In the 2015 Queensland Regional Art Awards, there was no specific theme to address. Artists were asked to identify and address a significant theme relevant to their local region or community drawing on personal experiences or observations. The selected theme had to be articulated in an accompanying artist statement of 100-150 words.
In 2015 all participating artists were featured in the QRAA Online Gallery, had the opportunity to win an award and to be selected for the touring exhibition, to be curated by Jan Manton (Jan Manton Art). The exhibition will tour to key centres around Queensland in 2016 including Brisbane.
Judging Panel
- Jan Manton, Jan Manton Art (Curator)
- Alexis Tacey, USQ
- Ashleigh Campbell, Cairns Regional Gallery
Winners
- Rose Rigley, The Weight of Remembrance – The Wayne Kratzmann Award – $10,000 cash, acquisitive award
- Nicola Hooper, Rats with Wings – The Annie Tan Memorial Watercolour Award -$2500 cash, non acquisitive award
- Aaron Butt, Missed Encounter (Foster) – Brian Tucker Young Artist Development Award – $1500 cash, non acquisitive award
- Linda Clark, Wishbones and Backbones – Gray Puksand Digital Art Award – fully funded two week residency at The Edge, Queensland State Library
- Brigitte Peel, History Unknown – Art Shed Brisbane People’s Choice Award – Adult: $500 materials voucher
- Ayanna Pocock, Hidden Vines – Art Shed Brisbane People’s Choice Award – Young Person: $250 materials voucher
- Ilona Demecs with Grant Hunter, Rebuilding our shelves – Janet de Boer/Flying Arts Textile Award – $750 bursary to attend Blue Mountains Contextart
Artist: Rose Rigley
Artist Location: Whitfield
Medium: Assemblage (paper, cotton/linen thread, found object) (2015)
Dimensions: 35 x 20 x 18 cm
Artist Statement:
Rose Rigley is a Cairns-based emerging artist and community arts worker. Utilising sculptural assemblage, encaustic and artist books, her practice focuses on the human condition with a particular emphasis on memory and finding a narrative in the ordinary and mundane. In the personal, Rigley seeks to find the universal. ‘The weight of remembrance’ explores the temporal and fragile nature of memory and becomes a symbolic vessel for holding and preserving her aging mother’s fading recollections. Drawing upon the ‘feminine’ act of sewing to recreate the threads of her mother’s previous experiences and stories, the artist attempts to hold back the effects of approaching Alzheimer disease. Thoughtless of location and indiscriminate in nature, this mental scourge slowly erodes the sum of the individual – taking their memories and experiences – and leaves behind a ‘light-weighted nothingness’ where once the person was.
Artist: Rose Rigley
Artist Location: Whitfield
Medium: Assemblage (paper, cotton/linen thread, found object) (2015)
Dimensions: 35 x 20 x 18 cm
Artist Statement:
Rose Rigley is a Cairns-based emerging artist and community arts worker. Utilising sculptural assemblage, encaustic and artist books, her practice focuses on the human condition with a particular emphasis on memory and finding a narrative in the ordinary and mundane. In the personal, Rigley seeks to find the universal. ‘The weight of remembrance’ explores the temporal and fragile nature of memory and becomes a symbolic vessel for holding and preserving her aging mother’s fading recollections. Drawing upon the ‘feminine’ act of sewing to recreate the threads of her mother’s previous experiences and stories, the artist attempts to hold back the effects of approaching Alzheimer disease. Thoughtless of location and indiscriminate in nature, this mental scourge slowly erodes the sum of the individual – taking their memories and experiences – and leaves behind a ‘light-weighted nothingness’ where once the person was.
Artist: Nicola Hooper
Artist Location: Shailer Park
Medium: Hand coloured lithograph, coloured with watercolours (2015)
Dimensions: 100 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
This work researches the role of pigeons in the origin and spread of zoonotic diseases such as Paramyxovirus and Psittacosis viruses. Zoonoses is classified as an infection or infectious disease that is transferred from animal host to human. 75% of all new human diseases have their genesis within animal hosts. Lithography and watercolors are used to explore the way humans treat pigeons in the context of fear of disease. There are many zoonotic diseases that could infect the wider population of Queenlsand not only in pigeons but also the likes of the Hendra Virus, Q Fever, Salmonella and a number of other zoonoses where birds, rats and bats are the originating reservoirs. Pigeons have been demonized by some because of disease, but also revered by others. They could possibly vindicate themselves from responsibility via their role in scientific research to the benefit of humankind.
