Visitors to Robyn Nolan's latest exhibition Paradox, an installation of painting, drawing, photography, ceramics, collected sand, dirt and rocks at Nolan on Lovel Gallery, will be invited to cast a stone onto a collaged roll of Australian camp sites, to create a random display of rocks collected by Nolan on her journeys.
This rock could also direct the participant on their own unknown journey either physically or in their imagination.
Created over two years, Nolan said of this exhibition: “The incursion of roads into the environment creates a sense of order and direction and yet paradoxically they can also generate a feeling of freedom. It is the line between control and freedom through the metaphor of built roads and natural landscape I am investigating in my work.
“Directed by the random throw of a rock onto a map of Australian camping sites, I am taken on unknown journeys to photograph and record the different types of roads which take me to these often ancient areas in the outback, bushland or by the sea.
“In these places, given the freedom of open space away from the studio, I work in place in a phenomenological way, painting and drawing on paper and canvas, exploring my response to the physical and emotional experience of being immersed in a place at a particular moment in time.
“I stop and explore by walking, observing, photographing, collecting dirt, sand and rocks
“We yearn for what we think is freedom yet often reject the chaos and uncertainty, which will always be a part of a free society and look for certainty in the structures, rules and authority of our communities. Through my work I explore this divide.”
After 40 years working as a potter and painter, Nolan's work continues to evolve. She is held in many collections both in Australia and overseas. The random throws of the rocks will be marked and used to plot the route of her next journey where she will continue to extend upon this body of work.
Paradox opens 2-4pm on Saturday, March 24 and continues until Sunday, April 15. The gallery will be open daily 10am-5pm at 56a Lovel Street Katoomba.