Paraku Memory
Visiting Paraku in the SE Kimberley a few years back I was perched on a landscape I didn’t know. It seemed a beautiful and foreign place where knowledge belongs to a culture that is not mine. I needed to sit and listen to the land and the people who could speak for it to orient myself. It took a while to see beyond the obvious, to pick out the small breaths and quivers, the grain and grit; the accumulations forming this vast and ancient place. These drawing started their life by the fireside on that trip. I wanted to embed the place in them by scraping coals and earths across white papers. Since then the papers have rested quietly but as present as a hibernating animal within my studio to be picked up again this year. I have reworked each piece to evoke a glimpse of the place. Each piece is a time capsule of distance, cultures and memory– I hope to return one day to Paraku and feel its welcome mud upon my legs and hands
Paraku Memories
on display at Beaver Galleries
as part of their SMALL WORKS exhibition 2020 26 NOVEMBER – 24 DECEMBER 2020
on display at Beaver Galleries
as part of their SMALL WORKS exhibition 2020 26 NOVEMBER – 24 DECEMBER 2020
acrylic paint, charcoal, pastel, collage, scorch marks on rag paper
150 X 104 cm |
Lake Edge Memory I I, 2020
scorch marks, found charcoal, pastel, paper on birch panel 20 cm X 20 cm |
Lake Edge Memory III, 2020
scorch marks, found charcoal, pastel, paper on birch panel 20 cm X 20 cm |
Paraku Memory, 2020
scorch marks, found charcoal and ochre, pastel, on birch panel H 23 X W 30 cm |
Track Side Memory, 2020
scorch marks, found charcoal and ochre, pastel, on birch panel H 23 X W 30 cm |
Paraku Camp Memory, 2020
scorch marks, found charcoal and ochre, pastel, paper on birch panel H 40.5 X W 30 cm |
Tanami Mud Memory, 2020
scorch marks, found charcoal and ochre, pastel, paper on birch panel H 40.5 X W 30 cm |
photography: The artist