Katoomba Area Local NewsStrengthening community, healing Country, and restoring the health of our planet.
The 2024 Wynne Prize & Our Changing Relationship with Country
Visitors to the Wynne Prize listening to a floor talk by Beatrice Gralton from the Art Gallery of NSW
Blocking out a couple of hours a week to step off the treadmill and give ourselves time to nurture our relationship with the earth and ourselves, is one way to keep our creative spirit and ‘lust for life’ alive. If you haven’t done so yet, one opportunity over the next two weeks is to spend some ‘slow’ time in the 2024 Wynne Prize exhibition at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre.
Key Points:
The 2024 Wynne Prize is on display at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre until 15 June.
Blue Mountains artists Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro are finalists whose work is on display in the exhibition.
The exhibition features landscape painting and figurative sculptures that are redefining our relationship with Country.
If there’s one thing the 2024 Wynne Prize exhibition at the Cultural Centre reflects, it is that our society’s relationship with the land we share has changed significantly since the Wynne Prize was first awarded in 1897.
The Wynne Prize is for representational landscape painting or figurative sculpture. At times in the exhibition, the difference between these two once very different art forms becomes blurred. A sculpture of a body looks like a rolling hillside, and paintings of the land are more reflective of the artists’ internal landscapes.
An awareness of the interconnectedness of all life, that we are all ‘Country’, is clearly one of the major changes that has occurred since 1897.
This deepening understanding of Country, thanks to what we’ve learnt with our First Nations people, has also been reflected in the choice of artworks for the exhibition. Of the 41 finalists, just over half were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists – the highest number of Indigenous artists ever featured in this annual show.
Beatrice Gralton, Senior Curator of Contemporary Australian Art from the Art Gallery of NSW starting her floor talk in front of the winning artwork by Djakaŋu Yunupiŋu, painted with natural pigments on bark.
And the paintings aren’t just idyllic visions of Australia’s ‘stunning natural beauty’. They recognise, for example, that the landscapes many of us are familiar with are crowded cityscapes, burnt bushland, stolid suburban homes or, as in Robyn Sweany’s painting, a ‘permanent’ caravan in a holiday park … reflecting the ‘view’ so many see during our current housing crisis.
Robyn Sweaney’s Little by little
I asked Beatrice Gralton, the exhibition’s curator, how ‘representational landscape’ was now defined. She looked thoughtfully around the room, observing how many of the ‘landscapes’ painted were evocative, imaginative, spirited, implied, and abstracted, and summed up her observations by saying: “we have expanded the notion of how a painting can represent a landscape.”
As a society we have also expanded the notion of what Country is, and how we are clearly not separate from it.
Another major change that has occurred since 1897, and which is clearly reflected in this exhibition, is a growing and painful awareness of our impact on the earth through the materials we extract and the way we treat the land. This was evident in both the subject matter, and in the choice of materials for many of the artworks. Some of the most powerful works used natural pigments on bark, and found or recycled objects like truck doors, blankets, or recycled fabrics. Some were paintings, some were sculptures and some were both.
Grey nomadic visions (left) by Blue Mountains-based artists Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro.
Inspired by the many decorated trucks in Asia, Grey nomadic visions is painted on truck doors and addresses how we’ve damaged our country by relentlessly transporting commodities across it. Like the camel, and the blackberry painted decoratively around the edge of the doors (William Morris-style), we have been an invasive species.
Julia Gutman’s soft suspended sculpture is made with found fabrics.
The exhibition is designed to also engage younger children with a Children’s Trail
Take Action:
Visit the exhibition before it closes on 15 June and take time to read the informative labels.
Slow down and observe your relationship with Country.
Check out the Cultural Centre’s calendar and book in for future floor talks to delve more deeply into each exhibition.
There is a little bit of magic happening on Wednesdays at the Planetary Health Centre as young volunteers from @kindlehill_high_school, and Council staff, work together to create a demonstration site for the wider community. This hands-on program is inspiring all involved, including teacher Sarah Daniel. In her reflection on their Bushcare session, reprinted here, she was reminded of Arundhati Roy’s words that ‘another world is not only possible, she is on her way.’
