ROBYN SWEANEY Hidden in Plain Sight ROBYN SWEANEY Hidden in Plain Sight 2 – 20 June 2020 Robyn Sweaney responds to the ways in which cultural identity can be read through the physical and philosophical undulations of the Australian landscape, both manmade and natural. Her characteristically detailed paintings picture ubiquitous suburban dwellings and coastal terrain held at the mercy of time, containing within their ageing walls and ancient flora the spectres of emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual experience. Sweaney’s new series of paintings trace lived and remembered steps across New South Wales and Victoria, exploring the mnemonic potential of the mundane. The sheer ‘ordinariness’ of her domestic dwellings signals a kind of exotic-everyday; treasure hidden in plain sight. Rendering each residence with mimetic In some of the works, Sweaney draws from a month-long residency at Gate Keeper’s Cottage, Police Point, precision and sensitivity, the artist forces the viewer to focus on the bypassed and the forgotten – retro on the traditional lands of the Bunurong people. This Victorian coastline holds personal gravity for the artist, abodes so engrained in the Australian landscape that they have become invisible. Sweaney denies us the who spent her childhood around Portsea and Sorrento, living in a beach shack built by her father after he ability to peer inside, their reflective windows, closed blinds and drawn curtains functioning as foils for our returned from the war. She recalls, ‘it was a simple structure made from second-hand materials and filled curiosity. She questions, ‘behind these walls, do the spaces retain the happiness, the tragedies, the with handmade bunk beds and unwanted old furniture. Collected driftwood and shells adorned the shelves day-to-day ordinariness of people’s lives?’ and walls. It was nestled at the foot of high grassy sand dunes and surrounded by a thick canopy of indigenous Moonah and Tee Tree…’ Revisiting these places – now containing but a few humble dwellings Created during the bushfire tragedies, these paintings have taken on a subtle new palette in their smoky yet to be demolished – unearths for Sweaney recollections of wandering along hidden beach tracks through single-toned skies. We can feel the flecks of ash in the air and the parched, fiery breath of the wind. Light, old middens and sandy remnants of fossilised forests. The scent of the sea and the dry salty grasses wafts space, symmetry and balance converge as Sweaney engages with a traditional Western approach to from within her coastal compositions, with exposed, twisted Moonah trees standing defiantly as living landscape painting, employing single point perspective to create an illusion of depth. Yet this illusionary artefacts and enduring shelters. ‘Their strength is in their presence’, reflects Sweaney. depth – assisted by impeccably detailed foliage, building textures and shadows – falls flat against the vacant, film set skies, creating an uncanny relay between the landscape real and the landscape Native florals also feature in this exhibition – not merely as picturesque still lives but as embodiments of remembered. Meanwhile, her new graphite works on paper relegate these residences to the irrevocably memory and place. Flowering gums collected near her late mother’s house in Victoria symbolise for the faraway past, their monochrome rendering simulating old photographs or partial memories. artist ‘joyful abundance’ – attracting birds, insects and people alike. ‘Their beauty and blossoms are so fleeting yet so life affirming’, says Sweaney. Pried from their place of origin and recontextualised in a vase, Sweaney grapples with the nebulous notion of home in an age where instability seems to threaten every these florals become revenant presences from another time and place. They hover against a dark abyss like crevasse of our existence. From global crises such as climate change, overpopulation and political conflicts, a flash of memory, threatening to disappear in an instant. to local disasters like the recent wildfires, ‘home’ is not the stable entity it once was. It is shifting, expanding – perhaps, even, eroding. And yet, in our temporary culture of isolation, traditional concepts of For Sweaney experiencing landscapes is so much more than what is evident; perceptible. There are home as a protector, a sanctuary, have been revitalised. We resonate with these painted vacant vistas, alternate versions, ones that are sensed and remembered, and ones that are imagined. The works in where human absence mingles with an unseen presence – signalled by a freshly mowed lawn, half-open ‘Hidden in plain sight’ reveal the profound poetry that can be distilled from residue and relic. Within these window or bins out for collection. They feel at once haunting and familiar, combining notions of desertion liminal places, we witness the forgotten beauty