The exhibition features the work of eminent Australian artists including 2017 Glover Prize winner Raymond Arnold and Wynne Prize recipient Imants Tillers, accompanied by the work of respected Tasmanian poets such as Sarah Day and Ben Walter.
The Poets and Painters event has been running for over twenty years, instigated by far-sighted gallery owners Carol and Dick Bett. Previous participants have included Mann-Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan, the late-Margaret Scott and award-winning painters Geoff Dyer and Barbie Kjar.
In 2016, curators Carol Bett and Pete Hay teamed up with the Tasmanian Land Conservancy to host eighteen artists at their Big Punchbowl Reserve on Tasmania’s east coast. This is the first time in the history of Poets and Painters that artists have been taken ‘on retreat’ into a natural area.
‘We were hoping to push the boundaries a bit and explore new ways of looking at the landscape which so beautiful here,’ said painting curator Carol Bett. Poetry curator Pete Hay described the motivation between pairing up artists that usually in solitude. ‘We are hoping that among these people, in the way that we have paired them up, there will be some extraordinary creative synergies.’
The curators hope that the artists’ perspective of nature will also transport the audience to The Big Punchbowl.
‘That’s what artists do – they make us look at things in different ways. They take us right down to the detail, or they can show us the big picture, but it is all a totally new way of looking into the landscape,’ said Carol Bett.
Jane Hutchinson, CEO of the Tasmanian Land Conservancy, said it was an honour to host the artists on the private conservation reserve. ‘To have such significant artists reflecting nature through new and creative frames is a real privilege,’ said Ms Hutchinson. ‘They can communicate the importance of nature in a powerful way.’
POETS AND PAINTERS – CELEBRATING THE BIG PUNCHBOWL EXHIBITION LAUNCH
Friday 28 July 2017 6pm, Moonah Arts Centre To be opened by Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick
EXHIBITION DATES
28 July to 19 August – Moonah Arts Centre, 23-27 Albert Rd, Moonah 31 August to 18 September – Bett Gallery, 369 Elizabeth Street, North Hobart
POETRY READINGS
29 July, 3pm – Moonah Arts Centre 16 Sept, 3pm – Bett Gallery
Featuring the work of the following poets and painters: Greg Lehman and Imants Tillers Sarah Day and Raymond Arnold Ben Walter and Richard Wastell Adrienne Eberhard and Sue Lovegrove James Charlton and Joan Ross Lyn Reeves and Megan Walch Louise Oxley and Thornton Walker Edith Speers and David Keeling Jan Colville and Lucienne Rickard
The exhibition will also be accompanied by a limited-edition book that will be available at the exhibition opening, and launched as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival programme in September.
Media can access the exhibition from Thursday, 27 July and curators are available for interviews by contacting Stephenie Cahalan on 0417 699 917. Images and footage of the artists at the retreat is also available on request.
Poets and Painter – Celebrating The Big Punchbowl is a collaboration between the Tasmanian Land Conservancy and Bett Gallery, made possible through the generous support of the Purves Environmental Fund, the Purryburry Trust, Devil’s Corner, Freycinet Experience, Joan Masterman, Lynda Warner, Delia Nicholls, Sophie Underwood and Matt Dell, Avant Card and the Moonah Arts Centre.
To view the work online go to the Bett Gallery More information about The Big Punchbowl Reserve