Artist: Aaron Butt
Artist Location: Ningi
Medium: Oil on canvas (2014)
Dimensions: 76 x 60 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
Missed Encounter (Foster) is a portrait of American Art Historian and Art Theorist Hal Foster. The balding and sagging Foster is depicted wearing a blue business shirt in a pure white space, smirking knowingly at the viewer. The frontward, almost chiaroscuro lighting illuminates Foster’s dark eyes and sweaty upper lip, flaunting the painting’s relationship with photography. However, the portrait’s meticulous, handmade rendering and existence as an original, three-dimensional object separates it from the instantaneous, infinitely reproducible results of the camera. The title Missed Encounter directly refers to Foster’s exploration of psychoanalyst Jacque Lacan’s conception of the missed encounter with the real; although perhaps more directly relates to the mediation of the subject and viewer of the portrait by the picture plane. Although one can see Hal Foster, even feel like they could touch his freshly shaven face, one’s engagement with the influential writer remains a missed encounter.
Artist: Linda Clark
Artist Location: Toowoomba
Medium: Video projection and sculptural textile installation (2015)
Dimensions: 40 x 50 cm
Artist Statement:
My recent work explores the shifting re-interpretations of motherhood as subject matter in contemporary art. In particular, my work investigates how the process of traversing mother/artist identities within the home can be a useful model for regional artists to reinstate a creative space between motherhood and art practice. This premise involves re-orienting domestic rituals and personal narrative as innovative sites in installation art that blur private and public boundaries. Wishbones & Backbones is a video and sculptural installation in which everyday ritual and personal narrative from the mothering role within the home are transformed with new meanings of female empowerment. The work subverts traditional expectations of the ‘good’ mother by exploring dichotomies and undercurrents experienced within the mothering role. Within this body of work, the dichotomies surrounding ‘lessons’ passed from mother to child are explored, where the lesson could be positive empowerment of the child, or the mother.
Artist: Brigitte Peel
Artist Location: Jubilee Pocket
Medium:Pencil (2014)
Dimensions: 68 x 76 x 3 cm
Artist Statement:
I live in paradise. 74 stunning islands and a huge variety of reef systems to explore, there is no better way to describe The Whitsundays. As an enthusiastic scuba diver I am passionate about the marine industry. I travel daily to the Great Barrier Reef as a photographer capturing people experiencing the wonders of this natural World Heritage Site. I have travelled the world but have always been drawn back to this area and the magic it beholds. My piece ‘History Unknown’ is of a hawksbill turtle emerging from the darkness – wise and mysterious. Where have you come from? Where are you heading? What have you witnessed in your lifetime? The Great Barrier Reef and its abundance of marine life is very special and important to my community. It deserves respect, recognition and protection to ensure that many generations to come can continue to admire its undeniable beauty.
Artist: Ayanna Pocock
Artist Location: Laidley
Medium: Acrylic on canvas (2014)
Dimensions: 100 x 100 x 2 cm
Artist Statement:
Hidden Vines addresses the invisible forces that affect our being, as experienced through the heart. These include strong emotions that give a sense of constriction on the life-force, such as anxiety and stress. However, these emotions are not seen most times upon the outside – therefore, that is why the heart is being tightened by invisible vines that wrap themselves around, much like a snake does when killing their pray. During the time painting this artwork, I experienced these emotions almost on a daily basis – and nobody knew because it is something experienced inside. The painting attempts to explore the inner feelings of the human brain and how it can affect us physically – keeping us in a state of limbo between serenity on the outside and chaos within.
Artist: Ilona Demecs, in collaboration with Grant Hunter
Artist Location: Imbil
Medium: Woven tapestry with red cedar (2015)
Dimensions: 42 x 36 x 36 cm
Artist Statement:
At the time of the proposed Traveston dam in the Mary Valley many people had to pack their treasures, empty their shelves and leave their properties and communities. With the cancellation of the dam, houses that were to be demolished now have new owners. This small shelf of tongue and groove celebrates the colourful life of the people who are renewing the community of the Mary Valley and the woven walls celebrate the various colours of that QLD icon; the Queenslander house.
Artist: Ilona Demecs, in collaboration with Grant Hunter
Artist Location: Imbil
Medium: Woven tapestry with red cedar (2015)
Dimensions: 42 x 36 x 36 cm
Artist Statement:
At the time of the proposed Traveston dam in the Mary Valley many people had to pack their treasures, empty their shelves and leave their properties and communities. With the cancellation of the dam, houses that were to be demolished now have new owners. This small shelf of tongue and groove celebrates the colourful life of the people who are renewing the community of the Mary Valley and the woven walls celebrate the various colours of that QLD icon; the Queenslander house.
Touring Exhibition
The following works have been selected for the touring exhibition. The exhibition will open in Warwick in February 2016, before heading off on a whistle stop tour around the state, including Brisbane.
