An exhibition of artist in residence works influenced by, and reflecting the micro-landscape of Bundanon
When Arthur Boyd first came to the Shoalhaven in 1971 he fell in love with the landscape, the spaciousness, the quiet. On deciding to live in the area he and his wife Yvonne first purchased Riversdale in 1974 and then Bundanon in 1979.
To come to terms with the vastness of the landscape Boyd started with ‘an intimate look’. He spent time getting to know the bush and its great variety of flora by executing a series of finely detailed paintings of the bush onto copper using very fine brushes. Other artists have approached the sometimes overwhelming landscape of Bundanon in a similar way, resulting in a great diversity of work.
In this exhibition are works from artists who have visited Bundanon as part of the Artists in Residence program and who have also taken ‘an intimate look’ at their surroundings. Sometimes this is an extension of the established practice of the artist, sometimes it takes the artist by surprise as they follow a new direction.
Dacchi Dang’s Artist book, 2001 shows detailed photos of the bush exposed in brush strokes of previously applied emulsion. Bundanon Trust keta, 2003 by Mary Byington is a complex set of artist’s books exploring the landscape through the indigenous seasons of this land; while Sarina Noordhuis studied the flight of the swallow (Swallow flight, 2006) and the natural placement of the cattle (Field studies, 2006) as she mapped nature’s activity in the landscape.
Many artists incorporate a daily walk into their art practice while they are at Bundanon and use this time to collect material, ideas and capture images by hand or digitally. The results of such walks can be seen in the painting Path, 2006, by Gabrielle Courtenay; the artist book Contexture 1, 2005, by Gabrielle Jones; works on paper Rock, paper, water II, IX and XI, 2005, by Denise Keele-Bedford; in the poem Canto VII: Stick & Ink, 2003 by Anna Kerdijk Nicholson; and in Elizabeth Poon’s beautiful photographic images.
Mandy Gunn, Karen Standke and Colleen Werner have all captured the detail of selected trees, while Leigh Corrigan has taken a rubbing of river stones, embellishing them with delicate colour and texture, resulting in the island, 2006. Pod, 2003 by Julie Love and Bundanon momento mori, 2005 by Dena Kahan although using different medium, both magnify the small and so attract our attention.
The intimate sounds of the Bundanon landscape have also been studied and explored. Shoalhaven – sounds and music of Bundanon, 2004 by Peter Mummé and Bundanon soundscapes by Christine McCombe both focus on the details of sound in their surroundings.
It is in the study of the minutiae, that these art works had their genesis and it is in our appreciation of their detail that we can all experience the intimacy of Bundanon.
