Earlier this year This Too Shall Pass by our much admired Cricket Saleh was being considered for acquisition by Geelong Gallery at their annual Geelong Contemporary Soiree. Although on the night a narrow majority of votes went to Rone, Geelong Gallery has since decided to also acquire This Too Shall Pass due to the overwhelming support of our local community and their love for Cricket’s work.

According to GT magazine, Geelong Gallery’s Senior Curator, Lisa Sullivan says the format of the Geelong Contemporary Soiree gives the community ownership of the collection. “For all the years of the Geelong Gallery, which equals about 124 at this point in time, we have supported Geelong artists”, she says. “This has been a very important strand for our collection over time – to make sure that we represent our region and artists, and we support them not only through exhibition but through acquisition.”

This Too Shall Pass being acquired into the Geelong Gallery’s permanent collection means it will live on for generations to come and the honour alone is a thrill for Cricket, but it is the role the wider community played in the process that has left her lost for words.

“It’s incredibly overwhelming.” Cricket says. “You create because you need to put that body of work in a public arena and have that conversation but you’re overwhelmed by the response to that. I had no sense of this when I was working on this body of work. It’s surprising and wonderful.”

From the series Dog exhibited at Boom in late 2018, which explored themes of death and decay, Cricket explains “I am very much interested in the beauty of things as they decay…how over a period of time when things start to age we start to put them to the side… I really wanted to have that conversation about the beauty, rather than it just being expired and not worthy.”

This news has brought us much pride and joy and we are very much looking forward to our 2019 exhibition later this year with a new body of work from Cricket, whom has hinted at very different direction moving forward.

In the meantime we have four remaining editions of This Too Shall Pass available for purchase, along with a number of other works from this series, that can be seen in our stockroom and newly opened Big Boom.

To see more of Cricket’s work click here.