No word for Black and White

No word for Black and White

Opening this Saturday 8 August, 'No word for Black and White' is a powerful collaboration between sculptor Tim Selwyn and photo media artist Renate Rienmueller.

The focus of this exhibition is Renate’s relationship with Tim, a sculptor whose Indigenous ancestral line comes via his mother from the Wiradjuri / Wongaibon people (Central West NSW). Together they explore ideas around connection, responsibility to our land and its people, self-hood, community, identity and the need to challenge the stereotypes that separate us.

Renate works in the artistic tradition of wet plate photography, a 19th Century photographic technique that she has researched extensively. Wet plate photography upholds a direct relationship between the subject/ object and the image; a glass plate sits within the 150 year-old camera and is exposed and developed on the spot. Renate views this relationship with tradition and process as an important metaphor for our relationship with nature. As glass, it is fragile, but as an art object it has an archival materiality that will survive across time in a way that contemporary photographic techniques cannot. If we honour traditional knowledge, nature will support us across time.

Tim Selwyn’s shields are themselves exquisite art objects, hand carved using both traditional techniques and modern tools. The process of making is rich with Tim’s personal philosophy about his relationship with mother earth. All the shields in this show are carved from two Ironbark trees that fell naturally on a neighbours property and were gifted to the artist. They are approximately 200 years old.

The shields and the photographs intertwine as they share the space of this exhibition; they overlap in theme and materiality. They share a spirit.

Both artists will be in the gallery between 1 & 4 pm to chat.

Words by Susie Dureau.

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