Artist: Sharka Bosakova, in collaboration with Louis Lim
Artist Location: Logan Village
Medium: Archival inkjet print edition 2/3 (2014)
Dimensions: 100 x 80 x 3 cm
Artist Statement:
Portrait of Ali – Sudanese refugee Finding Your Way Home Project / Portrait series. The portrait is part of a body of work exploring the experiences of people in Logan community who have been displaced from cultural, political, economical, religious and personal attachment. With support from the Regional Arts Development Fund and the Logan City Council, Myself and photographer Louis Lim, were able to capture participants of The Homesickness project / series of workshops, which I have conducted at Kingston East community Group and Woodridge State school, where participants had chance to created wearable objects to express their search for home and own identity/. The outcome has been wide perceived at the Homesickness Exhibition in Logan Art Gallery and the image of ‘Ali’ was later shortlisted as a finalist in the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photographic Award and the Head On Portrait Prize.
Artist: Aaron Butt
Artist Location: Ningi
Medium: Oil on canvas (2014)
Dimensions: 76 x 60 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
Missed Encounter (Foster) is a portrait of American Art Historian and Art Theorist Hal Foster. The balding and sagging Foster is depicted wearing a blue business shirt in a pure white space, smirking knowingly at the viewer. The frontward, almost chiaroscuro lighting illuminates Foster’s dark eyes and sweaty upper lip, flaunting the painting’s relationship with photography. However, the portrait’s meticulous, handmade rendering and existence as an original, three-dimensional object separates it from the instantaneous, infinitely reproducible results of the camera. The title Missed Encounter directly refers to Foster’s exploration of psychoanalyst Jacque Lacan’s conception of the missed encounter with the real; although perhaps more directly relates to the mediation of the subject and viewer of the portrait by the picture plane. Although one can see Hal Foster, even feel like they could touch his freshly shaven face, one’s engagement with the influential writer remains a missed encounter.
Artist: Linda Clark
Artist Location: Toowoomba
Medium: Video projection and sculptural textile installation (2015)
Dimensions: 40 x 50 cm
Artist Statement:
My recent work explores the shifting re-interpretations of motherhood as subject matter in contemporary art. In particular, my work investigates how the process of traversing mother/artist identities within the home can be a useful model for regional artists to reinstate a creative space between motherhood and art practice. This premise involves re-orienting domestic rituals and personal narrative as innovative sites in installation art that blur private and public boundaries. Wishbones & Backbones is a video and sculptural installation in which everyday ritual and personal narrative from the mothering role within the home are transformed with new meanings of female empowerment. The work subverts traditional expectations of the ‘good’ mother by exploring dichotomies and undercurrents experienced within the mothering role. Within this body of work, the dichotomies surrounding ‘lessons’ passed from mother to child are explored, where the lesson could be positive empowerment of the child, or the mother.
Artist: Donna Davis
Artist Location: Deebing Heights
Medium: Pigment print on fine art rag (2015)
Dimensions: 66 x 46 x 6 cm
Artist Statement:
Discovery’ explores conservation of endangered flora species in my local area, with reference to natural history collections. When I first learnt that plants and fungi often build symbiotic relationships in order to promote optimum health for both species, I began to wonder whether our local endangered Swamp Tea-tree and Cooneana Olive populations shared similar relationships. Natural history collections and environmental surveys, both past and present, can assist in providing valuable data for research and conservation strategies; however often, environmental surveys do not include the important world of fungi. This work references these two endangered flora species, with the addition of local fungi species. The specimens are presented in a world of suspended animation, together yet separate, preserved in time and space to await inquiry. Will new connections between seed, root and fungi be discovered? Could these discoveries aid in the conservation of these species?
Artist: Ilona Demecs, in collaboration with Grant Hunter
Artist Location: Imbil
Medium: Woven tapestry with red cedar (2015)
Dimensions: 42 x 36 x 36 cm
Artist Statement:
At the time of the proposed Traveston dam in the Mary Valley many people had to pack their treasures, empty their shelves and leave their properties and communities. With the cancellation of the dam, houses that were to be demolished now have new owners. This small shelf of tongue and groove celebrates the colourful life of the people who are renewing the community of the Mary Valley and the woven walls celebrate the various colours of that QLD icon; the Queenslander house.
Artist: Ilona Demecs, in collaboration with Grant Hunter
Artist Location: Imbil
Medium: Woven tapestry with red cedar (2015)
Dimensions: 42 x 36 x 36 cm
Artist Statement:
At the time of the proposed Traveston dam in the Mary Valley many people had to pack their treasures, empty their shelves and leave their properties and communities. With the cancellation of the dam, houses that were to be demolished now have new owners. This small shelf of tongue and groove celebrates the colourful life of the people who are renewing the community of the Mary Valley and the woven walls celebrate the various colours of that QLD icon; the Queenslander house.
Artist: Helen Dennis
Artist Location: Chinchilla
Medium: Acrylic with ink on canvas (2015)
Dimensions: 60 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
A marching ‘army’ envelops a community and its surrounding landscape, utilises its resources, and then moves on. As in all ‘invasions’ the potential for conflagration between the incumbent and the interloper is ever present. Pressure to submit or resistance to change become the cries of the battle field. As this war of attrition evolves between the protagonists, will there be an ultimate victor? Will the community have the resilience to survive the aftermath intact or will it be burned beyond recognition?
