The Nature of Things
Ursula Sullivan+Joanna Strumpf
A google search will bring up a million quotes about art and nature. One of the best is actually from Frank Lloyd Wright, he says “Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you”. And while today it seems that humankind is failing nature, nature continues to give back to us - to artists especially.
In this issue we feature artists who continue the great tradition of drawing upon nature, landscape and the environment.
We learn about a new body of work by Maria Fernanda Cardoso - a continuation of a projected started more than 10 years ago in remote areas of Western Australia and South Australia with the incredible Tjampi Weavers. These intricate, obsessive installations and sculptures celebrate the complexity and beauty of gumnuts which as Rachel Kent notes are “aesthetic and utilitarian in equal measure.”
Shanghai-born, New York-based Yang Yongliang, takes us to a landscape of both the past, the present and the future. Based largely on ancient Song Dynasty paintings, these works harness the technologies of today using images taken and gathered by Yang Yongliang. The result is sublime upon first view, but upon closer inspection, these works are a quiet reminder about what a future may look like if our impact on the fragile landscape goes unchecked.
Still on landscape but this time of the urban environment, we delve into Darren Sylvester’s ambitious installations for this year’s iteration of The National at Carriageworks, curated by Abigal Moncrief. Sylvester takes us for a stroll through New York City shopfronts, to gaze into the cool neon glow of the windows of psychics, which he has seamlessly fabricated and set architecturally into the gallery walls, asking us to slip into the unknown.
We welcome Seth Birchall to the gallery family and learn more about his imagined, meditative landscapes – a dreamy mix of Australia and Bali, which draw on the great traditions of landscape painting. We also catch up with Jeremy Sharma who draws on the painting tradition as well, but in a very different way. He too is interested in the production of form, but uses technology and data as the vehicle to generate his landscapes.
Michael Lindeman opens up his cabinet of curiosities and we learn about his grandfather Ramedlaw – the famous hypnotist; we take a spin around Paris with Greg Hodge in the lead up to his online exhibition; learn more about Lynda Draper’s idyllic Thirroul home, and go in the studio with Sam Jinks to talk about his creative process, timing and influences – which range from Bernini to Bacon.
The last word goes to Luke Sales, from the iconic label Romance was Born on a career of collaborations, and how his latest, with Glenn Barkley, bought the two obsessive collectors together – at last!
So, kick back and enjoy this escape into landscape.
Jo and Urs