Dreaming reality

Later today I will deliver my work Land Memory - Melbourne to the artist colony Montsalvat, where will be included in the Nillumbik Prize and exhibition. I am delighted to have my work selected for this. The prize is to be judged by one of my favorite Australian artists John Wolseley. The exhibition will remain on display till the end of August. It is a wonderful opportunity and a great precursor to my solo exhibition there in the Barn Gallery later this year. This piece Land Memory - Melbourne is one of the key paintings I produced for my exhibition The Yarra Journey in 2007. I am pleased that this key work of the series will be on display again leading up to the next suite of shows, The Yarra Story - Drawing the Birrarung at Montsalvat in December 2009.

Katie Roberts Land Memory – Melbourne Copyright 2006 –2007
Dimensions 120cm x 100cm Mixed media : oil paint, acrylic, ink, pastel, pencil on canvas

Land Memory depicts the Yarra River winding through the heart of Wurundjeri land – Melbourne City. The grid of the city streets is overlayed on an abstract field of ochre, from which emerge various views of Melbourne. The skyline is drawn from a traditional Western perspective and hovers, ghost-like above the land. The human landscape appears as ephemeral or as scars upon the land. Other elements inhabit the layers of the painting including words, dead branches, bar codes, the binary system and the human anatomy. This piece examines the relationship between the human and the natural worlds, and re-maps our city for the 21st Century.