Artist: Jay Feather
Artist Location: Bundaberg
Medium: Digital photograph (2015)
Dimensions: 60 x 40 x 2 cm
Artist Statement:
“We are Family” Installation Art, Bargara Beach Bundaberg I wanted to take the humble dinner plate from the home and into an urban environment. To me, the dinner plate signifies family. These 200 dinner plates have been collected from the Bundaberg community. The plates have been arranged in a common natural formation; the spiral. After the devastation and tragedy surrounding the 2013 Floods, the town appears to be thriving once more. I wanted this installation to bring the community together as a family. I feel the community spirit in this town is strong and its people, resilient. I wanted to show the community my thanks and invite them to enjoy the 200 plates that comprises my installation.
Artist: Jay Feather
Artist Location: Bundaberg
Medium: Digital photograph (2015)
Dimensions: 60 x 40 x 2 cm
Artist Statement:
“We are Family” Installation Art, Bargara Beach Bundaberg I wanted to take the humble dinner plate from the home and into an urban environment. To me, the dinner plate signifies family. These 200 dinner plates have been collected from the Bundaberg community. The plates have been arranged in a common natural formation; the spiral. After the devastation and tragedy surrounding the 2013 Floods, the town appears to be thriving once more. I wanted this installation to bring the community together as a family. I feel the community spirit in this town is strong and its people, resilient. I wanted to show the community my thanks and invite them to enjoy the 200 plates that comprises my installation.
Artist: Louise Gronold
Artist Location: Barcaldine
Medium: Digital photograph on Hahnemuhle cotton rag (2015)
Dimensions: 90 x 120 x 5 cm
Artist Statement:
The dominating theme in my region is drought. It is all encompassing, impacting on every layer of our communities… graziers, businesses, schools and prospects for our community’s immediate future. My background is in agriculture and botany and I find much inspiration in our vast landscapes and striking vegetation for my photographic art. On my travels I have observed the droughted paddocks have become a muted backdrop for the resilient, leathery leaved trees of our region. Some stand tall whilst others are more tortured but all appear to have trunks and branches made of iron. Not effected by the drought and standing stubbornly, looking alone as the grass has shrunk and withered. It was if is this magnificent old tree beckoned to me to be photographed. It detected my awe of its beauty and strength in the harsh barren landscape.
Artist: Kim Guthrie
Artist Location: Cooroy
Medium: Giclee print (2015)
Dimensions: 73 x 88 x 3 cm
Artist Statement:
There are a number of themes, which are central within the greater body of my work. The predominant subject matter is quintessentially Australian and it reveals the ways in which Australian myths are deeply ingrained and yet constantly changing, signifying the cultural diversity that we, as a country, continue to experience. The deeply ingrained, sardonic, Australian sense of humour is evident throughout many of the images, but there is also a sombre aspect to some images, which point towards a darker side. It’s my job to report back to the general population on the cultural landscape as I see it. As much of my subject matter deals with the Australian national character and Australian landscapes etc., I believe that, for the audience, there will be a strong recognition-factor at work. The work transcends mere documentary photography and presents the ‘everyday’ within a high-art context.
Artist: Paula Heelan
Artist Location: Clermont
Medium: Digital Photograph (2015)
Dimensions: 55 x 80 cm
Artist Statement:
Shelter from the dry. This image depicts the current dry season in central Queensland. The long dry spell takes its toll on many farmers.
Artist: Nicola Hooper
Artist Location: Shailer Park
Medium: Hand coloured lithograph, coloured with watercolours (2015)
Dimensions: 100 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
This work researches the role of pigeons in the origin and spread of zoonotic diseases such as Paramyxovirus and Psittacosis viruses. Zoonoses is classified as an infection or infectious disease that is transferred from animal host to human. 75% of all new human diseases have their genesis within animal hosts. Lithography and watercolors are used to explore the way humans treat pigeons in the context of fear of disease. There are many zoonotic diseases that could infect the wider population of Queenlsand not only in pigeons but also the likes of the Hendra Virus, Q Fever, Salmonella and a number of other zoonoses where birds, rats and bats are the originating reservoirs. Pigeons have been demonized by some because of disease, but also revered by others. They could possibly vindicate themselves from responsibility via their role in scientific research to the benefit of humankind.
Artist: Maki Horanai
Artist Location: Tamborine Mountain
Medium: Acrylic on linen (2015)
Dimensions: 105 x 80 x 3 cm
Artist Statement:
Just above us lies
a parallel universe,
hope for our rebirth.
