Nicole Welch - Eastern Interiors: explorations from Bathurst to Albury

NICOLE WELCH Eastern Interiors: explorations from Bathurst to Albury

NICOLE WELCH Eastern Interiors: explorations from Bathurst to Albury 1 to 26 September 2015 Brenda May Gallery 10 to 13 September 2015 Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks 12 November to 13 December 2015 Murray Art Museum Albury 1 July to 14 August 2016 Bathurst Regional Art Gallery

‘Illumination #3’ 2012, pigment ink, face-mounted, editon of 6, 47.5 x 120cm

Nicole Welch: Forward Reflections Notions of ‘beauty’ and ‘sublimity’ are conjured when encountering the photographic and video work of Nicole Welch. Though it could be instinctive in the twenty-first century to consign the exceptional picturesque appeal of these works to a mastery of digital manipulation, Welch does not depend on such techniques. Instead, the artist traverses through areas of bushland, locating incredible landscapes to create compositions using large-scale projectors, generators, spotlights and research-inspired objects. These works have seen Welch interrupt the rugged terrain with illuminating beams of light, projections of images and a chandelier that is seemingly floating in the landscape, despite actually being hoisted into the scene using a crane. In the suite of images that formulate Eastern Interiors: explorations from Bathurst to Albury new iconography emerges with the inclusion of an antique mirror and the use of text.

There is an archival foundation to Welch’s hybrid imagery. The landscapes within her photographs do not simply exist as visually attractive images, but engage with the history of ‘landscape’ as a creative genre, whilst also integrating interpretations of the land from literature, exploration records and other resources. Her series Illumination featured a luminescent Victorian-style chandelier, taking cues from archival research into the historic Holtermann Collection; a series of photographs made by Beaufoy Merlin and Charles Bayliss in 1872.

Welch’s 2014 body of work Apparitions featured circular details of paintings from the Romantic period, found in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, projected onto waterside cliffs and foggy forest scenery. Eastern Interiors: explorations from Bathurst to Albury references explorer Thomas Mitchell’s journals originally published

in 1838 under the title ‘Three expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia’, a first edition of which can be found in the collection of the State Library of New South Wales.

Mitchell was the Surveyor General of New South Wales and his role was to manage and administer Crown Land; defining boundaries, locating places for new settlements and planning routes for transportation. This job entailed lengthy expeditions across the country, often requiring the assistance of Indigenous guides. Through these journeys, land was divided and defined by the colonial settlers in ways that suited their Eurocentric needs and opinions.

These decisions and descriptions shape our knowledge, understanding and perception of the land today, a theme that Welch aptly draws attention to.

Comparably to Mitchell, Welch embarked on a crossstate expedition in order to (re)discover the locations within her latest series of work. Informing the suite is a residency the artist completed in September of 2014 at Hill End near Bathurst, as well as time spent in and around Albury in the State’s south. The video work that completes this series, titled ‘East West’, references the travelling nature of Welch’s research, as well as the explorers she quotes. It features a mirror reflecting the sky as it transitions from day to night, communicating the role of the sky as a global and perpetual navigational device.

In the context of these diaries that also describe one area as “very bad” for cattle and carriages, and the soil quality of Bathurst as “…fit for every purpose of Cultivation and Pasture...”, it is easy to see how these descriptions of the Australian terrain are based upon what was seen as useful and/or beautiful to European needs and preferences. [2] In the second and third work of the ‘Frightful Tremendous Pass’ set, Welch plays with Governor Mitchell’s accounts. The artist ironically projects Mitchell’s idea of tremendousness and frightfulness via literal projections. The word “Tremendous” is cast onto a plateau girt by water at the edge of the Blue Mountains, and the word “Frightful” is contained within a nocturnal scene, illuminated over a bed of ferns surrounded by tall native trees. These observations powerfully punctuate their respective landscapes, causing associations between the meanings of these words and Welch’s carefully orchestrated environments to merge—

Welch is originally from Bathurst and is currently based there, making her connection both personal and physical. A set of works in Eastern Interiors: explorations from Bathurst to Albury share the title ‘Frightful Tremendous Pass’. These works take their names from a 200-year-old quote within Governor Macquarie’s journals that was written while he was travelling to proclaim Bathurst as a settlement of the colony. As the Governor’s journal reads, “At 11 o’clock, (we) reached the termination of the Blue Mountains… to view this frightful tremendous Pass.” [1] ‘Tondo #1, Smoke Haze over the Central Plains’ 2014 pigment ink, face-mounted, edition of 6, 60cm diameter

revealing the impressionability of such emotive language.

