I'm in a group exhibition opening at M16 Artspace tonight - Lines of Site: Finding the sublime in Canberra - curated by Grace Blakeley-Carroll. I feel very lucky to be included amongst the other artists, who are all brilliant- Kirstie Rea, Jacqueline Bradley, Mark Mohell, Cathy Franzi, Caren Florance and Melinda Smith. For this exhibition, I explored the pine plantation forests around the Cotter area. I've wanted to do that for ages- my Dad was a forestry scientist while I was growing up (and he is still involved in the sector) so I spent a bit of time in pine forests (and forests in general) while I was growing up. I'm also interested in pine forests and the holzweg (timber tracks, or figurative wrong track) in the context of Romanticism and the sublime, because of my interest in Caspar David Friedrich's work, especially Early Snow (c1838). This painting is echoed by Dead End (2010) by one of my favourite contemporary painters, Mamma Anderson.
The exhibition continues until 3 September and there are some fantastic public programs throughout the exhibition.
Annika Harding, Holzweg series 1-5, 2017, acrylic on plywood, 21 x 41cm each