Artist: Anna Howard
Artist Location: Brooloo
Medium: Paper mache, tissue paper acrylic, oil on board (2015)
Dimensions: 91 x 91 x 1 cm
Artist Statement:
The changes I experience and observe that occur in the natural world have become metaphors for the changes is my own life. This I express in a contemporary way in my work. Through working this way, I am able to gain a deeper understanding of the natural world and how it functions. In turn, this knowledge gained of the commonality that exists between us and the environment creates a sense of being at one with the natural world. Along with sense of ‘oneness’ comes the realisation of how fragile life and how it is our responsibility to protect what we have.
Artist: Donna Jedras
Artist Location: Barcaldine
Medium: Digital Photograph (2015)
Dimensions: 51 x 51 cm
Artist Statement:
The work is the rediscovery of self-image and growth and is an expression of the hardship of living in remote areas. The engrained cracks in the wall represent parched earth affected by drought and patterns of thought, when altered, free one to experience and reach their full potential. The shovel symbolises rebuilding. Just as we use tools to carry out a particular function, so too can one subconsciously use tools in life to achieve success mechanisms. The green vegetable resembles rejuvenation. As phytonutrients serve various functions in protecting a plants vitality, so too can we really live when we rediscover our true self, a self that one trusts and believes in.
Artist: Philip Johns
Artist Location: Cairns
Medium: Acrylic on canvas (2014)
Dimensions: 91 x 120 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
I live and work in Cairns. My art has been exhibition based in the last number of years. That is to say working within the parameters set by other curators and artists for exhibitions. I like working toward the vision and guidelines of other artists because it challenges my own creative instinct and aesthetic sensibilities. However, part from group shows I do take the time to produce work which indulges my own passion from time to time. The work presented here is one which indulged this passion. “Dresden Angel,” (not necessarily the name of the boat), was painted from studies undertaken at Cairns’ Cruising Yacht Squadron. I love the industrial energy of dock yards and slip ways and have spent time observing such scenes. This painting was done in acrylics and took up 100 hours to produce.
Artist: Kristy Krieger
Artist Location: Townsville
Medium: Charcoal, graphite, pastel on drafting film and ink on Japanese paper (2015)
Dimensions: 42 x 60 x 2 cm
Artist Statement:
This drawing is from a series I have done based on a small section of tropical land that has been reserved as a feature within a suburban development in Townsville. The image touches on the aspects of a diminishing landscape through the use of erasure and drafting film, but it also highlights my experience and connection to the lush natural environment – it is how I see it, understand it, and move through it. To feel a connection or a sense of belonging to a place is emotional, and like a memory it can be recalled and inspired by other places of similar familiarity. Through the investigation of mediums such as graphite, charcoal on drafting film, and ink on Japanese paper, combined with contemporary drawing methods my work offers detailed, intuitive mark making that communicates an intimate experience of place that reflects both an internal and external landscape.
Artist: Judi Liosatos
Artist Location: Annandale
Medium: Digital photograph (2014)
Dimensions: 70 x 70 x 2 cm
Artist Statement:
We are at the hands of nature. We cannot control nature… nature controls us. Without water regional Australia cannot exist. When and where it rains is out of our hands. The future of our agricultural and mining sources as well as the rural population is fully at the mercy of this precious commodity. Major cities are struggling to cope with the booming population and encouraging people to move out of the major cities and yet the regional areas are struggling to survive. This ever-growing problem needs to be address sooner rather than later. Will regional Australia survive as we try to swim up an ever decreasing source?
Artist: Claudine Marzik
Artist Location: Smithfield
Medium: Acrylic and oil crayon on hardboard (2015)
Dimensions: 92 x 61 x 2 cm
Artist Statement:
Even living in Far North of Queensland, its unavoidable to ignore global news. Recently my painting practice, predominantly inspired by the natural environment, has taken me to another place where current worldwide issues do influence my latest artwork. I feel there is never enough time to process the current affairs and the relentless flood of information, the constant hammering of the mind and all the senses by a melee of unprocessed news of disasters & war. With the work Echo I use a reduced palette and an extreme repetitive pattern to respond and to overcome the news of the day until the next event, the next news cover the current one, again and again and again.
Artist: Mandy McGuire
Artist Location: Peregian Beach
Medium: Biro on Japanese veneer board (2014)
Dimensions: 60 x 68 x 5 cm
Artist Statement:
The Pine is part of the iconography of the Sunshine Coast, and is associated with Queensland. The Hoop Pine was once the dominant forest tree of this region; most of the early homes in this area were built from Hoop pine. I am in love with Pine trees. They are beings that have seduced me very quietly with their stillness, their elegance, their majesty, their stoic resistance to the hubbub of human activity, and their individuality. It is the unique quality of each tree that tells the story… inside each tree there is a memory of itself and a secret of the past.
