Overview of the Yarra Series so far...

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The Yarra Series

--> In 2006 I started a long-term project to redocument the Yarra River, its history and environment. Over the next six years I created work following the whole length of the river and exhibited it as it progressed at various venues along the Yarra, this blog is a cronical of those exhibitions. In 2010 I held a major exhibition of this work at Montsalvat Barn Gallery in Eltham.

Land Memory – Melbourne 2006 -2007

Dimensions 120cm x 100cm

Mixed media – ink, pastel, pencil on canvas

Land Memory depicts the Yarra River winding through the heart of Wurundjeri land. 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 21^st Century.

Land Memory – Abbotsford Convent 2006 -2007

Dimensions 120cm x 40cm

Mixed media – ink, acrylic, pencil on canvas

Memory Bridge 2008

Dimensions 120cm x 100com

Mixed media – ink, pastle, pencili on canvas

Memory Bridge is painted from under the long and curvaceous Westgate Bridge that links the East and West sides of the city. From here you can see the historic Science Works located in the original power station. In October 1970, the nearly completed span of the bridge collapsed taking many workers with it. Thirty five people died due to this hideous industrial disaster; their names are included in this piece to honour their memory.