Statement from the Artist:

“The recent summer of drought and fire in Australia had an enormous influence on my work, particularly my printmaking. I used the immediacy of the printmaking process to express my sorrow over the losses caused by drought then fire and my anger over the lack of action on the part of policy makers.

As our country recovers from the fires it is easy to forget the terror and the scorching heat, the smoke and the constant threat to health and home, the deaths of millions of animals and the loss of once great forests of ancient trees.

We must not forget that it is necessary for all of us to act to reduce human impact on climate change, so that future inevitable fire events are not so catastrophic as the fires of the 2019/2020 summer. By exhibiting my work after the bushfire season of 2019/2020 I want to remind people of our lost summer, of our lost homes and most especially of the lost treasures of our native habitats.”

-Angharad Dean

The artist Angharad Dean will be doing an Artist Talk on Sunday July 19 at 2pm at The Link.

This exhibit will be on display at The Link until August 3.

Exhibition Catalogue available here.

 

Lost Art, 2019

foam and cardboard sculpture with found pebbles, on monoprint base $500
A nest woven from plastic foam, with stone eggs, a lost feather on the blasted ground. A cry out to save our world from the overwhelming impact of human care-less-ness. If we don’t change to a more care-ful existence all that will be left will be stone eggs. This is a piece combining monoprinting (chine-collé printed feather) with weaving and found objects. The human woven painted foam nest emphasises our inability to replicate the beauty and complexity of the natural world

 

Fly Away, 1, 2019

monoprints and linocut, 30x21cm, framed 43x32cm $220
As our human impact on this world became so much more obvious during last year’s drought and fire I wished that the birds could fly away to a better place. I used found feathers to create one layer of this print series of monoprints.

 

Fly Away, 2, 2019

monoprints and linocut, 30x21cm, framed 43x32cm $220
As our human impact on this world became so much more obvious during last year’s drought and fire I wished that the birds could fly away to a better place. I used found feathers to create one layer of this print series of monoprints.

 

Fly Away, 3, 2019

monoprints and linocut, 30x21cm, framed 43x32cm $220
As our human impact on this world became so much more obvious during last year’s drought and fire I wished that the birds could fly away to a better place. I used found feathers to create one layer of this print series of monoprints.

Black on Ochre Ground, 2019

monoprint on BFK Rives paper, print 40x30cm, frame 47x56cm $380
As our human impact on this world became so much more obvious during last year’s drought and fire I wished that the birds could fly away to a better place. I used found feathers to create one layer of this print series of monoprints.

 

Flight in the Smoke, 2019

woodcut, monoprint and chine colle monoprints on rice paper, 30x41cm print, frame 41x56cm
$380
As Australia burned I expanded my monoprinting to include layers of found plants and feathers, as if caught up in the smoke of the approaching fires, soon to burn the native ferns in the crevices of rocks.

 

After the Fire, 2019

woodcut and monoprint on rice paper, 30x41cm print, frame 41x56cm $380
The ground is dry and hard, the burnt vegetation crisp under foot, ghosts of our lost landscape a layered on this monoprint overprinted with woodcut and lino blocks.

 

Ghosts of Barbed Wire Grass, 2020

monoprint on black paper, print 30x41cm, frame 33x46cm $380
Our native grasses, once abundant, mostly reduced to small pockets of protected reserves, burned along with so much of our forests, grasslands, pastures and homes. Only ghosts remain.

 

Ghosts, 2020

monoprint on black paper, print 30x30cm, frame 43x43cm $350
Our native grasses, once abundant, mostly reduced to small pockets of protected reserves, burned along with so much of our forests, grasslands, pastures and homes. Only ghosts remain.

 

Smoke and Dust, Forest Ghosts, 2020

linocut monoprint on nylon, print30x37 cm, frame 44x54cm $320
In the midst of the choking smoke of last summer, often all you could see was ghosts of trees. For this monoprint I experimented with printing on translucent (and highly flammable) polyester curtains, recovered from my daughter’s home to allow the filtered light to enter and at the same time, remove a fire hazard. Rather than adding to our burden on the planet by taking the curtains to landfill, I was moved to create a memory of the trees lost to fire and still standing in the smoke and dust.

Cypress, Black Sky, 2019

linocut on monoprint, print 30x21cm, frame 56x47cm $350
The mighty cypress trees planted in Canberra in the early days of the capital stood choking in smoke all last summer so I created a monoprint background as a memory of that lost season

 

Engulfed, 2020

monotype with ink and pencil, print 40x30cm, frame 56x47cm $380
Canberra was surrounded by fire, and each day the threat grew closer. As the wind changed our city was shrouded in choking smoke, and we could see the flames rising from the Brindabellas in Namadgi National Park. It felt as though we would be engulfed, as our precious hills were so I made this monoprint as the smoke seeped into the studio.