Artist: Sharon McKenzie
Artist Location: One Mile
Medium: Pen on paper (2015)
Dimensions: 120 x 80 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
Ipswich has a history with coal; recently a new coalmine has been approved only 5 klms from the city centre causing alarm within the community. In Consumed I’ve placed a small flock of Swift Parrot (Lathamus discolour) on a bed of Cooneana Olive (Notelaea ipsviciensis) and Swamp Tea Tree (Melaleuca irbyana). The flora and fauna are critically endangered and endangered species of Ipswich. The Cooneana Olive, presumed extinct till 1980’s, is particularly relevant as the specimens were discovered in Ipswich in 1976 and subsequently destroyed after being covered in mining debris.” (environment.gov.au). The flora and fauna are placed on an antique platter representing wealth, history and privilege. The fauna and flora are serving as sentinel species. The meal is a metaphor for material consumption that drives the mining industry and contributes to species extinction and climate change.
Artist: Tarn McLean
Artist Location: Toowoomba
Medium: Acrylic and resin on masonite (2015)
Dimensions: 50 x 50 x 50 cm
Artist Statement:
The work is concerned with the expansion of Modernist painting towards the design of space and architecture. Since the 1960’s modernist painters transferred conceptual intentions associated with their painting practice to sites of place, identity, design and institutional critique. The three-dimensional painting references six artists whose works are stored in the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery including Florence Broadhurst, Fred Williams, Sam Fullbrook, Ray Crooke, Irene Amos and John Coburn. In turn their varied discourses are considered monumental in directing contemporary Australian painting. The practice of expansion towards painting as object and painting as expanded methodology allows for multiple sites of interpretations. As homage to an historical dialogue, the work aims to initiate open-ended negotiation towards engaging with reductive painting’s historical discourse within a contemporary and local context.
Artist: Tarn McLean
Artist Location: Toowoomba
Medium: Acrylic and resin on masonite (2015)
Dimensions: 50 x 50 x 50 cm
Artist Statement:
The work is concerned with the expansion of Modernist painting towards the design of space and architecture. Since the 1960’s modernist painters transferred conceptual intentions associated with their painting practice to sites of place, identity, design and institutional critique. The three-dimensional painting references six artists whose works are stored in the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery including Florence Broadhurst, Fred Williams, Sam Fullbrook, Ray Crooke, Irene Amos and John Coburn. In turn their varied discourses are considered monumental in directing contemporary Australian painting. The practice of expansion towards painting as object and painting as expanded methodology allows for multiple sites of interpretations. As homage to an historical dialogue, the work aims to initiate open-ended negotiation towards engaging with reductive painting’s historical discourse within a contemporary and local context.
Artist: Yvonne Moloney-Law
Artist Location: Yeppoon
Medium: Intaglio print, embossed and engraved pvc plate (2014)
Dimensions: 38 x 60 x 2 cm
Artist Statement:
Toonooba (The Fitzroy River) holds spiritual and cultural significance to C.Q’s Darumbal people. Toonooba’s catchment is the second largest in Australia. This image depicts Toonooba’s flow from the Melaleuca Swamps into Toonooba then onto the many estuaries within Keppel Bay. Here it sustains vital food sources for the survival of many forms of wildlife and upholds an important supportive role in the habitats of this region. It is vital in the sustainability of this regions fishing industry as it provides physical structure and invaluable support for these estuaries /swamps by absorbing and then slow releasing floodwaters whilst filtering and distributing essential nutrients. Ultimately signifying the vital role which this catchment zone holds within Capricornia by highlighting this rivers’ ecosystem and ecology – from the Melaleuca Swamps thru Toonooba into Keppel Bay.
Artist: Beatrice Prost
Artist Location: Tinbeerwah
Medium: Hand carved unique original print on cotton paper (2015)
Dimensions: 44 x 86 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
I create contemporary works placing you -the viewer- in the space between reality and fantasy. My mystical carved images encourage pause and provoke thoughts about how landscapes influence our identity. They result from those moments where I am fully immersed with the nature around us. “Heart “expresses my love for mangrove trees and my passion for the whole mangrove ecosystem importance for life. Technically my work cannot be categorized. It results from meditative long hours of hand carving a unique print on cotton paper. Each mark starts with a dot. Each dot forms into a line. Lines and dots might develop into patterns or not. Those deep scars create movement and dance on the artwork while writing a story. There is no return as the white purity of the paper is irreversibly revealed.
Artist: Merri Randell
Artist Location: Cornubia
Medium: HD video (2015)
Dimensions: 1080 x 1920
Artist Statement:
I am a digital artist living in Logan. I celebrate diversity by creating worlds full of beautiful, hybrid monstrosities that seduce, beguile and disturb. As an expressionist I believe art is capable of effecting social change. My artworks are a playful exploration of non-indigenous cinematic landscape myths. My artwork ‘BUNYA: whip roots’ (2015) seeks to interrogate non-indigenous Australian’s largely unconsummated desire to understand and unite with a disturbing, intolerant and sometimes vengeful landscape. Working in distorted realities, I combine hyper-real photography of under-represented post-colonial Australian forests and swamps with consumptive sound and uncanny motion to conceive compulsive but immersive audio-visual artworks. Through my work with local regional BushCare groups, scientists and artist residencies I gain unique insights into the life of forests and wetlands. I feel strongly that if we embrace difference a more sustainable, balanced existence can be achieved.
