PART OF NATURE

Part Of Nature #2_2010_black Japan,wood stain,liming solution,scorch marks on inscribed timber panel

 

 

Part Of Nature



Katherine Boland’s large panels Part of Nature, made soon after her return to Australia from Egypt, exemplify the bold and physical nature of her practice. While she could be described as a globe trotter – she has spent time in France, America, Italy and the Middle East – it is her relationship with the Australian bush that inspires and continues to inform her practice.



These works speak directly of the climate of her homeland. Dry and somewhat foreboding, the native bushland of Australia is in a constant state of decay and renewal. With the approach of summer’s peak the forest floor becomes a tinder box. Trees drop their branches, bark furls and seed pods fall to the ground ready to be opened by the heat of the seasonal bushfires. Uncontrollable and devouring, fire in this environment serves as an important element within the order of establishing new growth.​

With this cycle in mind, Boland begins the act of mark making by subjecting the surfaces of her large wood panels to the transformative power of flame. The heat of blow torch and branding iron releases the natural oils of the timber to create a velvety, blackened base surface, echoed with spots of fire and flame. A process of carving, incising and staining serve to capture the textures and colours of the natural forms they seek to suggest and bond with the natural elements.


Boland’s resulting shield-like shapes invite us to look into them, to search their surfaces for depth and new meaning. Tactile and resilient, they appear to possess clear character and purpose as they stand upright within the blackened background. Inky rivers of varnish drip from their centres like sap weeping from a wound. Perhaps these glistening centres represent a void, a cracking open, and outpouring of new potential life. Nature in this instance is generative.

Somewhere between sculpture and painting, these works succeed in referencing the artist’s observations of form and texture while also creating an evocative and disorientating experience of being in the bush. What was small – a leaf, seed husk or a flaking piece of bark – now occupies an immensity of scale. We have been drawn into the abstracted world of nature and are witness to the fleeting and primordial authority of nature’s chaos and order.



Phe Luxford: Curator, Writer and Arts Consultant 



FORM Studio and Gallery 

presents

 

 

 FIVE

 

 

 

        Joanne Searle
          Terri Brooks
          Katherine Boland
          Sylvia McEwan
          William Ferguson

 

 

 

 

 

SHOW RUNS OCTOBER 7 - 28
OPENING CELEBRATION Friday October 18 @ 6.00pm
To be officially opened by Patsy Payne


Terri Brooks
I enjoy walking and use this time to source inspiration for my abstract sculptural paintings and paper mache pieces which glean their essence from the city’s weathered and arbitrarily juxtaposed utilitarian and architectural surfaces.

Katherine Boland
In her series Ad Infinitum Katherine has used repetition as a key element. Marks burnt and gouged into timber panels enter and disappear from each side of the painting evoking a sense beginning-less time.

William Ferguson
My canvases and works on paper made since the sixties have been concerned with a personal interest in the Australian Aboriginals, their life, culture and the desert in which they live. Painting for me celebrates the mysterious, the Australian landscape and culture, providing a spiritual stimuli within which I am concerned – interpreting values in subjective expressions – the inner life or spirit, rather than describing facts. In my work I wish to project a profound aura of silence, optimism, surprise, joy, and above all deep love reflecting the mystery and spiritual resonances linked with my personal interaction with the Aboriginals and their land.

Sylvia McEwan
Drawing on references as diverse as Classicism and Cubism, my work shifts between the figurative and the abstract. Although it evolves from the representational and moves through to the abstract, the paintings retain the influences and inspirations from which they were conceived. Whilst the subject matter is important, the true subject of the painting is always; space, colour, form, structure and balance.
My approach is to keep the subject matter and the paint as loose as possible.

Joanne Searle
Landscape and place are at the core of my practice and an integral part of my practice is to undertake field trips. It became apparent to me when I returned to sites, that I am preoccupied with changes that take place on the skin or surface of the landscape. Sound, and its two dimensional representation, have become an increasing theme of my practice. This work investigates the possibility that sound can resonate ‘place’ and that it is possible to reconstruct an experience of this, using a representation of sound that is two-dimensional.





We would be delighted if you could join us at the opening.  If you would like an online preview of the work in this exhibition please follow the link www.formstudioandgallery.com.au