The art show to see this weekend

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The Nugget
July 11, 2025

★ The art show to see this weekend ★

Madeleine Somers and Laura Jade, on Selkie time.

Some people bond over coffee. Others bond over books. For Laura and Madeleine, it was neck ruffles.

Because, Castlemaine.

Laura had just arrived in town. She and her partner Leslie were checking out Lot 19 and thinking that if Lot 19 exists, they could probably live in Castlemaine.

They came across Madeleine's studio. Dogs met. Tea was offered.

"I saw, like, maybe three neck ruffles just sitting in the studio," Laura says.

"I was like, 'Oh my God, are you a neck ruff maker?'"

"The first thing (Madeleine) said to me was 'I'm not even the only one in this town.' And I'm like, oh my God, I need to move here."

As a costumier working in theatre for 20 years, Madeleine has made clothes for countless operas and big West End musicals showing in Melbourne.

She eventually specialized in crafting sculptural Elizabethan-style neck ruffles.

Laura has a history of painting and making sculptures based on neck ruffles, in addition to creating illuminated installations for festivals.

But it was a myth almost as random as neck ruffles that inspired Madeleine and Laura to work together.

Their fascination with selkies was the catalyst for their new exhibition – the perfect antidote to deep winter – that opens Saturday at Lot 19.

The Selkie’s Timekeeper is a sensory seascape. Think jellyfish-inspired tassels, bioluminescent sculptures that come alive at dusk, and a rock pool installation you’re allowed to touch.

“There’ll be signs that say, ‘Please touch me’,” Madeleine promises.

The Selkie’s Timekeeper blends Madeleine’s skill at creating works of art from fabric and Laura’s illumination and interaction design skills.

Together they have created a dreamy, shimmering ode to the selkie.

According to myths, a selkie is a seal that sheds its skin and becomes a human woman, only to have those skins stolen, trapping the selkie on land until she can get it back.

"Every place that has a coastline, anywhere that has a seal, has a variation on the selkie myth," Madeleine says.

"A lot of Scandinavian countries will say it started there, but I first heard of it as a small child from Scottish folklore and I one thousand per cent believed it."

There's a feminist undertone to the Selkie myth, too, Laura says.

"Men fall in love with these seal women and hide their skins and take them for marriage and babies. The selkies reject that life, escape back to the ocean and leave that domesticity behind," Laura says.

"I like that idea. It's really shaking off the skins that we're expected to be in as women."

The Selkie’s Timekeeper will be open every weekend in July, with some secret happenings in the evenings like fire rituals, live music and maybe even a sleepover with old selkie films projected on the walls.

The space will shift between day and night states: soft and tactile in daylight, glowing and mysterious at dusk.

“You’ll see one show at 2pm, and a completely different one at 7pm,” Laura says. “Like the ocean—some things only appear at night.”

The project has been part friendship incubator, part experiment, and part professional reinvention for the artists.

Madeleine, after taking a break from theatre, wanted to make things that didn’t get whisked away, that she had more ownership over.

Laura wanted to ground herself locally, finding collaborators who share her curiosity.

“This whole thing,” says Laura, “has been a beautiful way to make friends as an adult. To say, ‘Hey, we don’t know each other that well, but let’s make something together and see what happens.’”

Can we all just take a moment to salute the hell out of that. Cheers to making new friends and trying wild new things as adults.

And when you live in the adult's playground that is Castlemaine, you'd be mad not to have a go.

"Exactly, because Castlemaine is such a safe place," Madeleine says.

"There's a receptive audience and this town loves to dress up and get involved and so why wouldn't you?”

True that.

❀ T’is the season to get your collage on ❀

Dani Marano has been hosting social collage events at Carnation Club to help get us through winter. The next one is tomorrow, Sat, 12 July.

There are morning and afternoon sessions, so you can decide whether you want a flaky croissant and coffee vibe or sparkling Harcourt Apple afternoon rager.

And guess what. Penny Ryan is offering a collage sesh, too! It’s coming up later in the month. What a fab opportunity to play and connect with Dani, Penny and other gorgeous creatives.

♡˖ EVENTS ˖♡

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