Arts Monday 14 January 2013
Rover Thomas (Joolama), Gula Gula (Manking), courtesy Penrith Regional Gallery
Happy New Year! ArtiFacts is back Eastside in 2013.
Join me, Jane Raffan, for a program that looks at two exhibitions about landscape at the Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest.
I’ll be chatting with the gallery’s director, Dr Lee-Anne Hall about Spirit in the Land on show until 20 January, and Sansui Landscape, which opens thereafter.
The landscape has been an enduring subject in the history of Australian art and vital to the on-going formation of images of a national identity. Within this tradition, Spirit in the Land explores the connection between eleven Australian artists, historical and contemporary, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and their special appreciation and engagement to the spiritual ethos and power of the land. Artists include Lorraine Connelly-Northey, John Davis, Russell Drysdale, Rosalie Gascoigne, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Dorothy Napangardi, Sidney Nolan, John Olsen, Lin Onus, Rover Thomas and Fred Williams.
Sansui Landscape will offer visitors a treat: a cool respite from the January heat and a rare chance to see Kare sansui, which is Japanese for ’dry landscape’. A traditional garden often created in the absence of water, comprising land formations of mountain and plain with carefully selected rocks, and raked pebbles that imitate the flow of water. In western cultures Kare sansui are often referred to as ‘zen’ gardens.
More on the exhibitions and the gallery here: https://www.penrithregionalgallery.org/exhibitions.php
And the music? We’ll be listening to eclectic musical expressions about the idea of spirit and connectedness to country.
As always, I look forward to your company, 10:30 to noon.
Jane