A decolonial geographic

_{Image credit: Jon Cattapan, Fall of the Valley Kings, 2016, oil on linen. Courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Queensland.}

Landscape can be defined through the history of painting and Australia alike. Ideas of the pastoral and the natural are commonly depicted as picture-postcard perfect – sublime and transcendent – and emptied of human beings. This is how we still think of landscape. Often gone unseen, the colonial lens prevails. A decolonial geographic recalibrates this idealised and Romantic view of what landscape signifies and how it should be portrayed.

There exist new philosophical and pictorial models through which to think about our presence on the planet. While the work of these eleven artists may not be commonly associated with the genre of landscape, their practices palpably engage with the personal, cultural and social narratives of the Australian terrain. Their work stays in the greyzone; remaining in the borders between different forms of being in the landscape. The sites we really inhabit are humancentric environments; colonized, gendered, political, re-mobilized, and filled with language, abstractions and surveillance. The work of these artists highlight the colonial hang-ups that often go unnoticed in the way Australia is represented and perceived. These artists make us aware of the human footprint. In so doing, they introduce a new lexicon for the genre of landscape.

Curated by Fernando do Campo

Artists:

• Richard Bell
• Jon Cattapan
• Juan Davila
• Kerry Gregan
• Raafat Ishak
• Penny Mason
• Alex Pittendrigh
• Jessica Rankin
• Judy Watson
• Megan Walch
• Ruth Waller

_{Image credit: Ruth Waller, Bellini Revisited 2013, acrylic on linen. Courtesy of the artist and Watters Gallery, Sydney}

Opening event: Friday 15 December, 5:30 - 7pm

Gallery Hours: Wed - Mon 12pm - 5pm (during exhibitions)
Closed Tuesdays and Public holidays

Please note Plimsoll Gallery will be closed between Sunday 24th December 2017 to Tuesday 2nd January 2018 (inclusive)

A decolonial geographic is a Devonport Regional Gallery exhibition toured by Contemporary Art Tasmania. 

Contemporary Art Tasmania is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its principal arts funding body, by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy and is assisted through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts.

Devonport Regional Gallery is supported by the Devonport City Council and the Tasmanian State Government.

The exhibition is supported through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts and by the Contemporary Art Tasmania Exhibition Development Fund.