Dean Reilly’s latest exhibition is large, strong and powerful, celebrating the land and environment and also some Australian legends/myths – for example the explorers Lasseter and Leichardt, Phar Lap and the ‘jolly swagman’ as in Waltzing Matilda. The strength, resilience and endurance of people living on the land is acknowledged.
Reilly’s exhibition is based on a visit to Central Australia, the vibrant colours and textures of the landscape there, and the indigenous Arente people’s art practice. There is tension between romantic yearnings, continued since (if not befor ) the 1940s and bush ballads and legends, place and place. Can they be given a contemporary update and narrative?
In the Gold series, the people depicted are dynamic and solid, yet rugged in their acceptance, quite sculptural. All in the series are in orange shirts with a yellow hard hat – can they smell the hidden gold? Or is it a metaphor?
Birds are a feature: there are some extraordinary lyrebird incorporations, sheep, camels and black swans, for instance (but why, if it is a black swan,is it called Odette? If you are thinking Swan Lake it should be Odile! ). Willy Wagtails are included too.
A contemporary update on the Sidney Nolan Ned Kelly mask is given – here, in this exhibition, it is shown as a blank computer square in the Forecaster/Omen series, respecting and expressing the interconnectedness of everything. The connection between First Peoples and Country is also celebrated.
There is also an Adam and Eve portrait (Desert Skinny Dip), in pale pinks and blues. The couple have elongated mask- like faces and a black bird is on top of Adam’s head.
Nolan is also acknowledged right from the start of the exhibition with Nolan, a striking Janus faced sculptural representation of a male in a white shirt, a wooden sculpture like face and a white one, with a splendiferous lyrebird tail as headdress.
There are several series on various themes included in this exhibition, such as Morphology Works 1–6 , with two black birds having a square computer face, one an undefined person lost in the wilderness with trees, another black bird and a cockatoo. There is also the wild, strident black horse with flaring tongue. According to Reilly, the series makes us ask – who owns the landscape? Or does the landscape own us? How does this fit in with the narrative of our history?
In the Myth series, inspired by Nolan’s Ned Kelly series, stories become legend and we question how we feel about our history. The bushranger, in some ways, becomes a centaur.
With the Past, Present, Future series the human figure shimmers ghost like in grey/green dots – at once quite sci-fi but also full of concern for the environment.
The Fly In/Fly Out series of cockatoo, in some ways angelic like flying humans ( ? ) with hard hats, again shows how we need to protect and conserve the environment.
There is a series devoted to the explorers Lasseter and Leichardt with blue or green camels.
Also displayed is the Mimic series, with its fabulously textured red rock and a lyrebird on top – or even a black swan.
Not forgetting the paintings showing the Tasmanian Tiger.
Horses are very important in this exhibition – for example the emaciated, exhausted Dry as A Bone, and The Ghost of Phar Lap (yet another legend), both with birds on their backs. The horse has been very important in our history, both as a beast of burden and in the wars. This also raises the issue of brumbies, the wild horses that cause major debate now over wildness, domestication and native habitat.
There is a striking portrait entitled Young Poet in reds and oranges, with the poet wearing a ruffled shirt. The long neck is emphasised but the eye-catching feature is the lyrebird headdress. Is s/he of many facets and faces, distracting from or presenting the truth?
Dean Reilly’s THE LANDSCAPE IS BEYOND ME runs at Traffic Jam Galleries 9 -30 September
https://trafficjamgalleries.com
Featured image : Forecaster 101.5cm X 152 cm unframed. 104.5cm X 155cm framed. Acrylic on canvas. $4200