Follow the white rabbit to Collie for Award-winning artist Shana James’ exhibition Down the Rabbithole Again

Be prepared to question the familiar with Collie’s upcoming exhibition inspired by Alice in Wonderland. The exhibition, Down the Rabbithole Again, showcases drawing and printmaking bursting with colour, surprise and wonder by award-winning WA artist and printmaker Shana James. The exhibition reimagines Lewis Carroll’s classic story of Alice in Wonderland through the use of metaphorical images, asking the audience to question and comprehend their own reality compared to Alice’s fantastical dream world. James investigated ideas of decision making, choice, direction, judgment, letting go and ultimately the self-actualisation of an individual. In the story of Alice in Wonderland, Alice makes the active decision to go down the rabbit hole, and learns to accept that once she start falling, she cannot change it back. James explores the concept of her falling; Alice is caught between the familiar knowing of her world and the uncertainty of what Wonderland will offer. The exhibition is inspired through James’s childhood fascination of Alice in Wonderland, however not from the book but from an LP record created in 1974, which offered the story as a modern take on the classic, complete with American accents and heavily abridged. It was only after James read the original story to her daughter in 2010 that she became aware of the intelligence and wit of the original text, and it inspired the reflection into her own life and documentation of ideas in her sketch book. This will be James’ 11th solo exhibition, inspired by a life-long interest in visual storytelling and more than 30 years of dedication to her art. Down the Rabbithole Again will be showcased at Collie Art Gallery from 2pm on January 29 until February 27.