SOUTH WEST ART NOW 2022 Exhibition Tour
SOUTH WEST ART NOW (SWAN) Exhibition Tour 2022
Bunbury Regional Art Gallery, WA | Mar 26 - May 15 2022
South West Art Now at THE GOODS SHED, FORM WA Claremont WA | 21 Jul - 4 Sept 2022
Painted Tree Gallery Northcliffe WA | 22 Oct - 27 Nov 2023
South West Art Now is a biennial survey of new work by artists who live in the South West corner of WA. The Bunbury Regional Art Gallery show attracted a large number of applications with the final exhibition featuring over 50 artists, ranging from emerging to established practitioners. Curated by Dr Diana McGirr.
This pieces was selected as part of the SWAN 2022 Exhibition Tour to three galleries throughout southwestern Australia.
Moving through Peaty Lowlands | 2022
original ink drawings printed on suspended and layered chiffon
200 x 280 x 100cm
Elizabeth Edmond’s artwork combines her palaeoecological knowledge of peatlands with a desire to raise awareness about these habitats. Her detailed fine ink drawings on rice paper are an intimate exploration of the identity of trees, each with their own distinctive qualities; collectively they represent diversity. By printing these drawings on chiffon banners she extends the work further, creating a flow-on effect of gentle movement and transparency that imitates the layered complexity of fragile peat systems.
"Peatlands may not appear much at first glance, but look closer and you’ll be amazed at how unique they are. Covering just three percent of the world’s surface they hold nearly one-third of the planet’s soil carbon and here in the southwest we know very little about them. Some peats are 6000+ years old and they are found throughout lowland areas as fragile habitats threatened by drying climates, altered fire regimes, clearing and feral animals. ‘Moving through Peaty Lowlands’ allows you to brush against 1000-year-old paperbarks, 600-year-old grass trees, aged banksias and relictual sedge-like plants such as Empodisma gracillimum and Reedia spathacea. These species are important ecologically in peatland habitats. If a layer is removed or a species lost, the habitat is altered forever." EE