CURRENT EXHIBITION : UNIQUE STATES
8 May - 18 September
Unique States is a print exhibition that considers different states and several possible meanings of the idea of the ‘unique state’. It refers to print making techniques, to states of being, to political, environmental and conceptual states and to our local state.
The past three years have launched humanity into ‘unique states’ and Western Australia has become even more of a ‘unique state’ because of its position apart from the rest of Australia and indeed the world. Mobility, human relations and the environment have all felt the impacts of this time and we have been compelled to think and act differently in response to unfamiliar situations.
In this exhibition we see a diversity of artworks using a variety of print making techniques that invite narrative speculation; invite thoughts on environmental realities; on the Australian political environment and on being in the world. They take us to local forests, to rivers and distant mountains, as well as compel us to consider flight and mobility and displaced humanity facing unyielding borders and confronting loss and grief. Some works enable us to delve into metaphysical patterning and then others bring us back to ground to reflect on the allegorical complexities of rusty farm machinery.
Artists
Susanna Castleden, Jo Darvall, Valdene Disprose, Clyde McGill, Harvey Mullen, Sue Starken, Elmari Steyn, Perdita Phillips.
Image credit: Susanna Castleden, 1-1 Expeditor 1 (twin tail left), 2019, copyright of the artist