Happy Returns
An exhibition by Melbourne based Australian artist Anne Hastie
14th - 24th February, 2024

Often people say; “I feel as if I’m going round in circles!” whereas in fact, in psychological terms, they are ‘spiralling’ up or down rather than circling. While our movements and experiences may feel circular, we never return to exactly the same ‘place’, real or abstract, because individually and collectively we are constantly changing.

This creative interlude for me, December 2023 – February 2024, has been one of returning; coming back to things that are familiar in Barcelona; places, people, processes. It has been a time of conscious and active spiraling (up), appreciating the immersive experience and learning that comes from making art in a new environment.

Human beings seek both predictability and novelty. In seeking experiences that are familiar we find comfort and surety. In seeking novelty we can feel trepidation and discomfort, yet it can also be thrilling. Spain offers me a different physical and emotional space to my life in Australia. It may seem my days here are predictable and safe but in fact I expand into the unpredictable novel space that creativity offers. My time here has been a thrill with many happy returns.

Anne Hastie (1955) is a visual artist who originally trained as a painter and printmaker, and later as a photographer. She worked as an art teacher but then moved on to the public health sector, where she undertook leadership in management roles whilst maintaining the fire under her slowly cooking art practice. Anne has spent extensive time in arts communities in Beijing, China, and over the last two years has lived and created art between Melbourne and Barcelona.

Anne’s aesthetic preoccupations with lyrical abstraction and the fluid nature of materials such as ink and paint are evident in this exhibition; Happy Returns is a selection of paintings and prints that were completed in Barcelona. They reflect Anne’s response to being in Spain—to order and disorder, to old and new, and to the rich layers and textures of history.