Island to Inland

Contemporary Art from Kangaroo Island

22nd March – 28th April 2019

Exhibitors

• Ria Byass
• Quentin Chester
• Audrey Harnett
• Scott Hartshorne
• Indiana James
• Janine Mackintosh
• Deborah Sleeman
• Caroline Taylor
• Maggie Welz
• Kenita Williamson

Indiana James and Caroline Taylor will talk about their own work from 4pm Saturday 23 March, followed by the launch at 5.30pm.

Caroline Taylor, Ornithologists at Middle River, 2017
oil and digital print on paper, 120 x 90 cm. Photo: Don Brice

Indiana James, GIVE WAY, 2016 – 17,
steel and recycled aluminium road signs, 160 x 160 x 55 cm. Photo: Evan Brown

Kangaroo Island is Australia’s third largest island and foremost tourist destination, with approximately 4,500 residents inhabiting around half of its 4,500 square kilometres. It is renowned for its natural environment, food and wine, and rich history of art production. Separated from mainland Australia about 10,000 years ago, the island was initially home to Indigenous peoples, then groups of sealers and whalers in the early 1800s, before the European settlement of South Australia.

The beauty, isolation, simplicity and joy of life on Kangaroo Island has long been a source of artistic inspiration. For the ten contemporary artists featured in Island to Inland, living and working in this extraordinary place critically informs their art making. This exhibition, developed over a period of two years, has afforded each artist time to experiment and expand upon their practices and reflect on the challenges and triumphs of the place they call home.

Through painting, photography, sculpture, textile and installation, these contemporary mixed media artworks respond to the island’s environmental diversity, its unique history and shared experiences of isolation. This is reflected in the distinct visual language, materiality and narratives explored in these works. Together the artists tackle local issues relating to settlement, ecology and sustainability, as well as personal experiences of loss and fortitude, which also resonate beyond the island itself.

Curated by Eleanor Scicchitano, Visual Arts Coordinator, Country Arts South Australia, and Celia Dottore, Exhibitions Manager, Flinders University Art Museum and City Gallery University.
A Country Arts SA Visual Arts Touring exhibition

Island to Inland: contemporary art from Kangaroo Island is a Country Arts SA and Flinders University Art Museum touring exhibition