Zak Tilley
Northern Territory-based artist Zak Tilley creates vibrant landscape paintings touching on identity and belonging – we chat to Zak about his practice and his current exhibition, The Few and Far, at Otomys gallery in Melbourne.
Photography: Sara Maiorino & Zak Tilley
Birds Eye on Mpaara Creek Bed by Zak Tilley. Photo: Zak Tilley. Main hero photo of Zac Tilley: Sara Maiorino
River Roads, Finka Gorge National Park by Zak Tilley. Photo: Zak Tilley
‘I am inspired by the landscape and how it provokes so many feelings of nostalgia, sentimentalism, and is threaded in identity and belonging and otherness,’ says Zak Tilley. Another Perspective on Kalarranga by Zak Tilley. Photo: Zak Tilley
H&F: Hi Zak, tell us a little about your art practice.
Zak: For me, my art practice is investigatory of my relationship with the Australian landscape. When I’m in the field painting, or in my studio, I’m on the journey of processing fables of Australian identity and exploring my own interwoven colonial relationship between place and practice. My practice currently consists mostly of landscape painting; however, I am at the precipice of experimenting with ceramics, and mixed media this year.
What inspires you?
The landscape and how it provokes so many feelings of nostalgia, sentimentalism, and is threaded in identity and belonging and otherness. I’m also inspired by depictions of landscape, and how these said ideas can impact how I represent the landscape and thus how the audience relates to the paintings emotionally.
When did you know you wanted to become an artist? Did you have an influential figure growing up?
I have memories from kindergarten of me thinking all I want to do is draw forever. I have always been incredibly supported by my parents to pursue it. I never really had any other rival passions. I haven’t really ever had an influential figure. I feel like I have always been on this journey on my own, which I don’t mind.
What have been some of the highlights of your career?
I think having people increasingly relate to my work and genuinely engage with and enjoy it. It’s obviously quite validating to have sell-out shows and press supporting it, but it’s mostly really nice to have the audience engage with it and enjoy it.
‘The (Alice Springs) landscape and its history and its entanglement in the Australiana white identity has always fascinated me,’ says Zak Tilley. Pictured: Mpulungkinya, Palm Valley. Photo: Zak Tilley
“When I’m in the field painting, or in my studio, I’m on the journey of processing fables of Australian identity and exploring my own interwoven colonial relationship between place and practice.”
Creek Bed in Mpaara Hills by Zak Tilley. Photo: Zak Tilley
Pink Rocks to Step, Mpaara Valley by Zak Tilley. Photo: Zak Tilley
How does your heritage influence your work?
As a settler, my practice allows me to confront, critique and process my inner conflicts, which embody ideas of identity, belonging, and otherness against an intimate but necessarily colonial relationship with the Australian landscape, as I attempt to sensitively and respectfully work on Arrernte Country, and throughout Central Australia.
Over time when I am painting, I have become more critical of my relationship with the landscape; consciously navigating the complexities around it – I explore a land which has a history of neglect, abuse and cultural removal from its traditional owners and custodians, this is intertwined with my settler heritage.
Where are you based and why did you choose this area?
I’m currently based in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) in the Northern Territory. I am not quite sure why or how I landed here, but it has always felt completely right. The landscape and its history and its entanglement in the Australiana white identity has always fascinated me.
What does your day-to-day in the studio look like?
My days are always completely different, I am painting off and on throughout the day whilst running errands, packaging art, doing admin etc. Some days I am driving out to destinations to paint, and some days I do nothing but sit around at the studio.
What was the main inspiration behind your current body of work, The Few and Far, at Otomys?
The Few and Far is a painterly oeuvre, depicting Mpulungkinya (Palm Valley) and the Mpaara Walk, both nestled in the Finke Gorge National Park of West Aranda Country, approximately 150km west of Mparntwe (Alice Springs). This area is incredibly beautiful and geographically and culturally interesting. Palm Valley, or Mpulungkinya, contains prehistoric cabbage palms, which are said to have remained there from when the red- centre desert was a tropical rainforest.
What piece of valuable advice would you give to an artist starting out?
Probably don’t measure success by sales or in comparison to the ‘success’ of other people. And keep experimenting, and jot down ideas as they come to you. This is advice that I still don’t take myself but should...