John R Walker – Across Country – 18 May to 18 July 2021

In response to his invitation to exhibit in the 2018 Adelaide Biennial at the Art Gallery of South Australia, John R Walker spent several weeks exploring the landscapes of Burra and the surrounding area, and further north in the Flinders Ranges. Driving across the Hay Plains also inspired another body of work.

John is an artist who is intrigued by the nature of the landscape: its geology, flora and historical human impact. For Walker the Australian landscape also possesses a profound sense of time, and timelessness. “For me, landscape is time spread out and is intimately interwoven with memory and history”.

In Oratunga he was intrigued by the Callitris trees, or native cypress, their distinct shapes and foliage stood out as almost un-Australian. Around Burra deserted machinery and derelict buildings as well as the scars from mining transform and adorn the ancient landscape.

ACROSS COUNTRY is a multi-faceted project including the following:
Burra and related works on paper exhibition by John R Walker in the main gallery, 18 May to 18 July 2021
Artists’ Camp at Pitcairn Station South Australia from 24 to 28 May 2021
Exhibition of works produced during the Artists’ Camp in the Bence Room, 3 June to 18 July 2021