Canberra, Tuesday 22 January 2002

ATTENTION ARTS WRITERS

Landscape as Metaphor

The Honourable Mr Bill Wood, ACT Minister for the Arts, will launch the Drill Hall Gallery's 2002 program on Thursday 7 February at 6pm by opening the exhibition, Landscape as Metaphor, which explores late 20th century Australian landscape painting - at a time when our relationship with the land has become a major concern.

Bringing together the work of Peter Anderson, Peter Booth, Jon Cattapan, Lawrence Daws, Mandy Martin, James Meldrum, George Morant, Trevor Nickolls, Lin Onus, Christian Clare Robertson, William Robinson, Jan Senbergs, Judy Watson and Ralph Wilson, this provocative exhibition invites viewers to consider their relationship with the land and suggests that landscape tells us as much about ourselves as it does about the natural world.

For the artists involved in this exhibition, landscape acts as a metaphoric means of addressing contemporary social, psychological and technological issues. Their paintings offer diverse interpretations of landscape, collectively revealing insights into the artists' concerns and our shared psyche. "The artists here offer us a diversity of agendas, attitudes and ideas about the relationship of all living things with their environment," Curator Sue Smith said.

While Peter Anderson and Christian Clare Robertson create worlds of alluring beauty and disturbing unease others such as Peter Booth, Jon Cattapan, Lawrence Daws and James Meldrum, think of landscape not just as a physical entity but as an extension of their own physical or psychological states. The work of George Morant, Lin Onus, Trevor Nickolls and Judy Watson is hauntingly expressive, confronting our past and addressing issues of reconciliation and national identity. Mandy Martin will also feature in a solo exhibition at the Drill Hall Gallery in April-May 2002.

Landscape as Metaphor is a travelling exhibition developed by the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in Townsville, in association with Rockhampton Art Gallery and Toowoomba Regional Gallery, and is being toured by the Regional Galleries Association of Queensland. The exhibition will continue at the Drill Hall Gallery until Sunday 10 March 2002.

The Drill Hall Gallery is located on Kingsley Street (off Barry Drive) ANU, and is open Wednesday to Sunday from 12 noon to 5pm. Admission is free. For photographs of the works in this exhibition and further information, please contact Tony Oates, Exhibitions Officer, on (02) 6125 5832.

09/2002

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Last Modified Tue, July 16, 2002