LANDSKEIN | Curatorial + Co
At Curatorial + Co’s new gallery, curator Sophie Vander invites Northern Beaches painter, Theresa Hunt and Adelaide-based ceramicist, Kerryn Levy to contemplate Australia’s recent Black Summer.
Words: Emma-Kate Wilson | Photography: Anne Graham
Avalon by Theresa Hunt, part of the LANDSKEIN exhibition at Curatorial + Co.
Asymmetry Vessels by Kerryn Levy, part of the LANDSKEIN exhibition at Curatorial + Co.
In vast swathes of blue paint across the canvas, Theresa Hunt reflects on the expansive landscape, where the horizon meets the ocean. For many Australians over the 2019-20 summer, instead of the usual blue, the sky was filled with variations of black, grey, and deep ambers as over 18.6 million hectares of the country burnt in unprecedented bushfires.
Alongside Theresa’s large ethereal paintings, Kerryn Levy provides an intimate contrast in organic forms that twist and coil created out of Australian stoneware in charcoal black, satin green, and soft white glaze. Each handmade and revealing the artist’s fingerprints, titled Sleeping in the Forest, the new collection brings together the landscape and the irrevocably linked humanity.
“I took the opportunity to explore larger, more complex and sinuous forms that weave through and around one another,” Kerryn contemplates. “For this collection, I limited my use of colour to black, white and green to represent the charred landscape, its ghostly remains and the new growth now determinedly and beautifully emerging,”
The LANDSKEIN exhibition at Curatorial + Co featuring the work of Theresa Hunt and Kerryn Levy. Photo - Anne Graham.
“Awry artists always give us hope, their perspective on tragedy or disruption can bring a sense of empathy and understanding. ”
“I took the opportunity to explore larger, more complex and sinuous forms that weave through and around one another, the largest of these and the collection is named after Mary Oliver titles, as an ode to my favourite nature writer,” says Kerryn Levy. Pictured - Asymmetry Vessel by Kerryn Levy.
“When I stand in the landscape or by the ocean, looking out into its enormity, its beauty engulfs me. I can’t drag myself away,” says Theresa Hunt. Pictured - Point Perpendicular by Theresa Hunt, part of the LANDSKEIN exhibition at Curatorial + Co.
For Theresa, her colour palette echoes her yearning for clean air and the familiar colours of summer. “When the bushfires came, I took refuge near the waves, and at the same time was drawn back into the bush – part of me was devastated along with the landscape, and I had to be out in it, looking over it, feeling it,” Theresa shares. “Now the cycle of regeneration and hope has sprung up, but it’s still so raw.”
“Last summer’s shocking bushfires in Australia seem so long ago for most of us now, but the aftermath is still very much the reality for many Australians,” curator Sophie Vander adds. “This show takes the viewer back into that time, and although the devastation is undeniable, artists often see beauty where others don’t.
LANDSKEIN was originally set to be curated into the gallery’s booth at the Sydney Contemporary. While COVID-19 may have halted art as we know it, creatives are still making work and curators will always find a way to share it; as Sophie shares, “we still may not make sense of it all, but art can change our outlook which may lead to better understanding.”
The LANDSKEIN exhibition at Curatorial + Cofeaturing the work of Theresa Hunt and Kerryn Levy.
Wild Geese detail by Theresa Hunt, part of the LANDSKEIN exhibition at Curatorial + Co.
VISIT
LANDSKEIN 16TH SEPTEMBER - 26TH SEPTEMBER CURATORIAL + CO, STUDIO 1, 175 CLEVELAND STREET, REDFERN
This article is proudly sponsored by the Northern Beaches Council as part of the series ‘Documenting Art in the Time of Corona.’ More information about the project can be found here.
