By JESSE GRAHAM
AN exhibition exploring the different qualities people possess has opened at Healesville’s Memo Hall, with symmetrical and patterned art pieces adorning the walls for the coming month.
Peter Wonderfeel’s exhibition, Sacred Archetypes, opened at the Memo on Saturday 9 April, featuring 26 symbols emblazoned in colourful, often-symmetrical pieces.
Mr Wonderfeel told the Mail ahead of the exhibition opening that the archetypes had been developed over the last 23 years of his life, with the pieces produced since 2013.
“When I was younger, I wanted a tool that would help me be the person I wanted to be, be a happy person,” he said.
“And I thought, ‘What are all the really important qualities of a happy person?’
“I started with 105 and I distilled it down to 26.”
The pieces are named and have a short summary of what they represent, such as Builder, which features the description “I am satisfied by progress”.
But Mr Wonderfeel said he hoped people would make their own connections with each of the pieces.
“I really like it when people are open to something, and find a mystery in it and want to explore it – I love that,” he said.
“Each individual is going to have an absolutely different take on these, but, as a general sense, I feel these are qualities that are active and alive in us, and things that just help us function on a day-to-day level, help us have good relationships, help us feel satisfied in our careers, help us feel contented in ourselves.
“That’s what these are designed to do.”
The pieces themselves began with photographs of different items or textures in nature, which Mr Wonderfeel then edits digitally, creating patterns and symmetrical pieces, with deep and sometimes psychedelic colours.
“I’m a fan of symmetry” he said.
“The jury’s out on whether symmetry is cool or not, but I like it.”
Sacred Archetypes will run until 24 May in the Memo’s gallery, on Maroondah Highway, Healesville.