 

Left Standing, 2020

linocut on black paper edition of 3, print 30x40cm, frame 47x56cm $350
(2 available @ $250 unframed )
Several times I have experienced the aftermath of devastating fires and seen the dead left standing. I have used this linocut in several ways to interpret the standing trees and in this limited edition I have sought to contrast the dead trees against the blue clear sky of a dry land.

 

Our House is On Fire, 2019

acrylic on board, 5×9 inch frame 24x32cm $200
There is only one earth, our house, and human induced climate change, saw our last summer on fire, not just in Australia but in many parts of the world. We literally burnt our own house down.

 

Nothing Will Remain, 2019

linocut and monoprint, print 40x30cm, framed 56x41cm $380
The long hot dry summer, after years of drought, meant the fires of 2019/20 were the fiercest we have seen – and in places nothing will remain of what once stood after those fire storms passed through.

 

Fire Sculpture, 2019

ink on claybord, 20x20cm, 23x23cm frame $350
Fire is mesmerising and we sit around it and enjoy its heat. We also welcome it into our homes and admire the dance of the flames. Each time you look at a flame, do not forget fire is also a destroyer of life.

Soaring Above, Fire in the Tall Forests, 2020

linocut and monoprint on brown paper, print 40x30cm, framed 56x41cm $380
Travelling the eastern coast of Australia to visit the wild places we spent time in the tall forests of the south. Sadly, like so much of our natural heritage, many of these tall forests were destroyed by the fires of 2019/20. The eagles soared above to escape the flame, but what of the animals and plants left below?

 

Reap What You Sow, 2020

monotype with ink and pencil, print 40x30cm framed 56x41cm $380
Working in the studio whilst the smoke dimmed the light outside, I looked out to see the sun red and frowning upon our world. We humans caused our land to burn, we caused the land to turn to dust and ash. We were reaping what we had sown.

 

Fire Ground, 2020

monotype on black paper, print 30x21cm, frame 45x36cm $250
We read of fire coming back over burnt ground, and could only imagine flames on black with just the line of the horizon. All was lost on this dark day.

 

Mountain Fire, 2020

monotype on black paper, print 30x21cm, frame 45x36cm $250
Fire rises from the valleys, gradually the whole mountain side is fire and the smoke is thick upon the air.

 

Apple Box on Fire, 2020

woodcut and monoprint on yupo paper, print 30x21cm, frame 45x36cm $250
I love the Apple Box trees native to the Canberra region – they dance and twist against the sky as the living beings they are – but no matter how much they look like they could dance away from the engulfing flames, they too have been lost to the fires of the last summer.

 

Flame Consumes, 2019

linocut and monoprint on brown paper, print 30x30cm, frame 43x43cm $350
We lost so much beauty and life in the summer of 2019/20 – fire consumed all in its path and left us only with memories.

 

Eucalypt, Up in Flames, 2020

linocut and monoprint on rice paper, print 30x30cm frame 43x43cm $350
Our ancient eucalypts, guardians of the hilltops and left standing in the flooded valleys by early European settlers, these magnificent trees have been part of our landscape and stood as sentinels for hundreds of years. The flames of this last and unprecedented fire season saw many of our precious mothers lost forever.

 

Forged by Fire, 2019

monoprint on brown paper, print 15x15cm, frame 45x32cm $150
Our native Barbed Wire Grass is named after that fencing invention so ubiquitous across the Australian landscape. Whilst the man made version is forged in the steel furnace, our grasses were left a blackened memory by wildfire.

 

Lest We Forget, 2020

variable edition 6 of 6, polystyrene relief print on black paper, 21x30cm, frame 36x45cm $250
(5 available @ $180 unframed)
The hillsides around Canberra, and much of the land between Canberra and the coast was up in flames in January 2020, and I made this series of prints after watching the flames on the hillsides. Its both in memoriam for lost lives and a reminder that this can happen again and we must do all we can to mitigate against another tragedy unfolding.

 

Flames Rising, 2020

linoprint and monoprint on brown paper, print 30x21cm, frame 45x36cm $250
The fires of 2019/20 were so hot they seemed to rise above the landscape in great sheets of flame, taking pieces of bark and ash with them. This ghostly gum stands with the backdrop of flame against the still blue sky, as pieces of the landscape get sucked upwards into the sky.