Similarly, the set of works titled ‘Silence and Solitude’ are influenced by Governor Macquarie’s following musing: “…the silence and solitude, which reign in a space of such extent and beauty as seems designed by nature for the occupancy and comfort of man, create a degree of melancholy in the mind...” [3] In one of the works, Welch has projected the word “Solitude” onto a misty landscape. This work remains the most sinister image of the suite, ghostly in its effect. With all of these photographs, Welch cleverly embodies both hostile and inviting environments with historical descriptions that label the conditions in which the colonial settlers encountered them.

Taking their titles from words within William Hovel’s journal, which relays his explorations to find new grazing land with Hamilton Hume in 1824, are Welch’s works given the common title ‘Magnificent Prospect’. Describing an impressionable sight of the

Snowy Mountains near Albury, Hovell writes, “At the end of seven miles a prospect came in view the most magnificent.” [4] Featuring a mirror reflecting the landscape opposite the scene in which it is situated, these photographs project magnificence in their striking appearance. This set includes an eerie fog-filled scene where the trees seemingly dissolve into an encroaching distance, as well as a brilliant blue sky striped with fluorescent sun-soaked clouds that are disrupted by the reflection of pastel pink heavens glowing behind a rocky cliff. These captivating environments are wondrous, yet diverse, evoking the idea of endless possibilities for Hovell’s new “prospect”, a label that also coveys a sense of adventure and discovery designated to a land not yet captured or claimed.

Though it is easy to relegate notions of Australia being an unclaimed wilderness to an archaic imperialist past, Welch reveals how the consequences of this ideology have seeped into contemporary society’s relationship

‘Apparitions #4, Projection - The Upper Nepean, 1889, WC Piguenit’ 2014 pigment ink, face-mounted, edition of 6 (two sizes) 95 x 200cm (also available 61 x 130cm) (Projected image - The Upper Nepean, 1889, WC Piguenit, Courtesy Art Gallery of NSW)

with the Australian landscape. The artist references a quote from theorist W. J. T. Mitchell’s essay ‘Imperial Landscape’, which reads, “Like all things in a rearview mirror, these landscapes may be closer to us than they appear.” [5] Welch’s works containing mirrors draw from this quote by literally placing a mirror in the landscape. In each work, the reflection is contained within an antique frame that acts like a portal into the past. Through this, Welch exposes the contemporary desire to view the Australian terrain via a nostalgic lens, which romanticises the landscape as an undiscovered place of mystical beauty and inhospitable depths.

However, this romantic mythology is ruptured, as the mirror lies within the landscape it reflects, showing that both the evocative view in the frame, and the perceptibly present-day terrain surrounding it, coexist.

Throughout Eastern Interiors: explorations from Bathurst to Albury, the past and present are conflated in singular images and filmic scenes. With this, Welch subtly

offers a thoughtful examination on how contemporary perceptions of the natural Australian landscape continue to be shaped and informed by enduring historical ideologies.

[1] “Tour to the New Discovered Country in April 1815” Journey’s in Time, Macquarie University, copyright 1998 - 2009.

[2] Ibid.

[3] George William Evans, “Macquarie’s First Tour Beyond the Blue Mountains” Two Journals of Early Exploration in New South Wales, Project Gutenberg Australia, January 2013, pp. 568-576.

[4] “Hume and Hovell”, Discover Collections, State Library of New South Wales, copyright 2015.

[5] W. J. T. Mitchell, “Imperial Landscape” Landscape and Power, University of Chicago, 1994, p. 20.

Olivia Welch graduated from the College of Fine Arts (COFA), UNSW, Sydney, with a First-Class Honours degree in Art History and Theory, specialising in Australian Indigenous contemporary art, post-colonial studies and the politicolegal issue of Indigenous sovereignty. As a gallery assistant at Brenda May Gallery, she curated the exhibiions ‘Mighty Small’ (2013) and ‘In Tandem’ (2014).

