Drylands

Drylands brings together the visions of nine artists, responding to eight different parts of the WA landscape.

These artworks reveal sparse realities and inherent ironies and make meaningful provocations that invite us to consider the state of our environment. Drylands engages with the theme of dryland salinity in Western Australia as one of our greatest environmental threats . Over the last century, salinity has voraciously spread as a result of logging practices, monocultural farming, extractive practices, urban development and human-induced climate change. The artists represent receding islands of trees, canola fields in full bloom and dry, lone trees and empty scarred landscapes.

The work of Jo Darbyshire (Lake Grace), Valdene Diprose with Molly Ryan (Wheatbelt), Elizabeth Edmonds (Walpole), Lindsay Harris (Kwolyin), Clare McFarlane (Kojunup), Tania Spencer (Lake Grace), Kate Turner (Grass Valley) and Tony Windberg (Bridgetown) highlights our land in peril. The artists represent receding islands of trees, canola fields in full bloom and dry, lone trees and empty scarred landscapes in a series of evocative paintings that challenge us to take action.