New Landscapes: Landscape as a vehicle.‘New Landscapes’ presents worldly engagements and the quietude of paying attention. It presents a collection of artworks resultant of reflection upon and engagement with the world. This exhibition is to do with conceptual output as much as aesthetic practices. Illustrations of trees uninterrupted in bush scenes is not what can be found in ‘New Landscape’, these are not the visual traps of these artists’ work. The practices of Jasmine Avril, Meredith Frances Lynch, Kylie McKendry, Bridget Minatel, Kevin Platt, & Mary Wenholz deal with landscape from a myriad of perspectives; spatially, politically, experientially, as well as yes: visually. It is visual arts after all.
The artworks in this exhibition present numerous responses to the idea of an expanded form of landscape in the sense of conceptual artistic activity that sees artworks created that respond or relate to the world (or an aspect of world, space, people, knowledge, history, etc.). This is intentionally an open ended exhibition theme to allow for honesty within every artists’ work and concepts. ‘These works explore different ways of imagining landscape. They suggest ideas about our relationship to land, whether in terms of categorisation, ownership or belonging.’ (Avril) Conceptual output as a purist non-visual activity within the visual arts has evolved over the years. Melded activity is vigorous in artists’ practices today. This is the case now, in the works shown in this gallery by Avril, Lynch, McKendry, Minatel, Platt, & Wenholz as much as it this true for many works to do with landscape created by many, many, emerging artists today. The notion of landscape in this exhibition is a vehicle, it is a means of expression, a conceptual medium, and a means of transporting ideas.
- Meredith Frances Lynch. Sydney, 2009.
