I’ve been creating paint-on-paper work for Sydney Contemporary Art Fair. I’m
exhibiting there with fellow artist Bronwyn Berman. We are in BOOTH B21. The
exhibition runs from 11-14 September at Carriageworks, 245 Wilson Street,
Eveleigh, Sydney, 2015.
Sydney Contemporary is Australia’s premier art fair. A couple of weeks ago, Bronwyn
and I had a chat over coffee. Sometimes being in the art world can seem
nebulous—what is it we are doing when we splash paint around?— but chatting with
a fellow artist gave me the lift I needed. It reminded me that other people have also
spent their life dedicated to the ephemeral. Art always speaks to those parts of our
life that we find difficult to articulate. We humans turn to art so we can think about the
world in a different way.
For Sydney Contemporary I’m developing some new works that continue with the
journey-of-life theme that has preoccupied me of late.
I sometimes start my day’s journey with a poem. Or often, I read poetry at night. At
dusk, I wander the garden, water the plants, connect with the sky. I watch corellas fly
along the waterway on their return journey from the forest. My witness to their
journey is a poem of sorts, and the emotion it carries enters into my work.
The poem The Birds Have Vanished by Li Po (701-762) has been on my mind this
week. Every time I read the words, or hear them spoken, it makes me want to weep.
THE BIRDS HAVE VANISHED
The birds have vanished into the sky
and now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.
Translated from the Chinese by Sam Hamill. I found the poem in A Book of
Luminous Things, selected and edited by the poet Czeslaw Milosz.
In any case I hope you’ll join myself and Bronwyn at BOOTH B21 at Sydney
Contemporary!
Sydney Contemporary
BOOTH B21
Exhibition runs from 11-14 September
Carriageworks, 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh, Sydney, 2015
