vibration of place

there's a case among philosopher types in recent times that art is more about the impact that it has on your central nervous system than the simplistic aesthetics of what stimulates your eyes. the idea is that good art moves your organs. it makes you feel something in your inner core.

i mention this because standing in the middle of gallery 1, surrounded by the paintings of kim barter, the room practically vibrates. you feel somehow more alive to the moment because a mild sense of vertigo takes you. your eyes skirt around, looking for a place to settle. your body is jittery, wondering where to stand to take it in. it's activating and invigorating. it's exciting. it's like the shimmer of a hot summer's horizon, lifted up from the edges and pressed up around you in dazzling arrays of colour, shape and movement.

Kim Barter, Coorong

kim has travelled extensively, across the vast variety of geographical environments that make up the australian continent. rather than travel through the landscape, kim takes the time to occupy the space. to soak it in and filter it through the action of her expressive outlet. this is felt landscape, not just seen landscape.

there's a joyous quality to the mark making and brush-strokes. an exhilaration that activates the work. there's the sort of archived expressive action you see in pollock, fed through a contemplative appreciation of place you see in contemporary indigenous australian painting. and i'd be remiss if i didn't mention the colours. oh the colours! vivid, vibrant, vibrational overlay of energies. reds, pinks and sky blues pushing and pulling the warm and cool tones, bringing life to what is two-dimensional.

the show finishes this weekend so get in quick to take it all in. the scale of kim's undertaking in this project is immense and it so congruently fits the large expanse in gallery 1. there's few better ways to activate a space than by occupying it with art of this intensity. so come in quick and join the growing interest in kim's fabulous work.