Artist: Rose Rigley
Artist Location: Whitfield
Medium: Assemblage (paper, cotton/linen thread, found object) (2015)
Dimensions: 35 x 20 x 18 cm
Artist Statement:
Rose Rigley is a Cairns-based emerging artist and community arts worker. Utilising sculptural assemblage, encaustic and artist books, her practice focuses on the human condition with a particular emphasis on memory and finding a narrative in the ordinary and mundane. In the personal, Rigley seeks to find the universal. ‘The weight of remembrance’ explores the temporal and fragile nature of memory and becomes a symbolic vessel for holding and preserving her aging mother’s fading recollections. Drawing upon the ‘feminine’ act of sewing to recreate the threads of her mother’s previous experiences and stories, the artist attempts to hold back the effects of approaching Alzheimer disease. Thoughtless of location and indiscriminate in nature, this mental scourge slowly erodes the sum of the individual – taking their memories and experiences – and leaves behind a ‘light-weighted nothingness’ where once the person was.
Artist: Rose Rigley
Artist Location: Whitfield
Medium: Assemblage (paper, cotton/linen thread, found object) (2015)
Dimensions: 35 x 20 x 18 cm
Artist Statement:
Rose Rigley is a Cairns-based emerging artist and community arts worker. Utilising sculptural assemblage, encaustic and artist books, her practice focuses on the human condition with a particular emphasis on memory and finding a narrative in the ordinary and mundane. In the personal, Rigley seeks to find the universal. ‘The weight of remembrance’ explores the temporal and fragile nature of memory and becomes a symbolic vessel for holding and preserving her aging mother’s fading recollections. Drawing upon the ‘feminine’ act of sewing to recreate the threads of her mother’s previous experiences and stories, the artist attempts to hold back the effects of approaching Alzheimer disease. Thoughtless of location and indiscriminate in nature, this mental scourge slowly erodes the sum of the individual – taking their memories and experiences – and leaves behind a ‘light-weighted nothingness’ where once the person was.
Artist: Mark Skelcher
Artist Location: Smithfield
Medium: Oil on canvas (2014)
Dimensions: 100 x 80 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
Not that I really want to compare myself to the now infamous cane toad but “Permanent Resident” plays with ideas of being ‘foreign’ and ‘introduced’ into the Cairns region. Having myself moved to Cairns from the UK and now an Australian citizen, this work is part of a larger exploration into my experience of immigration, focusing on issues such as identity, sense of place and relationships, as featured in my first solo exhibition at Cairns Regional Gallery (Emerging Artists Program) in late 2014. For me, the alienated cane toad with its constantly glum expression draws parallels to my initial feelings of homesickness and being an outsider trying to fit in. I am attracted to the diversity of painting and idea of it crossing boundaries, like the cane toad, challenging expectations. Consequently, my paintings are layered in thick oil paint adding an almost sculptural quality to express my personal journey.
Artist: Frances Smith
Artist Location: Eagle Heights
Medium: Southern Ice Porcelain (2015)
Dimensions: 40 x 25 x 20 cm
Artist Statement:
I have been involved in applied art and design as a life-long career, initially as a Graphic Designer and illustration artist. As the ability to edit and constantly alter images becomes the standard work process for modern artists, I began to realise that this was beginning to homogenise my work. All of the expressiveness and uniqueness happens when I work in mediums where once a mark is made on the surface, it cannot be erased. That every inflection, every mark must become a part of the finished work. Here I find that any truth I have to tell, will find its immediate expression without being able to rethink and revise. Living on Tamborine Mountain I became aware of the beauty of the rainforest but also its fragility. The Calanthe Orchid is on the endangered species list. I have attempted to preserve it’s beauty in line.
Artist: Karen Stephens
Artist Location: Redbank
Medium: Oil on Canvas (2015)
Dimensions: 45 x 60 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
Athelstane is a still life in Australian landscape. The subject is a bricolage mailbox belonging to a historic sheep and cattle station, south of Winton, Queensland. This region is currently experiencing severe drought. A familiar landmark, the old drum, has been standing there for as long as I can remember. My intention was not to render it purely as an aging functional object, but to present an inanimate object invested with human emotion, as it bears a name and not a number. This absence of rationality and the infusion of emotion reflect a resurgence of 18th Century Romanticism in a contemporary format, evident by the relic’s sublime desiccation in remote Australia. Athelstane, is dually a simple, yet complex painting. The corroding white mailbox is a response to the object in the void, but also an empirical record that communicates our past history in the present through a postmodern discourse.
