“The Seven Days of Creation” by Leonard French were donated to the ANU by Ken Myer sometime in the early 1960s and it became my job to design and organise their hanging in various buildings of the ANU, (Bruce Hall, University House and RSBS together with external exhibitions so that the public could enjoy them.
I designed exhibitions for the complete set (7 large paintings) in the Civic offices behind Ethos, and in the Albert Hall in Canberra where I experimented with sequential viewing from 1-7 in which each could be viewed separately and in complete darkness with only the paintings being lit. In that way the large (4m diam) final Seventh Day could be seen as the culmination of the six days labour and as a surprise to the walking viewers.
It worked extremely well, creating a vivid and unusual atmosphere with a stunning climax.
The Six Days of Creation leading up to the climax. No 1 was monochrome, the other five in increasing colour