my strong connection to Albury and the Flying Fruit Fly Circus. Most significantly, I remember the heart-rending moments of farewelling the Nanjing Chinese acrobats onto the train at ,at the conclusion of the first ever exchange visit of Chinese circus trainers to Australia in 1984…”

“…It took me a while to understand I had other memories – memories of being a child on the train from Sydney to Melbourne and getting off the train in the middle of the night to go to the refreshment room,Interwoven with these memories are the haunting Drysdale images of the Station during its wartime busyness…images of farewells and welcomes .."

artist statement  - Mining The Collection catalogue