An incredible array of landscape works, from early European and colonial works to post-colonial and contemporary, form part of Bendigo Art Gallery‘s forthcoming exhibition, Collective Vision: 130 years, depicting the land and the built environment as both a sublime and a contested space.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A highlight is the work of George Rowe who arrived in Australia in 1852, seeking fortune on the Victorian goldfields.
He met with almost overwhelming success as a documenter of the formative periods of Australian history, earning a gold medal in 1862 at the International Exhibition in London.
The End of the Rainbow, Golden Square depicts the Bendigo goldfields, describing the degradation of the landscape and the life of diggers spurred on in anticipation of prosperity. Rowe conveyed a sense of empathy for the natural environment in his unromantic description of the harsh deforestation. Amidst the scarred landscape Rowe depicts a brilliant rainbow reaching down from the clouds – the distant promise of civilisation that marked the beginnings of Golden Square.
Contrasting with this is the work of contemporary Australian artist Michael Cook. Born in Brisbane in 1968, Cook is a Bidjara man of south-west Queensland. Cook’s first solo show was in 2010, but in a short time he has been recognised for his unique perspective and visual storytelling ability.
His awards include 2008 and 2011 Deadly Awards for Visual Artist of the Year, and 2011 People’s Choice Award in the Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards
Cook’s series Stickmen, presents the journey of a fictional Stickman – a universal perception of man drawn by man playing out traditional poses from Aboriginal rock paintings depicting hunting, tribal war and early colonialisation. The images bear the graininess of old photographs or parchment.
A sense of tragedy builds as symbols of white settlement (a dead kangaroo, a hill hoist) begin to appear within the frame, and the stickman is left ultimately alone and disengaged from his landscape.
Known for her striking images of young people, local artist Donna Bailey has explored the themes of childhood, young parenthood and regional life. Purchased in 2010 in memory of Wynne Baring through the Bendigo Art Gallery Foundation, New Moon #10 is from a series that included luscious, large-scale chromogenic and duratran prints.
These link her practice more intimately with the physical and psychological experience of living on the fringe of mining sites near Kangaroo Flat in Bendigo.
Using original site names, such as Christmas Reef, the Whipstick, Beelzebub Gully, Devil Dam, Pennyweight, Diamond Hill and New Moon, Bailey connected the history of the sites with her contemporary perspective.
View Collective Vision: 130 years 10am - 5pm Tuesdays – Sundays. For information go to www.bendigoartgallery.com.au
