SALT//WATER//EARTH//CURRENTS III & IV
$900
Emerging from an existing symbiotic artistic relationship, Elizabeth Martin and Eve Pawlik’s latest works continue to interrogate materiality, fragility and impermanence. Their multimodal approach explores intersections between plastics//environment, saltwater//freshwater and distressed global energy cycles//increasing climate anxiety.
For the artists, the climate emergency has deep resonances with their everyday experience of the world and their artworks reflect their despair and grief in these times. Their making is grounded in place and responds in and to the unceded land on which they practice. These same lands where the Northern Territory Government’s position on fracking and other major developments is felt horrifically and deeply by the community. Now more than ever the extractive relationship humanity has with the environment needs to be interrogated. The artists’ grapple with contradictions through the concepts of reverence//fear, fragility//strength and wounding//rebirth.
When Eve presented these monoprints of the siltstone along the coastline of the Casuarina Coastal Reserve as potential for a collaborative piece, Liz began contemplating the best way to explore ideas around geology and deep time with references to botanical and mineral materials sourced from the place where she resides south of Darwin, near Berry Springs. The works on paper collections are experimental responses to the intersection of saltwater//freshwater along Casuarina Coastal Reserve from Gurambai to Binybara, Larrakia Country. It’s a region teaming with life, holding immense cultural and environmental significance. Mangrove systems along this coast are integral in carbon capture, storing the carbon within the sediments for thousands of years. They are experimental explorations of place, rendering the tidal patterns, botanical forms and the human impact found there. The botanical ink used on these works was brewed with groundwater from the Berry Springs dolomite aquifer and two plant species that were fruiting and flowering as a method of referencing the current time of year (mid dry season); the Quinine Tree (Petalostigma pubescens) and the Black Wattle (Acacia auriculiformis) respectively. Application of salt granules to the pools of homemade ink created a unique surface for the depiction of additional specimens collected from both locations, bringing together both freshwater and saltwater environments.
akua ink monotype, handmade botanical ink, bushfire charcoal, salt, gouache, bitumen on Hahnemuhle printmaking paper
78 x 105cm
Artist Statement: ARTIST BIO – Eve Pawlik
Eve is a multi-disciplinary artist working with photography/film, printmaking and sculpture from found and repurposed materials. Eve’s practice confronts the contradictions in our relationships to each other and our environment, spotlighting problematic colonial and societal representations of place. Eve feels strongly about arts as a relational and collaborative practice, it is important to ground expression in place and storytelling that is deeply personal, for in this it has profound capacity for connection and solidarity. In recent collaborative exhibitions 2022-2024, Eve has been focused on casting, ceramics and printmaking to explore concepts of storytelling, place, memory and environmental issues.
ARTIST BIO – Elizabeth Martin
Based in the Top End of the Northern Territory since 2007, Martin’s practice is focused largely on capturing the light and energy inherent in the Australian landscape. Painting en plein air is Martin’s primary method for capturing a sense of place and these outdoor sketches are then used as a basis for studio works using oils, gouache or acrylics. A love of drawing and a keen sense of curiosity have resulted in thematic explorations concerning the fragility of our natural world, transformation in its many guises and an underpinning desire to understand the interconnectedness of all things. Martin is currently exploring the notion of ‘inner landscapes’ and our connection to the divine feminine.
Contact Tactile Arts on 08 8981 6616 or admin@tactilearts.org.au to purchase.