‘Apparitions #3, Projection - Pulpit Rock, Cape Schanck, Victoria, 1860s, Nicholas Chevalier’ 2014 pigment ink, face-mounted, edition of 6 (two sizes), 95 x 200cm (also availalbe 61 x 130cm) (Projected image - Pulpit Rock, Cape Schanck, Victoria, 1860s, Nicholas Chevalier, Courtesy Art Gallery of NSW)

‘Frightful Tremendous Pass #1’ 2015 giclée print on archival Hahnemühle fine art paper edition of 6 (two sizes), 100 x 200cm (also available 65 x 130cm)

‘Frightful Tremendous Pass #2’ 2015 giclée print on archival Hahnemühle fine art paper edition of 6, 100 x 100cm

‘Frightful Tremendous Pass #3’ 2015 giclée print on archival Hahnemühle fine art paper edition of 6, 100 x 100cm

‘Magnificent Prospect #1’ 2015 giclée print on archival Hahnemühle fine art paper edition of 6 (two sizes), 100 x 200cm (also available 65 x 130cm)

‘Magnificent Prospect #2’ 2015 giclée print on archival Hahnemühle fine art paper edition of 6 (two sizes), 100 x 200cm (also available 65 x 130cm)

‘Magnificent Prospect #3’ 2015 giclée print on archival Hahnemühle fine art paper edition of 6, 130 x 60cm

‘Silence & Solitude #1’ 2015 giclée print on archival Hahnemühle fine art paper edition of 6, 100 x 100cm

‘Silence & Solitude #2’ 2015 giclée print on archival Hahnemühle fine art paper edition of 6, 100 x 100cm

‘Silence & Solitude #3’ 2015 giclée print on archival Hahnemühle fine art paper edition of 6, 130 x 60cm

‘East West’ (film stills) 2015 timelapse film - 3:30mins

BIOGRAPHY (b. 1974. Bathurst, NSW, Australia) Nicole Welch is a Bathurst-based media artist who continually produces stunning images of picturesque landscapes that have a loaded symbol implanted into each painstakingly-composed scene. Welch’s current series responds to the Eastern Interior of Australia, geographically stretching between Bathurst and Albury.

Resulting works are travelling from Brenda May Gallery to the newly renovated Murray Art Museum Albury in 2015 and Bathurst Regional Art Gallery in 2016. A small selection of these works are being presented at Sydney Contemporary in September of 2015. Welch is also currently completing a Masters of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales’ College of Fine Arts in the mediums of photography and video.

Welch has been invited to show numerous exhibitions in a solo capacity, including exhibitions at Brenda May Gallery (2015, 2014, 2013), Murray Art Museum Albury (2015), Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (2016 2012), the University of Wollongong (2008) and the Canberra School of Art (1998). Welch’s exhibition Apparitions (2014) progressed her conceptual and technical ideas exceptionally, seeing works enter the collections of Artbank, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery and a major corporate collection, as well as being named a finalist in the Kennedy Prize. Welch’s works are also in the collections of Macquarie Group, Canberra School of Art (ANU), Harris Farm Market’s Collection and the National Library of Australia, among others.

As Welch creates location inspired work, it lends itself to immersive residencies and site-related projects, leading to a completion of residencies at Hill End (2014, 2010)

and multiple commissions, including a large-scale piece for the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre (2013).

Welch has also won the Windmill Trust Scholarship (2011), the Harris Farm Markets Acquisitive Art Award (2010), the Studio One Residency Award (1998), the Megalo Access Residency Award (1998) and the Chamberlains Law Firm Acquisition Award (1998).

Working primarily on site, Welch takes mobile cranes with chandeliers, generators, spotlights and state-of-theart projectors to her chosen location, where she camps out, waiting for the perfect light to capture alluring disruptions illuminated within captivating landscapes.

Welch’s work incorporates colonial imagery and iconography into typified Australian terrain, often engaging with themes of colonisation, responding to the specific landscape of her chosen regional locations and integrating archival research from historical sources. nicolewelch.com.au

Nicole Welch on site in Hill End photographing ‘Apparitions #6’ (2014)

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