Artists in conversation
When: Thursday 12 October, 11am
Where: Lismore Regional Gallery — pop-up space
46 Magellan Street, Lismore
Cost: No charge
Hear from Luke Close and Jenn Rowe about how they have used art to retrace their cultural heritage to form deeper ties with country and culture.
About Luke Close
Luke Close is Githabal man and artist who has been working for over 30 years. He comes from a large family, growing up out of his country, returning in 1995 to honour his family lines. Close completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) by distance at Deakin University in 2003.
Art for Close is like a doorway to his culture and country “Visual art takes me to another place; it is the language of the soul. The saying “a picture paints a thousand words” describes best what I am attempting to explain. Indigenous visual arts are such a powerful language. Those who are learning the Indigenous arts language will need information that is appropriate. I source information from people, places and things and, most importantly, the land.”
Luke Close has exhibited extensively on Bundjalung country and in Sydney at Boomali. His mural at the Lismore Quadrangle (2017) is his most major work to date.
About Jenn Rowe
Jenn Rowe lives and makes art on Bundjalung Country but draws on her Trawlwoolway culture (Tasmania) by using traditional and natural materials that embody and represent the Spirit of Country. Her artworks suggest and represent the land's living and spiritual entities: the animals, trees, rocks, mountains, oceans, and sky. She works to integrate occupation counterintuitive to 'sustainable living,' highlighting the precariousness of the natural world. "Using materials such as driftwood, rocks, feathers, shells, echidna quills, reeds, kelp, and ochre, I reconfigure them into a sculptural narrative relating to contemporary Australia and our colonial history. I aim to take the viewer on an odyssey, highlighting natural beauty and illustrating the impact and significance of industrialised practices and the repercussions of how we live today, on tomorrow."
Jenn Rowe completed Visual Arts from Southern Cross University in 2022. She was awarded the Vice-Chancellors Prize.
