Passed/Present: Thea Weiss and Anna Russell — Exhibition Text
Thea Weiss, Nature's Tapestry, 2016, oil, oil stick encaustic and charcoal
I had the pleasure of writing the exhibition text and press release for Thea Weiss and Anna Russell's latest exhibition at Wadsworth Gallery on Oxford Street. Weiss and Russell have created beautifully expressive works in response to the landscape and history of Wagga Wagga.
Tuesday 14 – Saturday 25 March, 2017, 10am – 6pm
Wadsworth Gallery
326 Oxford St
Paddington
Opening March 14 by Roger Crawford, 6pm – 8pm
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In a furiously changing present, do we understand our past? Two Sydney-based artists, Thea Weiss and Anna Russell, travelled to Wagga Wagga to discover images of past and present.
Thea Weiss and Anna Russell explore forms of forgetting our history, and our impact as the land and the weather changes. The work considers Wagga Wagga’s losses and restorations at a time when sustainability and Aboriginal reconciliation are debates across the country.
The colours and light of the region are captured in paintings, prints, sketches, assemblages and soft sculptures. The black water with brilliant reflections on the local Wiradjuri walking track offered a starting point for both artists in theme and colour.
Weiss’ vibrant encaustic paintings on board present abstracted aerial perspectives. Wagga Wagga’s symbol of the crow appears in her paintings and monotype prints on Perspex.
Russell is inspired by the dark brilliance of the Murrumbidgee – in its still billabongs and the river’s muscular currents. Russell searched for the Aboriginal birthing trees near the river; reflecting on her own experience of birthing. She expresses the brilliance and patterns of suburban plantings and cultivation in her prints.
The artists met at the National Art School during undergraduate and postgraduate studies in printmaking and painting. They are working together for the first time, using their very different life experiences to examine their impressions and responses to place.
Russell grew up on the Queensland Darling Downs (a region similar to Wagga) and moved to Sydney. Weiss was born in Denver, Colorado, studied design in New York and London and worked in fashion and journalism in New York; after living in New Zealand, she moved to Sydney.