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ARTHOUSE GALLERY
Woollahra NSW
7th - 24th November, 2012
The Enduring Landscape and the Inland River
Artist Statement
Kate Dorrough
This exhibition is inspired by the ancient inland river systems that are a pivotal life force within the enduring Australian landscape.
With recent rains and floods, the inland rivers are revived, transforming the landscape. The inland river once a source of survival is a potent historical emblem in a landscape based Australian tradition, once again reminds a largely domesticated urban population of forces in life beyond ones control.
The inland river traverses across the landscape, as in the journey of life itself; the cyclical nature requires endurance and fortitude in fragile and resilient landscape.
Review
ART ALMANAC
November 2012, Exhibition Review
By Diane Mah
A unique interaction of painting and ceramic vessel is bound together in Kate Dorrough’s latest body of work presented by Art House Gallery Sydney. It is essentially a conversation between clay and paint.
Inspiration for this exhibition comes from Australia’s inland river systems. With recent torrential rains and resulting floods, the inland river has been revived, transforming the landscape into a potent life force, emblematic of physical survival.
The starting point in paint represents a response to the landscape emanating from her residency at The Art Vault in Mildura and subsequent painting trips to rural NSW and South Australia. Anchored in the paintings are the totemic symbols of the landscape: the river, the trees, the rocks and the broader spatial vistas. It is an expressive collection of abstract visual languages reflecting Kate’s unique visual perceptions.
In the ceramic vessel, these perceptions are modified by their encounter with the three-dimensional form, which expresses the landscape more fully. The ceramic vessel itself does not refer to classical forms, but to her individual hand-built sculptural responses. It is direct tactile link to the earth.
The painterly gesture is then applied to the three dimensional form, distilling the essence of the trees, rocks, water and vistas found in the paintings. The kiln adds colour and texture as the heat transforms the work into its final state. The iron oxide in the clay bleeds through the ceramic
surface and creates an alchemy of glaze, gestural marks and clay. The process is not unlike the blaze of fire in the landscape itself. After the conflagration, the enduring landscape is revealed.
Shown side by side, the sculptural vessels and paintings show a unity of vision, form and character, a technical undertaking not often seen in the today’s contemporary art world. However, its precedents can be found in Modernist art history. Her motifs arise out of this union.
The synchrony in visual language reveals a fascination with the river. Is this the classical River Styx of Greek mythology or the emblematic river of inland Australia? It could be either: the imagery suggests a subterranean darkness from the Greek myth as well as the chaos of the Australian landscape, an underworld of complex ecosystems impacted by human activity. The river binds together the physical and the psychological.
Kate’s current exhibition builds on her previous shows in which she has combined ceramics and paintings. There is now greater strength in her vision and technique. Her childhood memories in the bush have matured. The river represents the journey of life in both its natural and human-influenced cycles
Q & A
ART COLLECTOR
6th November 2012
Ceramicist and painter Kate Dorrough pauses before her upcoming Sydney solo exhibition to talk with Australian Art Collector about the idea of landscape and her development of a unique visual language
What is the appeal of working in both ceramics and painting? Do you have a preferred medium of the two?
For me, the appeal of working in both mediums simultaneously is the dialogue that evolves between them. With ceramics, I enjoy the process of making the ceramic form using the materials of the earth. I also love the challenge of putting an image on the three-dimensional
surface, a different surface and quality to canvas. They very often inform each other: motifs that appear on the ceramics might well be re-inscribed on the paintings and vice-versa. I
have no favorites – both mediums appeal to me equally.
Previous bodies of work have had a figurative, abstract style. How have your current landscape works evolved from this?
This show is not a departure so much as it is a continuing conversation; developing on from my last couple of shows. In my work there has been a gradual abstraction over the last few years, and this approach seems to mesh well with my subject matter. In years gone by I would explore a new subject matter with each new show. Now, what’s really exciting for me – and represents a real development for me as an artist – is that I have moved towards a subject matter which really resonates with me poetically and philosophically, and I feel that the subject has great potential for further examination with layers of meaning.
How have your residencies in regional Australia influenced your practice?
They have influenced them enormously. It’s an opportunity to be in that environment for a meaningful amount of time. It has a sense of “the other”.
You are currently based in Sydney. How has urban living influenced your relationship to the natural environment?
I live in Sydney’s inner-west (Marrickville) but have the fortunate experience of the remnants of the natural environment being on my doorstep when I walk along the Cook’s River most mornings. Inadvertently I have found the subject of The River has evolved in this new body
of work.
Have any specific places inspired this body of work? What was so compelling about them?
The landscapes in my paintings are non-specific and are more about the ideas then the place. That said, my time spent at The Art Vault, Mildura, and observing the semi-arid landscape and the pivotal importance of the Murray River, has stayed with me.
You have travelled extensively during your years of professional art practice, and have noted what inspiring and enriching experiences they have been. Do you have
any future travelling plans?
Travel, through direct experience, makes the work more honest. I’m always open to travelling. I will be heading to a new part of Australia soon in preparation for my 2013 show
in Melbourne. And in the future, I’d love to have a show at a regional gallery.
What kind of collectors do you think are drawn to your work?
Just as my own body of work has evolved and expanded, I would like to think that collectors of my work do as well. I think the collectors of my current show will be people who are interested in contemporary expressions of a time-honored Landscape tradition.
Which of your bodies of work to date has given you the most personal satisfaction?
They have all given me great satisfaction at the time. My work is a journey I am on, and a progression, in which I am developing my own language.
