The Australian Flying Art School
This exhibition consists of a diverse and at times eccentric collection of paintings, drawings, mixed media works and ceramics. These are the results of a series of seminars/workshops conducted by the Australian Flying Art School (AFAS) tutors throughout northern and western Queensland and New South Wales.
The theme or brief for the seminars was to focus on the reality of regional art practice with the notion of “place” being a fundamental consideration— one of location within a culturally perceived and geographic nexus.
Despite the ongoing debate concerning centralist and peripheral art practice both globally and on a national scale, the attempt to geographically fragmentary nature of vision filtered by memory, the self and everyday incidents.
Personal symbolism is a dominant aspect of the show with self-portraits and family figures appearing as witnesses and participants in sometimes complex narratives. The ceramic works vary from technically complex and competent pieces to spontaneous, atavistic forms for which clay is often the only material suited. Joan French’s fluid use of relief carving and her ‘shellac-resist’ processes combine to form a jewel-box for enclosing something precious—a metaphor perhaps for our desire to protect and preserve that which is meaningful, be it gems or memories. Irene Hoffman’s personal narratives in the form of a local Stonehenge or Dawn Urquhart’s quoting of L.J. Harvey glazes within forms and surfaces which reflect her immediate environment, epitomise the diversity of approaches and techniques.
From Maryborough, Joy Wells’ well integrated collage of acrylic paint and photographic fragments evokes the sea, its light and moods. There are extremes evident in the show from hobbyist watercolours to work which has required considerable experimentation and risk-taking. Personal links to the land abound often