The Lost World (Track)
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Monnah Arts Centre May 10-June 1
School House Gallery, Rosny August 2 - 25
This exhibition was born from my experience of maintaining walking tracks on kunanyi/Mt Wellington. The paintings are specifically based on the Lost World Track - a disorienting, barely formed track which meanders and climbs steeply over a jumble of car-sized dolerite boulders.
At times the track becomes ill-defined. The hand painted, circular red and yellow track markers which serve to guide the walker through the boulder field become easily lost and obscured amongst the lichen covered rocks.
In these paintings I see walking tracks forming over time as layers of painted marks are repeatedly built up. I see walking tracks eroding with use and weather as the painted surface is scrubbed, sanded and flooded with liquid medium. I see divergent paths as the material of paint pushes in new directions. I see ways lost through bad weather and error of judgment. Vision gone blurry with disorientation, panic, a loss of mental clarity. There is also a sense of searching, for the way, out there amongst the boulder-fields of kunanyi, as well as within the confines of the painted surface.
The painting process is a combination of improvisation and navigation – with moments of clarity which guide the way amongst the disorientation and struggle. This is analogous to the experience of the walker on the Lost World Track, who is caught in a state of flux between lost and found as they search for the often hidden brightly coloured markers which lead the way.
Adrian Bradbury 2019
School House Gallery, Rosny August 2 - 25
This exhibition was born from my experience of maintaining walking tracks on kunanyi/Mt Wellington. The paintings are specifically based on the Lost World Track - a disorienting, barely formed track which meanders and climbs steeply over a jumble of car-sized dolerite boulders.
At times the track becomes ill-defined. The hand painted, circular red and yellow track markers which serve to guide the walker through the boulder field become easily lost and obscured amongst the lichen covered rocks.
In these paintings I see walking tracks forming over time as layers of painted marks are repeatedly built up. I see walking tracks eroding with use and weather as the painted surface is scrubbed, sanded and flooded with liquid medium. I see divergent paths as the material of paint pushes in new directions. I see ways lost through bad weather and error of judgment. Vision gone blurry with disorientation, panic, a loss of mental clarity. There is also a sense of searching, for the way, out there amongst the boulder-fields of kunanyi, as well as within the confines of the painted surface.
The painting process is a combination of improvisation and navigation – with moments of clarity which guide the way amongst the disorientation and struggle. This is analogous to the experience of the walker on the Lost World Track, who is caught in a state of flux between lost and found as they search for the often hidden brightly coloured markers which lead the way.
Adrian Bradbury 2019