The Collection

The Hitchcock Gallery displays works from the Gallery’s collection, including some of the originals that Rone has reproduced in his installation. They act as an aide-mémoire, linking the copy and the original, and juxtaposing a world of fantasy with reality.

The Gallery’s invitation to Rone to exhibit initiated his re-engagement with our collection and the institution that he visited in the formative years of his life. The general colour scheme of Rone’s installation takes its lead from early 20th century ceramics by Geelong-born artist Florence Royce. Their muted palette of greens, blues and pinks also inspired Rone’s selection of watercolours from the collection. 

While the artist’s reputation for working in abandoned spaces and sites scheduled for imminent demolition may seem at odds with the ‘permanent’ edifice of the art museum and its purpose to preserve visual and material culture, Rone’s installation provokes new thinking on the very idea of the museum: of the images and objects that help shape individual and collective cultural memory; of the things we value as signs of our lives and times; and of what can so easily be lost.