By Callum Ludwig
Three local artists have come together for an exhibition in the gallery at the Warburton Waterwheel.
Yarra Junction artists Antonia Green and Warburton artists Erin Ellis and Ryan Tews have put together ‘The Voice of Many Waters’ which takes up the whole gallery space and will be on show until Friday 23 December from 10am to 4pm each day.
Ms Green said all three of them went on trips to the Australian desert this year and were inspired by what they saw.
“We were responding to our personal journeys through the land and the ways that touched us. The Voice of Many Waters in reference to subterranean waters and the moistness that could still be found in that landscape as well, capturing the way water exists in that landscape,” she said.
“A lot of the paintings draw a connection to certain places and then others are more evocative of a certain feeling or principle that provoked me to want to paint them.”
The exhibition includes a collection of paintings, ceramics, photography and original prints with a live soundscape to accompany it.
Ryan Tews travelled to Central Australia and spent weeks exploring a subterranean riverbed system that was an astonishing 20km wide.
Mr Tews said he felt that these kinds of landscapes are very underrepresented artistically.
“I took my supplies and went solo in the extremely remote country, and it was a profound experience to go out there and get to know the country and understand how these ecosystems survive in such arid conditions,” he said.
“I was lucky to go at a time when they’d just had a lot of flooding the month before so there was a bright green oasis in the middle of this harsh desert, and at points, it would completely barren and then all of a sudden you are driving through the forest.”
Mr Tews also submitted pieces based locally around Warburton in the exhibition, providing a juxtaposition to the desert that was also captured.
Mr Tews said it was a crucial process for him to be able to go out and have time to respond and reflect and honour and just be receptive to nature in his works.
“It feels good to be able to come back with something to share as well. When I’m in the desert, I often think about the wetness of where I live in Warburton,” he said.
“The works in this show, even though they’re not all from the desert, they have a continuity of water or the lack of water, being crucial to the connected systems.”