that lingers deep within the aged walls of our collective and abandonment with the comfort and belonging of home. history. The paintings function as ethnographic time capsules; portraits of yesterday and today. Signs of life acrylic on linen 73 x 183 cm (framed) $12,500 Behind these walls acrylic on polycotton 73 x 153 cm (framed) $10,500 Hidden in plain sight acrylic on polycotton 59 x 70 cm (framed) $5,800 Between two worlds acrylic on polycotton 53 x 73 cm (framed) $5,600 Silent witness acrylic on polycotton 43 x 53 cm (framed) $4,800 Where light falls acrylic on polycotton 43 x 53 cm (framed) $4,800 Lost in thought acrylic on polycotton 43 x 53 cm (framed) $4,800 Equilibrium acrylic on polycotton 53 x 73 cm (framed) $5,600 Now and tomorrow acrylic on polycotton 31 x 39 cm (framed) $3,500 River view acrylic on polycotton 59 x 70 cm (framed) $5,800 Lovestruck acrylic on linen 50 x 31 cm (framed) $3,800 Heartland I Heartland II acrylic on polycotton acrylic on polycotton 39 x 31 cm (framed) 39 x 31 cm (framed) $3,500 $3,500 Heartland III Heartland IV acrylic on polycotton acrylic on polycotton 39 x 31 cm (framed) 39 x 31 cm (framed) $3,500 $3,500 Way of the wind I Way of the wind II gouache on watercolour paper gouache on watercolour paper 35 x 48 cm (framed) 35 x 48 cm (framed) $2,950 $2,950 Moonah Shades of green gouache on watercolour paper gouache on watercolour paper 35 x 48 cm (framed) 35 x 48 cm (framed) $2,950 $2,950 Parallel connection The purple place gouache on watercolour paper gouache on watercolour paper 35 x 48 cm (framed) 35 x 48 cm (framed) $2,950 $2,950 Moonah study I (top right) graphite on paper 28.5 x 34.5 cm (framed) $980 Moonah study II (below) graphite on paper 28.5 x 34.5 cm (framed) $980 Moonah study III (bottom right) graphite on paper 28.5 x 34.5 cm (framed) $980 (clockwise from top right) House study I graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 House study II graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 House study III graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 House study IV graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 (clockwise from top right) Dwell I graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 Dwell II graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 Dwell III graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 Dwell IV graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 (clockwise from top right) Dwell V graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 Dwell VI graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 Dwell VII graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 Dwell VIII graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 (clockwise from top right) Dwell IX graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 Dwell X graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 Dwell XI graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 Dwell XII graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 Signs of life Behind these walls Hidden in plain sight Between two worlds Silent witness acrylic on linen acrylic on polycotton acrylic on polycotton acrylic on polycotton acrylic on polycotton 73 x 183 cm (framed) 73 x 153 cm (framed) 59 x 70 cm (framed) 53 x 73 cm (framed) 43 x 53 cm (framed) •$12,500 •$10,500 •$5,800 •$5,600 •$4,800 Where night falls Lost in thought Heartland I Heartland II Heartland III acrylic on polycotton acrylic on polycotton acrylic on polycotton acrylic on polycotton acrylic on polycotton 43 x 53 cm (framed) 43 x 53 cm (framed) 39 x 31 cm (framed) 39 x 31 cm (framed) 39 x 31 cm (framed) $4,800 $4,800 $3,500 $3,500 $3,500 • • • ACQUIRE • Heartland IV Way of the wind I Way of the wind II The purple place Shades of green acrylic on polycotton gouache on watercolour paper gouache on watercolour paper gouache on watercolour paper gouache on watercolour paper 39 x 31 cm (framed) 35 x 48 cm (framed) 35 x 48 cm (framed) 35 x 48 cm (framed) 35 x 48 cm (framed) $3,500 $2,950 $2,950 $2,950 $2,950 • ACQUIRE • • • Moonah Parallel connection House study I House study II House study III gouache on watercolour paper gouache on watercolour paper graphite on paper graphite on paper graphite on paper 35 x 48 cm (framed) 35 x 48 cm (framed) 22 x 27 cm (framed) 22 x 27 cm (framed) 22 x 27 cm (framed) $2,950 $2,950 $950 $950 $950 • • ACQUIRE ACQUIRE • House study IV Moonah study I Moonah study II Moonah study III Dwell I graphite on paper graphite on paper graphite on paper graphite on paper graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) 28.5 x 34.5 cm (framed) 28.5 x 34.5 cm (framed) 28.5 x 34.5 cm (framed) 22 x 27 cm (framed) $950 $980 $980 $980 $950 ACQUIRE • ACQUIRE ACQUIRE ACQUIRE Dwell II Dwell III Dwell IV Dwell V Dwell VI graphite on paper graphite on paper graphite on paper graphite on paper graphite on paper 22 x 27 cm (framed) 22 x 27 cm (framed) 22 x 27 cm (framed)