Gallery – Adam Oehlers
Adam Oehlers studied visual communication at the University of South Australia. During this course he majored in Illustration and puppetry. These two art forms complemented his love of story telling and in 2001 he formed a puppetry troupe named ‘Mr. Fortune’. After two years of freelance illustration and puppetry shows in Adelaide he moved to England where he lived in Brighton for four years. Continuing with the puppetry, ‘Mr. Fortune’ grew to a seven-person troupe performing their shows in theatres and venues around Brighton. Their life-sized glow in the dark puppets danced their way through bizarre, changing landscapes to a live music soundtrack provided by local artists Lyricool Lips and Bunty.
The weird and wonderful characters that populate the seaside town of Brighton were a constant inspiration for Adam.
“I’m fascinated by the people around me and often find myself making up histories for them, to explain how they have come to be in the situation that they’re in. Its often the tragic stories that I am drawn to, not so much because of the tragedy but because of the little elements of hope that you can find within them.”
After four years in Brighton Adam has taken his work back to Australia to see what kind of strange folk he can find in Melbourne. The inspiration that he has gathered in England is easy to find in his latest series ‘Portraits of the village’ which is on show at the Urban Cow gallery in South Australia and will shortly appear on his website.
Farmer Brian
‘Farmer Brian’ is part of Adams ‘Portraits of the Village’ series. A collection of simple people doing simple things.
A few days earlier
This is a short story about a senile old man who can’t remember what it is that he is looking for but he can remember its urgency. His story is written on the spines of his books and can be followed from the top left corner. The end of the story however gets a little confused as he has removed books from the shelf leaving the ending unclear.
The confused owl
The secret to this creatures problems lies in the berries.
Her Spot in the sun
This is a character from a book that I have been writing with Kate Regester over the past four years. Roxy is one of the main characters that appear in the story.
The Clock Maker
The clock maker in his studio.
Lost at sea
The Nowhere Lighthouse
These two images are the start of a series called ‘the Nowhere Lighthouse’. The story is being written as the illustrations are being done. A fisherman gets caught in a storm and blown out to sea. Has he is losing hope of being rescued he spots a light on the horizon. He rows toward it only to find a mysterious lighthouse in the middle of the sea. It is a story about solitude, madness and the discovery of new things.
Penny farthing
A clever man escaping the big smoke.
www.adamoehlers.com
www.myspace.com/oehlers
