Though notions of landscape and the internal self may not seem the most comfortable of bedfellows at a glance, both the Western landscape tradition and various strains Asian art have rendered place as a kind of allegorical projection of psychology, identity and self. Opening at the Japan Foundation Gallery in Chifley Plaza last night, Immanent Landscape takes this idea to intriguing new lengths.
Inaugurated by Japanese artist and curator Utako Shindo after a nine-year stint studying and working in Melbourne, the project – the first incarnation of which showed at West Space in Melbourne (2010) before showing at the historic Kurumaya Art Museum in Oyama on the outskirts of Tokyo in late 2011 – brings together eight contemporary Japanese and Australian artists to engage with this expanded idea of place and landscape.
The Australian contingent includes the photo-based practice of Kiron Robinson, Jeremy Bakker’s intricate drawn and site-specific sculptural forms, Hamish Carr’s dimensional drawn works and honorary Australian Shindo’s delicate drawing and photo-based invocations the landscape’s ephemeral imprint. Japanese artists include Ai Sasaki with her vast, sculptural wall works, Nobuaki Onishi’s hyperrealist resin and paint sculptures, Hisaharu Motoda’s fastidiously rendered drawings of decaying urban icons and Atsunobu Katagiri’s multi-disciplinary installations.
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SIGN UPSpanning culture, geographical locale, disciplines and philosophies, Immanent Landscape doesn’t merely trace our place in the world, but our connection – be it psychological, spiritual or emotional – to it.
Immanent Landscape opened last night (March 29) at the Japan Foundation Gallery and runs until April 30.
Japan Foundation Gallery
Level 1, Chifley Plaza, 2 Chifley Square, Sydney
Hours
Mon to Fri 11am–4pm