Current_events2

In may this year - 2012 - I moved my studio to the "Eitran"-- building in Korgen, second floor, Korgsjøen 5.

In may/ june 2011, I completed a new journey to Australia, including two weeks in Central Australia, where I picked up impressions, and two weeks in a borrowed house in Caloundra, about 1 1/2 hour drive north at the coastline from Brisbane. There I worked with collages of textures made of acrylic paint on aquarel paper. It ended up in 8 compositions I could send home. Here back home I have continued the work with the impressions and the same technique, with a solo exhibition in mind, consisting three series, Central Australia, The rainy day and Caloundra.

The Australia journey 2011

When I arrived to Brisbane my daughter Camilla joined me to Alice Springs where we rented a camper car. I had ordered a smaller one, but the letting agency had only big cars left, so we had to accept this monster of a camper.

The monster car

The first night we stayed at a camp site in Alice Springs, as we arrived rather late on the day - fortunately - as it turned out that the air condition in the car just blow cold air. It was -4°C in Alice Springs that night, and we did'nt sleep much. We thought we would freeze to death. Next day we went back to the letting agency and because it was a Sunday no electrician was present, who could fix the air condition, så we got two small electric heating fans and two big sleeping bags. We were then well equipped for cold star nights

It was nice weather, so we decided to start giving nature experiences priority, and taking photos and moved for Uluru (Ayers Rock). The Galleries during the trip we of course visited. The nights were cold down to 0 or a couple of minus degrees, but the days were warm like scandinavian summer days at the best.

Uluru/ Ayers Rock	Uluru, forms in the rock	Ball in the rock

Uluru, brook to water hole	Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Parke, the flat landscape betwen Uluru and Kata Tjuta mountains	I in Kata Tjuta

It started with fantastic weather. More blue no sky can be. As much as as the blue sky was dominating, the red colours in the landscape were dominating. Many places were very intense. particulary in Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park. The landscape was very flat, with those few red and unusual rock formations raising up.

My efforts both before and during the trip to try and get contact with aboriginal visual artist did'nt succeed. Few aboriginal artists speek English, and the few that do are very busy with tasks for the culural centers, tasks that require english knowledge. I had to find other ways to achieve what I searched for. It was seeing a lot of art and study nature, to find an understanding about the way aborginial art is so closely connected to nature.

It was not just this I was searching for, the final purpose was to be influenced, but in my way. I started to notis what, and in which way I was attracted to see - the landscape, the colours, the structures and so on, and to which extent. This was my angel to my way to be influenced by what I saw and experienced.

After the days in the area from Alice Springs and about 250 km. west to Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park, we went about 500 km north of Alice Springs and turned back at Tennant Creek. At the trip there we visited Devils Marbles, big ball shaped forms of red rock. North of Alice Springs there were also big termite "buildings" wich were scattered in the landscape like petrified people.

Information about Devils Marbles og Camilla	Devils Marbles I	Broken stone ball

Devils Marbles II	Termite building	Termite buildings

The two last days it rained and one day we went to another national park - West Mac Donnell National Park - west of Alice Springs. It was amazing to discover that the colours was like a rainy day at Lofoten in Norway and because the fog was low on the mountains, you could imagine high Lofoten mountains raising in the fog - if you did'nt look so close at the plants and trees, wich are very different from my part of the world.

Rainy day I	Rainy day II	Blue green plant

Bark structur	Pea plant	Yelow leaves


	Strange flowers

The two last weeks in Australia I borrowed a house in Caloundra, about 1 1/2 hours by car north from Brisbane and about a 15 minutes walk to the sea. I was again lucky with the weather and could work on a big balcony. Now, when I am thinking about Caloundra it is the sea and the sand beaches I first remember. Just standing and looking at the waves wash ashore and sinking back into the sea again, in the spesial light just before the sun goes down in the sea, was most like a meditation.

The Work bench at the balcony in Caloundra	Work bench	Structures in a palme tree

Wave	Returning water	View to the beach


	Waves		Sand		Sun set

As a conclusion of this journey I can say that I have got a lot of new impressions and inspiration to go on working with this, but also - I am not finnished with Australia. It is easy to forget that Australia not only is a country, but also a continent and have enormously much that can be explored.

Birknes, 31.12.2011

Ingela Birkeland

Top of page