an ACT Government arts facility

HUW DAVIES GALLERY 17 July–3 August 2008

E X P O S U R E Rewa Nolan

Rewa Nolan has a strong association with PhotoAccess as a teacher, leading some of our most successful Kids Holiday Program workshops—including the Create A Scene filmmaking workshops, and as Tutor/Coordinator for artSEARch, a 2008 Regional Arts Fund project assisting visual artists from the Southern NSW Region to document and digitise their work.

EXPOSURE is a multi faceted exhibition born out of Rewa Nolan’s passion for the environment. Rewa visited the Antarctic Peninsula in 2006, her visit resulting in a powerful record of its spectacular but fragile landscapes and wildlife. With Regional Arts Fund support, and as a 2008 PhotoAccess artist in residence, Rewa has produced an exhibition ‘… encouraging understanding and aesthetic appreciation of a landscape at risk.’

This ‘exposure’ is timely. The Australian Government’s lead agency advancing our Antarctic interests, the Australian Antarctic Division, acknowledges the situation in starkly disturbing terms:

Antarctica is often thought of as a pristine land untouched by human disturbance. Unfortunately this is no longer the case. For a little more than a hundred years people have been travelling to Antarctica. In that short time most parts have been visited and we have left more than just footprints. We have driven some Antarctic species to the verge of extinction for economic benefit, killed and disturbed other species, contaminated the soils, discharged sewage to the sea and left rubbish, cairns and tracks in even the most remote parts. More recently attitudes have changed as we begin to realise that there are few unvisited places left on Earth and that they of enormous value to humanity. The clean air, water and ice of Antarctica are now of global importance to science for understanding how the earth's environment is changing both naturally and as a result of human activity.

The position is amplified on the Antarctic Peninsula, the northernmost part of mainland Antarctica, which has the mildest climate and the worst record of human impact. Warming has resulted in alarming ice mass loss on the Peninsula, estimated at 60 billion tonnes in 2006, and ice shelves have retreated or disappeared in the last decade. Arresting this rapid deterioration is an obvious critical priority for all of us. Rewa Nolan’s work will help alert people to the inescapable beauty of the Antarctic and the necessity for action to preserve places we simply must keep intact.

Dr Denise Ferris was Rewa’s mentor for the project, and provided curatorial support and advice.

PhotoAccess is proud to present Rewa Nolan’s EXPOSURE, a VIVID: National Photography Festival exhibition, in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY. EXPOSURE will show at Raglan Gallery, Cooma from 8 to 31 August. David Chalker

The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government initiative delivered in partnership with the ACT Government through artsACT

Supported by the ACT and Commonwealth Governments

Artist statement Diary extract, 5 February 2006:

Be careful what you dream of because it might just come true. It’s Sunday 5 February 2006. The Evohe is 82 feet long and full to the gunwales with climbing gear, skis and crates and crates of food. Everyone has at least 3 cameras each, so my bag of 72 rolls of slide film was perhaps not so excessive after all. The sails are full and we’re heading south past Cape Horn; next stop Antarctica.

Inspired by the energy of the landscape, I have taken myself on expeditions that explore the environment from my back yard to the peaks of New Zealand and, most recently, the ice of the Antarctic Peninsular.

I am interested in the way art forms a bridge between nature and humans, by its ability to influence through stimulating thought processes and responses in individuals and the wider community.

As evidenced by the growing impact of environmental issues on the political agenda, the warning voice of science and the need for a global response to nature conservation is beginning to register in the mass consciousness. Through this series of work I hope to connect the viewer with this remote and fragile eco system, encouraging understanding and aesthetic appreciation of a landscape at risk.

Rewa Nolan, July 2008

Artist CV Education: AD School, Australian Writers and Art Directors Association, Sydney; Graduate Diploma of Education, University of Western Sydney; BA (Visual), Canberra School of Art, ANU

Experience: Company Director EZPZ Productions, Freelance Photographer and Director. Professional development and classroom training solutions integrating technology across the curriculum K–12, including multimedia/digital video production and graphic and web based design. Promotions Coordinator for teach NSW, NSW Department of Education and Training; Associate Lecturer, Animation and Digital Video production, Centre for New Media Art, ANU; Graphics Artist/Animator for Television New Zealand; Graphic Design Coordinator for Canterbury regional television station, Christchurch

Awards: 2008 PhotoAccess artist in residence/Regional Arts Fund (professional development) grant; South Island Advertising Award for excellence in TV commercial, New Zealand

Commissions: Tutor/Coordinator, artSEARch (digital imaging for visual artists in Cooma, Bega, Moruya) with PhotoAccess (2008 Regional Arts Fund project); Monaro Mums and Dads, Cooma, NSW, DVD short digital video exploring teenage pregnancy in the region (2007); Penrith Lakes Development Corporation, Penrith, NSW, Virtual Tour, CD-ROM (2000–2001); Penrith Lakes Education Centre, Penrith, NSW, Visual Aquatic Ecosystem, large wall hanging (2001), and Photographic Cultural Landscape Study (1999)

Exhibitions: Group and solo exhibitions in Australia, New Zealand and Germany

List of works EXPOSURE 1 to 17 Archival Inkjet prints on Epson Enhanced Matte paper, 555 x 1210 and 1210 x 555 mm artist’s proofs from an edition o f 10; framed $810; unframed $620. Also available 180 x 480 mm and 480 x 180 mm edition o f 10; $430 unframed 15 Stereo Realist 3D images

Multimedia work on DVD (images and ambient sound)

HUW DAVIES GALLERY @ PhotoAccess, Manuka Arts Centre, Manuka Circle, Griffith, ACT

tel. 02 6295 7810 www.photoaccess.org.au