Sue Michael: Genius Loci of the Mid North

7 June – 15 July

To be opened by Aleksandra Antic

Sue Michael paintings. Even if decades have passed, those connected to the Mid North can perceive its particularly generous genius loci – its atmosphere, characteristics and presence in our minds.

In the Mid North of South Australia we organise our lives “just so”. The country has its quirks and the people who live here reflect this. This is genius loci – what we understand as spirit of place.

Sue Michael documents with love and curiosity the country where her pioneering ancestors settled. Her painting-as-research is about place-making in the district.  Her painterly musings and observations find their way to the heart of things in a way that surprises and intrigues. How can she know this when we hardly know it ourselves?

Sue has recently completed her Visual Art PhD that has used the lens of geography to study the Mid North of SA, She is artist-in-residence with the Mid North Knowledge Partnership sponsored by Flinders University, based in Burra, and in the latter part of 2018 will begin further projects with Adelaide University’s Department of Geography, Environment and Population. Sue’s academic writing and imagery have been published in trans-disciplinary journals in place studies in the United States, details and examples of which are available to viewers of the exhibition. David Seamon, Professor of Environment-Behaviour and Place Studies, Department of Architecture, Kansas State University writes that Sue’s work “demonstrates an important new way of conducting academic and artistic research: joining ideas with feelings and written explications with visual images”.