Valley to the Sea
2006
The concept of shared land
Arts NSW mentor program in conjunction with Bega Valley Regional Gallery
Before commencing this work I had started to explore the landscapes of my parent’s birth countries and in so doing, trying to define ‘my country’, how to reconcile landscapes (ancestral and present) with a place of belonging.
Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? 2006, centre panel, 2006, gouache, tempera, oil and wax on board, 90 x 150 cm
Scaevola (detail)
Midden (detail)
Salt marsh (detail)
Wapengo picnic (detail)
Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? 2006, gouache, tempera, oil and wax on board, triptych, 150 x 270 cm
Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?
Our identity is often shaped by where we come from: our ancestors and the history and culture which we bring to the land, and by the people that were here before us. Focussing on my immediate environment provided the opportunity to link memory within a present landscape and explore the many questions it raises about identity.
How does the land create our identity? What is it that creates a feeling of belonging – my country, your country – a sense of knowing, a place of being? What are the many facets that make up our connection to the land? How do we shape our future? Ultimately, how do we share memory and cultural knowledge to create a connection, a place in the landscape?
I have always worked in the genre of magical realism using nostalgia and appropriation to create a sense of a real yet illusory world. Having recently been intrigued by old family photographs I then started to explore photographs and stories pertinent to my local area and a web of images began to unfold. The connections both personal and geographic proved wonderful and mysterious – a place of knowing began to emerge.
Partly autobiographical the narrative is entwined with snippets of local history: my family, that of my partner’s and how they connect to form one story of shared memories and associations. The theme of water and boats is central to our families both past and present and lake life at Wapengo today. I was able to connect beaches in Alexandria (Egypt) and Heist (Belgium) with a Clarkes pool in western Sydney, boating in Port Hacking and a sun-kissed Australian way of life growing up in the sixties and seventies.
In this country there are many places of unsurpassed beauty. A place is more than just its pristine quality, its vista, or its temperature range. People and memory make a place: my story, your story, who was here before us, who is here now and who will be our future?
In 2006 I was one of five emerging artists invited to participate in an Arts NSW funded mentoring program through the Bega Valley Regional Gallery. Renowned artist Mandy Martin was invited to mentor us in the project titled Valley to the Sea: the concept of shared land.