Beyond These Shores: some thoughts

This exhibition reflects on the nature of journeys both outward and inward and of course, the spiritual - the 'corner stone' themes that every artist seems to cite ad nauseum. In a sense, the practice of art is a journey and in this body of work I have tried to focus on that.

In my experience with the artworld though, the balance between verbal expression of what the artist is trying to 'say' and the actual expression itself (ie: the artwork) is currently weighted, heavily, towards the rhetoric. With this in mind I will try to keep any dissertation upon the theme of this exhibition as brief as possible.

In heading to Europe with my wife & daughter late last year I was tangibly making a connection and rekindling those things that had inspired since I was very young. I don't know why history, myth and legend have intrigued me since childhood - why the life and times of the German Renaissance artist, Albrecht Durer, resonates with me so strongly - why I'm predisposed to faces of middle European decent - or simply why I don't need a road map when finding my way around Britain! (generally speaking …) and so on. I'm sure New Age philosophy would put it down to past lives - and that's fine. I'm open to all possibilities. But I do know that much of what inspires me lies beyond these shores.

The title 'artist' is a loaded one these days, full of portent and urban myth. As a child I created things intuitively and not through some innate wish to be an artist. I put off undertaking a career in fine art for years partly because the artist stereotype was alien to me but mainly because the things I wish to create fell between the cracks of art practice in Australia. It wasn't going to be easy. Fortuitously though, in a book about the work of artist Jorg Schmeisser, my attention was drawn to the poem Ithaka, by C.P Cavafy, and I remembered it wasn't about arriving somewhere in the world of art, (especially not by someone else's rulebook) but rather what you gain on the journey.

When you set out for Ithaka
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth
Ithaka gave you the splendid journey

I suppose I could write of many things that have influenced this exhibition. Perhaps the legend of the voyage of St Brendan for instance, which is basically an allegory for the ultimate leap of faith - or the idea of a 'Modern Sacred' in art as espoused in the work of contemporary Australian artist Richard Clements and (in my opinion) the contemporary Italian artist Massimo Rao, both of whom are sadly lost to us now. The influences are endless (as is art) and ultimately lead to the works you see before you which, hopefully, will speak for themselves.

If you are reading this, then you have probably come to my exhibition and for this I thank you. I would like to dedicate this show to the memory of the two artists previously mentioned - Richard Clements and Massimo Rao.

"The life that burns twice as fast shines twice as bright"

- Kim Nelson