Read more in Katoomba Area Local News (Link in profile): https://www.katoombalocalnews.com/another-world-is-possible/
If you`re feeling overwhelmed, this Saturday offers inspiring opportunities to `re-set` mind, body and spirit with morning Tai Chi, Qigong and breakfast at the Planetary Health Centre at 8am; the Sustainability Festival at the Cultural Centre from 10am; and Planetary Health Bushcare to fully reconnect with nature and help regenerate habitat for wildlife at 1.30pm. Reserve your spot for Tai Chi here: https://bit.ly/47WI2YO and Bushcare here: https://bit.ly/420ofE4
Cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in Australia but Community Defibrillators are easy to use and may help you save someone`s life. Learn how in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIdPTT4r0T4&t=60s
Our Planetary Health Bushcare Group had a ball today at the annual Bushcare Picnic and we were thrilled that our youngest member, Arthur van der Meer, was presented with the Junior Bushcare Award. Our inspiring Bushcare Officer Karen Hising, also leads the Narrowneck Bushcare Group which was recognised for 5 years of service to the Bushcare Program. We`re looking forward to our next Bushcare afternoon on Saturday 6 September from 1.30-4.3pm. All welcome.
You can now read the latest Planetary Health newsletter here (link in profile): https://bit.ly/41u8ftQ
Lots of great stories, events and videos! You can subscribe via the Planetary Health website (link in profile): https://www.bluemountainsplanetaryhealth.com.au/
This year, the Australian Bushfire Building and Asbestos & Hazardous Materials Management conferences are joining forces with the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative for Full Cycle 2025, to increase collaboration across sectors, from design to disposal. This vital conference and community expo will explore approaches to reducing risks in a changing climate: from multi-hazards like fire, flood, heatwave and extreme humidity, to hazardous materials like mould, microplastics, PFAS, asbestos and engineered stone. Registration will be live in the coming weeks. In the meantime, visit the Full Cycle 2025 website for more information and to sign up to the mailing list (link in profile) https://www.fullcycleconference.com.au/
Yesterday the community gathered to celebrate Sister Jacinta Shailer`s 98th Birthday! Earlier this year at the Planetary Health Centre she urged us all to join a revolution centred in the transformative power of love, by joining heroic communities that foster compassion, justice, care of the needy, creative imagining, ways of life-giving thinking, ways of contemplating the wonders of our world in the small and the large, the weird and the wonderful. Watch an excerpt of her speech here or read our full story published earlier this year in Katoomba Area Local News (link in profile): https://www.katoombalocalnews.com/create-heroic-communities/
Council is calling on the community to contribute to the development of a Community Climate Risk Assessment and Adaptation Plan (CCRAA). There will be a Community Climate Risk and Adaptation Workshop on Saturday 30 August, from 10am to 1pm at Springwood Sports Club, followed by lunch.
You can also contribute by completing the online survey before 29 August.
Your knowledge and experience are critical in helping identify local risks, priorities and practical solutions. Many in our community are already taking action, and these stories, along with diverse perspectives, will help shape a more resilient future for the Blue Mountains.
We encourage you to attend and share the event with your networks to help ensure every voice is heard.
Places are limited for the workshop, so register early here (link in profile): https://climateriskworkshop.eventbrite.com.au Complete the survey here (link in profile): https://yoursay.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/community-climate-risk-and-adaptation-plan-community-survey
The development of this plan is being funded by the NSW Government’s Western Sydney Infrastructure Grant Program.
This video captures the most moving speech at the Peace Symposium: that by journalist and teacher Harumi Hayakawa, who described the true horror and tragedy of nuclear weapons. She went on to describe how, after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the people of both cities dedicated themselves to peace building from the grassroots. Small yet courageous actions by these individuals have reached and changed countless lives in the world. After her presentation, Harumi taught families at the Community Peace Picnic how to fold paper cranes.
At the Peace Symposium, Rotarian Jennifer Scott AM outlined how Rotarians around the world are taking action for peace: from providing mental health first aid in our local community to working for social and environmental justice on a global scale. You can watch an excerpt from her presentation in this video.
In his opening speech for the Peace Symposium Dharug man Chris Tobin shared a Dreamtime story about the Waratah, which emerged from a bloody conflict as a symbol of reconciliation.
On the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima the Planetary Health Initiative and the Blue Mountains Peace Collective hosted a Peace Symposium and Community Picnic to provide pathways for everyone to take steps for a more peaceful future.
Enjoyed this article? Please help spread the word :)
Support the Future of Solutions-Focused Neighbourhood News