Artist: Beverley Teske
Artist Location: Alexandra Hills
Medium: Mixed media on canvas (2015)
Dimensions: 110 x 90 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
11,430 hand drawn crosses, 1 for each ANZAC life lost at Gallipoli. 5 crosses represent local men from Redland City region. Allan Noble; Joseph Street; Robert Taylor; James Lovatt; Clive Were. It is unimaginable in today’s world to comprehend, the not knowing, that loved ones at home had to endure. It impossible to understand how one would cope with the loss of a loved one in such circumstances. To wonder and worry what was happening on the other side of the world, in a place, most Australians had probably never heard of, much less visited. I want everyone to look at this painting and remember, 100 years ago, one or more of these crosses would have been someone they loved or knew. As a country we must always remember the sacrifice these men and their families made, so that we can live the life we do.
Artist: Gabi Timm
Artist Location: Weyba Downs
Medium: Pigment on etched aluminium (2015)
Dimensions: 30 x 120 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
I am seduced by the ever changing reflective sky and light showcasing the beautiful landscape of South East Qld. The painting changes in every light and in different rooms taking on the colours in the surrounds. The etched aluminum sky creates movement and evanescence tones just like light and colours over the horizon. The strong landscape of the Glass House Mountains (GHM) that is back drop of the Caloundra is weighted to balance out the light above. I am always lured back to the vista of the GHM how enduring the land and transitory the light.
Artist: Alan Tulloch
Artist Location: Ipswich
Medium: Coal (2015)
Dimensions: 4 x 22 x 21 cm
Artist Statement:
The Morphans are a growing family of sculptures that reach into different forces that have turned organic life into coal. Recognizing Ipswich’s coal mining history, the Morphans offer an alternate way to value coal for what may become a post-coal-burning future. The coal ‘nuggets’ used to create the Morphans were sourced from Jeebropilly, which may be the Ipswich region’s last coalmine. Each Morphan (maximum dimensions rarely exceeding 5cm) was carved in response to the coal’s nuggetty forms, imagining how I might ‘evolve’ new forms of life that resopnd to coal’s crystalline yet also silky, and sullen black depths. The sculptures relate to the place-making aspect of my art practice where I have developed responses to places such as Peel Island, Mildura, Townsville, Doomadgee and Brisbane. Initial concept development for the coal works was assisted by an RADF grant in association with local retired miners and New Hope Corporation.
Artist: Alan Tulloch
Artist Location: Ipswich
Medium: Coal (2015)
Dimensions: 4 x 22 x 21 cm
Artist Statement:
The Morphans are a growing family of sculptures that reach into different forces that have turned organic life into coal. Recognizing Ipswich’s coal mining history, the Morphans offer an alternate way to value coal for what may become a post-coal-burning future. The coal ‘nuggets’ used to create the Morphans were sourced from Jeebropilly, which may be the Ipswich region’s last coalmine. Each Morphan (maximum dimensions rarely exceeding 5cm) was carved in response to the coal’s nuggetty forms, imagining how I might ‘evolve’ new forms of life that resopnd to coal’s crystalline yet also silky, and sullen black depths. The sculptures relate to the place-making aspect of my art practice where I have developed responses to places such as Peel Island, Mildura, Townsville, Doomadgee and Brisbane. Initial concept development for the coal works was assisted by an RADF grant in association with local retired miners and New Hope Corporation.
Artist: LeAnne Vincent
Artist Location: Sadliers Crossing
Medium: Pigment print, digital photograph (2015)
Dimensions: 80 x 80 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
Ipswich is the fastest growing region in Queensland, undergoing constant urban development. Wildlife habitats are destroyed or fragmented and many native bird species are now listed as threatened. Individuals can assist in counteracting this by planting native flora in their yards, instead of traditional ornamental gardens, to provide habitat for wildlife. This work serves to raise awareness of the need to change our perception of what an ornamental garden is; to redefine our environmental aesthetic values to include consideration of our wildlife species and restore what our urban environments have taken from them. The milk jug—a utilitarian device—functions as a vase, yet is ornamental with the decorative English Rose motif which is emblematic of a traditional ornamental garden. The floral emblem of Australia, the Golden Wattle, represents our native flora that sits uneasy in the presence of the Rose, and which has a higher purpose than that of decoration.
Artist: Sally Grattidge
Artist Location: Wulguru, Townsville
Medium: Watercolour (2014)
Dimensions: 63 x 69 x 3 cm
Artist Statement:
Holiday in the Tropics. Enjoy the warmth and the sunshine in your air-conditioned unit with your chlorinated pool. No mildew on the walls, or strange grey fur growing on your shoes after a good wet season. No green frog in the toilet bowl, geckoes behind the picture frames or army of ants marching across the kitchen bench. Leave all that for the locals.