Global Classrooms to Creative Corners

Story: Lizzie Macaulay, Bigger Pictre Business Solutions. Photo: Cody Fox, Cleva Media

Standing in the corner of Hervey Bay Regional Gallery, Colin Reaney's installation invites visitors into a conversation about belonging that spans continents and decades. The work, titled "who own the numbers who make the words," is currently featured in the inaugural Regional Spotlight exhibition and represents a culmination of nearly three decades spent teaching art across the globe.

Born in Maryborough with deep connections to the region, Colin's artistic journey has taken him across Australia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. From 1988 to 2016, he held teaching positions at prestigious institutions like Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the American University of Sharjah. These experiences of cultural exchange and adaptation now inform his compelling artistic practice.

"Making art is all about new beginnings—a daily experience," Colin explains, drawing on cultural critic Edward Said's distinction between fixed origins and dynamic beginnings. This philosophy has shaped both his teaching and his artistic practice, particularly during his years as what he terms an "Academic Citizen" abroad.

Living and teaching in different cultural environments meant constantly questioning assumptions about art and its meaning. "I did not have to wait long before being asked about that 'accent,'" Colin recalls. "Like all students, these students would politely and with curiosity, give me the space to 'suggest' another possible understanding of what 'Art' could be and mean in their space."

Colin's artistic practice currently centres on what he calls "big sheets of paper (a sea of white paper), 2B graphite pencils, plaster, paint, and wood." His approach to making art is methodical yet intuitive, working across both 2D and 3D mediums with what he describes as "fabrications according to measured drawings."

For the current Regional Spotlight exhibition, visitors can encounter a carefully orchestrated corner installation that combines drawing, sculptural elements, and text. The work invites what Colin describes as a cinematic experience, leading viewers through a visual narrative that might leave them thinking, "What just happened?" This sense of puzzlement is intentional—Colin wants visitors to engage with the work on multiple levels, from the immediate visual impact to the deeper questions about belonging and place.

The installation explores settlement from early Australia to contemporary times, examining how movement and change affect our sense of place and identity. "I am trying to understand from early settlement of Australia to current times—what happens/happened and how does it change your being on this planet, in this country, in this life," Colin explains.

His connection to the coastal environment remains central to his practice. "I love the ocean and have a strong affinity to the shoreline, that line where water meets land," he reflects.

Now featured in Regional Spotlight's survey of Wide Bay-Burnett artists, Colin's work exemplifies the programme's mission to showcase local artists' reflections on the natural and built world, and ideas of home, memory, and belonging. His global perspective, combined with deep local roots, offers visitors a unique lens through which to consider their own relationship with place and identity.

As Colin puts it, drawing on critic Lucy Lippard's words: "art is about what the artist is doing with his/her art making... it's all part of the life of ART makers." His installation at Regional Spotlight represents not just a body of work, but a life lived in service of understanding what it means to belong.

Regional Spotlight is Hervey Bay Regional Gallery's new annual programme showcasing Wide Bay-Burnett artists, running until 3rd August.

This story appears in the July 2025 edition of Fraser Coast Scene, our monthly guide to What's On across our Cultural Services venues.

The creation of this story and photography was funded by Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF). RADF is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Fraser Coast Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.