Standing still the trees: works on paper by Carol Archer was held from April 1 to 7 at The Shop Gallery, which is located in the lively inner-city Sydney suburb of Glebe. Archer describes the show as as ‘a timely meditation on our relationship with the trees we so often take for granted.’
The drawings and prints in standing still the trees celebrate the sense of immersion and wonder one feels when standing with trees. Meanderings near the artist’s home in the Myall Lakes region of N.S.W. and further afield have moved the artist to make these pictures. A preoccupation with light suggests the ephemerality of human perception. The viewpoint, towards ground rather than sky, underlines trees’ resilience and rootedness in ancient earth and rock.
Archer’s work has long been focused on the experience of place, but her preoccupation with trees began with a body of work entitled Time with the Sky which was exhibited at Hong Kong’s Cattle Depot Artist Village in 2010. Most of works in standing still the trees focus on bushy landscapes in various parts of N.S.W., while some were completed during artist residencies in Sweden, Norway, Cyprus, Spain and Iceland.
Standing still the trees was opened on April 3 by Ms Pamela Griffith, and the event was MCed by Dr Bronwyn Hanna. Pamela Griffith, one of Australia’s foremost printmakers and an accomplished landscape painter, introduced Archer to etching in 1981. Thanks go to The Shop Gallery’s directors, Anna Couani and Hilik Mirankar, and to Adam Aitken, Jane Dargaville, Nick Iliadis, Kit Kelen, Sue Rawlinson, Valerie Southey and Johanna Trainor, and to everyone who came along and supported Carol’s work.
