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Video
Blast from the past
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Thursday, 17 July 2008 |
Imprint: Furniture and sculpture by Kevin Perkins; photography by Megan Perkins.
Handmark Gallery, Salamanca
July 4 - 21
Kevin Perkins Orange Bellied Parrot Bench, Eucalyptus Regnans (Swamp Gum), bronze, oil paint, castors, 1050 X 515 X 610mm, 2008
If Mandy Renard's June show of prints at the Handmark Gallery was a love letter from a Mainland immigrant to the Tasmanian wilderness, then Handmark's current exhibition – a showcase of the furniture work of Kevin Perkins, and photography by Megan Perkins, is more of a letter of protest.
Megan Perkins Imprint 01: Devil's Backbone, Hartz National Park, digital print on matt fine art paper, aluminium mount, 109 X 17cm, 2008
As anyone who isn't currently living under a very large, soundproof rock knows at the moment, the current state, and future, of Tasmania's wilderness is very much up for discussion (and, seemingly, up for grabs in the eyes of many an ambitious developer), so it is only natural that the state of affairs would come to be reflected in the art of its inhabitants.
Not that the artists involved in this exhibition will admit (in words at least), a leaning towards either side of the (old-growth-forest timber) fence.
“Inevitably the viewer sees what they want to see,” declares photographer Megan.
“Wilderness romantics may see an untouched haven; activists at the Weld Valley may see destruction and chaos.”
While Megan may be ambiguous about the purpose of her work, the images she creates do the talking for her. Her work juxtaposes the natural with the man-made and, more often than not, this also includes the man-destroyed.
However, while it may not be your typical image of what wilderness photography should encompass, Megan's images – of clear felled forest side by side with fecund growth; power poles standing guard alongside the ancient trees that bore them – have a haunting beauty about them. This beauty is all the more mesmerising for its sparseness, its telling spareness.
“There's a natural kind of inclination for people to cut out a power pole or remove part of the landscape that they're seeing to kind of make it a prettier picture,” Megan says. Luckily, her talent is such that pretty pictures arise from even the ugliest of subjects.
This is the first joint exhibition between Megan and her father, Kevin, renowned as one of Tasmania's master craftsman, and the man who instilled a love of nature in his daughter from an early age. It is also telling that, despite the fact that Kevin now sells his work to many galleries at home and overseas, his passion for nature and his daughter drew him to this exhibition.
“When Meg was offered an exhibition she asked if I would like to go with her because we had spoken at some stage in the future we would,” Kevin says.
For Megan and Kevin, the dream of a joint exhibition has come to fruition. One can only hope that many Tasmanians go to see this, and feel similarly inspired to fight for the dream of the preservation of the wilderness that inspired this talented father and daughter.
For more information, visit www.handmarkgallery.com
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