Emergent Gouache on paper 38 x 59 cm 2014
So...I am working towards my next solo exhibition Untethering Landscape...and in the process of painting and writing, new ideas emerge. It's a fun process!
These two works on paper, here in the post, continue my thoughts on untethering landscape from Earth-bound horizons. Emergent [top] shows glimpses of my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life as it seems to emerge from some kind of happening...maybe the Big Bang? Life [and landscape] begins! These small glimpses take on a life of their own, as if they are unique 'scapes' of some kind. Yet, the viewer is aware of an enormity...a vastness...that hosts and embraces. Nothing is really in complete isolation.
The branches of the tree also take on a suggestion of systems, of all kinds, from naturally occurring to the human-made. Literal landscape is, after all, the result of a system, a highly complex one that produces life and matter.
As I have previously written, the symbolic potency of the tree-of-life crosses time, religions and cultures. The fact that it has been a meaningful symbol for humankind for so long makes me think that it holds clues for us 21st century dwellers of time and space too. We just have to explore, investigate...and untether the tree-of-life from historical visual manifestations, to discover new ways of interpreting its potency. Anyway...that's what I try to do!
Emergent Landscape Gouache on paper 52 x 115 cm 2014
Emergent Landscape...well this was fun to paint. Lots of water, paint and then waiting for it to dry before I started the line-work. The landscape seemed to emerge before my eyes. It was like my hand was being lead by something beyond me. I also love the way the watery background has created tree-like shapes, especially on the far right.
So, the painting could be a landscape emerging from a haze or glimpsed through rain or something similar. Yet, that's all a bit banal for me! Rather, it could be symbolic of new ideas about landscape itself. These ideas emerging from the exciting discoveries made by cosmologists. New perspectives of our planet and ourselves are on offer! Surely, these must translate into new concepts of landscape? Well, I think so!
2 - 14 September 2014
Graydon Gallery
29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Earth, The UNIVERSE
Check out Untethering Landscape webpage HERE
Cheers,
Kathryn
1 comment:
I love the Emergent Landscape painting. I too seem to dwell these days on the tree of life, or the tree of souls or the hall of souls. I'm thinking the fruit is created for eternity. The fruit is not born.
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