On "The Heysen Trail"
As a regular walker on the Heysen Trail, National Parks and local bush, the proposal of ‘The Heysen Trail’ Exhibition prompted personal consideration of what sets the trail apart. An exclusive association of any one particular terrain with the trail is an unrealistic proposition, given the broad diversity of environments through which it winds. The differences between Parachilna and Deep Creek are obvious, but they share a commonality with all the places in between, that is The Heysen Trail.
The red arrow markers that direct walkers along every step of the trail provide one of the two unique symbols included in this series. Whilst taking in as much as possible of the surroundings, walking the trail also involves the continual checking of markers and map references, tracing a sweaty finger over the pale blue line that marks the route in the guide book. This serpentine ribbon of blue follows and crosses the contours of the maps in a symbolic and tangible personification of the trail.
All my walks have emanated from a particular car park, defining the direction and length of the section being undertaken. These reference points and graphic elements on the maps stand in stark relief to the organic world they seek to define, providing a contrast that makes each section a visual entity quite unique from the previous and next page.
The red arrows are bold and secure, fading and fallen, regular and obvious, intermittent and obscure. They carry with them their own set of emotions, spanning anxiety at their apparent disappearance into dark rain clouds, to relief and security at their emergence from thick scrub on a hot day. Areas which are essentially the same as those just a short distance away, take on a particular personality under the pale blue line and red arrows. This is the Heysen Trail.
Judge’s statement Heysen Prize 2008
I would like to congratulate the organisers of the Prize for attracting entries for this year’s Prize exhibition which is continuing to broaden the base of `interpretation of place’ by the inclusion of works by indigenous artists and those which feature urban scenes, and highly personal interpretations using more abstracted form as well as the more expected expressive or realistic landscapes.
I chose David Kelly’s work Essence of Eucalyptus as winner for both its own fine aesthetic quality but also because I believe this was the work which most powerfully answered the criterion of `interpretation of place’ which the famed artist Hans Heysen, in whose honour this
prize is given, achieved supremely well in very different manner. In Kelly’s work one is taken is though into the heart of the trees whose qualities he celebrates in a work which unfolds slowly and continues to engage.
David Kelly has been a Visual Art teacher and artist in Australia and South East Asia since the early 1980's. His work features in private collections throughout Asia, Europe, Australia and North America, as well as corporate, consular and national collections.
The diverse environments in which he has lived and travelled provide the inspiration for his work, drawing on distilled memories to capture something of their essence. An emotion related to a place and time rather than a recreation of physical reality. The results of natures own creative and degenerative processes, moving through various stages of realism and abstraction with serendipitous interactions of paint, texture and memories.
The effects of time and the elements on man-made structures is another closely related source of inspiration. The aged patina of weathered surfaces and the stories they tell. Dilapidated shearing sheds of his South Australian farm house, temple walls of Cambodia's Angkor Wat and overgrown ruins of Argentina's Missiones. The process of all that we are and do, returning to the earth, also seen in the rocky outcrops of Arkaroola, bleached coastlines of Yorke Peninsula and twisting sungai [rivers] of Borneo.
His points of reference shift from one extreme to another, looking at the intimate detail of seemingly insignificant forms to the alienating enormity of vast horizons. Written text in various languages is another recurring theme which explores the notion of communication and the meaning attributed to lines.
A water stained wall. Aerial views of salt lakes and jungles. Rusty sheets of metal. Endless desert ranges. The trunks of sap streaked eucalypts. Dense rainforest. Flaking paint on a wooden door. All linked by a common thread of aged textures and deeply weathered surfaces, coloured with the richness of earthly growth and decay.
This is his first solo exhibition in Adelaide since returning to Australia after seven years living and working in Borneo, as well as travelling extensively. Selected pieces in this exhibition come from his BHPBilliton commission for Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The various Khmer texts and stencilled numerals are inspired by aspects of the rich Buddhist traditions and devastating period of Khmer Rouge rule during the late 1970s, brought together by shared natural elements.
Solo Exhibitions
2007
Greenhill Galleries Adelaide
SALA Open Studio
2005
'Earthworks' - Australian High Commission, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
2004
'Sungai' - Alliance Francaise de Brunei
(www.alliancefrancaisebrunei.org)
2003
'Horizons' - Australian High Commission, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
Selected Joint Exhibitions
2008
City of Albany Art Prize
Macquarie Fine Art Exhibition – invited artists
2007
’Waterhouse’ SA Museum
2005
'Boat' - EmpireArt Gallery, Empire Hotel and Country Club, Brunei
2004
'Artiade 2004 - Visual Arts Olympics' - Tsalapatas Exhibition Space Volos - Athens
‘Art Forum – Brunei’ - National Gallery, Brunei
‘Citibank Exhibition’ - Li Gong Exhibition Space, Brunei
'Local Colour' - Empire Hotel and Country Club, Brunei
2003
Rainforest Gallery - inaugural exhibition - Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
1988
'Culture works' - senior student workshop participants and tutors Universidad de Cordoba - Cordoba, Argentina
Workshop exhibition - Mendoza, Argentina
1984 - 89
Yorke District Art educators
1982
Far North Art Collective
1981
'Works on Paper' - Graduate students - Underdale campus gallery SACAE
'Water Works' - final year painting students
Collections
National Gallery, Brunei Darussalam
Australian High Commission, Brunei Darussalam
BHP Billiton, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
University of South Australia - SA School of Art
Private collections in Australia, South East Asia, Europe, USA and South America
www.davidkellypaintings.com
