This April/May, the Moran Arts Foundation will be showing a photography exhibition by artist Peta-Anne North at Juniper Hall. The exhibition is a series of aerial shot photography that show off the excellence of the Australian landscape with lots of imagery and sites that come alive from the canvas.
There is always a sense of how the artist was feeling while they created their artwork when you enter an art show. It was clear when I saw Peta-Anne North’s work for the first time that she is incredibly enthusiastic about her photography and has a deep love for Australian landscape. This combined with her love of flying and aerial photography makes for an exceptional series of artworks.
She notes in the booklet I picked up about the exhibition that she “marvels at the beauty of nature as light, clouds, altitude and angles transform the natural and made landscape into incredible shapes.” This illusion really makes the photographs look very textured and almost 3D like in appearance. There is so much texture and attention to detail that it almost looks like a painting. This may come down to how she create the final piece of artwork. Each photograph is made using the Ilford Fine Arts Canvas method. This method uses an advanced inkjet receiving layer for exceptional quality and image sharpness. It allows for every detail captured by the camera to be present on the canvas without distortion. It was interesting to look at because it makes the viewer second guess what they are looking at. Is it paint making that texture or is it just very cleverly printed?
My particular favourites are the photographs that portray our beaches. “Australia Day Challenge” and “They’re Off” are particularly fun and a real representation of what our beaches are like. Sunbathing and being comfortable on our golden sand fills me with a sense of pride!
The angle of the earthy, dark photographs make our landscape look like it has veins and organs and is an actual living creature. It isn’t something i’ve ever seen before with Australian Photography. It ties in with the imagery and the names of some of the works. For example, if you look at the artwork Industrial Bronco, it’s an interesting interpretation of the outback with the image of a horse right in the middle made up of rusty reds and deep browns.
In one of the showrooms there is a tv set up with a reel showing Peta-Anne jumping into a plane and taking some shots of the landscape. I really love this idea of showing us her process and how she takes her shots. It’s also interesting because it shows her excitement for what she does, which is great to see.
I personally feel that it is easy to see why Peta-Anne North was picked as the 2014 Peoples Choice Winner and a 2015 Finalist for the Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize. Her work is vibrant, exciting and a really beautiful way to show off the Australian Landscape. It is one exhibition that should not be missed.
The exhibition will be running until the 15th of May at Juniper Hall. For more information, check out the Juniper Hall website here.