Deviating from the problematic tradition of 'colonial painting' and its historical function as a representative tool for interpreting and informing of the particular environmental conditions of distant lands, most likely in the active process of being colonised, Landscape Painting offers a different trajectory for the recording and depiction of place. Departing from the act of overlaying sensibilities upon unfamiliar geographies, the works in Landscape Painting utilise the specific landscapes of Australia and New Zealand as a backdrop rather than a subject in and of itself.
In the selection of works, the environment features, but is largely a stage upon which different actions are performed. Through this, the exoticism of the landscape is largely denied, or at least, rendered commonplace, so that the emphasis shifts to that which it bears witness to. Landscape Painting is here used as a device to situate video practice emerging out of Australasia in the face of our remote geographical context, in an attempt to deny an exoticism and to instead centralise what might be performed, enacted and rallied against in terms of the context specificity of the artist.

Curated by Mark Feary
Artsits: Adrian Anker-Payne (New Zealand), Steve Carr (New Zealand),
Andrew Liversidge (Australia), Kate Mitchell (Australia),
Alex Monteith (New Zealand), Clinton Watkins (New Zealand)

*image (left)
Alex Montieth, 2.5 Kilometre Mono Action for a Mirage (still image), 2011
35mm, 3 minutes 29 seconds, Dolby 5.1 audio
© Alex Montieth
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