Her rocks beneath the prints replicate the geological formations beneath the gallery floor, reminding you of the pre-art order that the cultural institution covers. With less trust in nature, Ruth Hutchinson has made prototypes for anti-rape devices. The worst works in the show are paintings. There are better emerging painters elsewhere, such as Heidi Titshall, whose Urban myth at Goya Galleries is sanguine and imaginative. But painting is a tough medium and Titshall reveals difficulties, as when anatomy is blanched out with bravura in the whites.
Some works seem based on over-contrasty photography.
For that level of subtlety, Titshall could learn much from the equally urban-mythical work of Rick Amor at Niagara Galleries. They're full of strong contrasts, but the forms are established with reliable perception in the brightest light or the deepest shadow. Many of the paintings have a tragic grandeur in their combination of formal monumentality and sensitivity to light and texture. Michael Vale has also emerged creditably on more than one occasion at LaTrobe Street Gallery. Sometimes the sense of hidden allegory is strained.