In Nature, I learn new history
In Nature, I find new friends
In Nature, I live a new mystery
In Nature, I discover a new end
Working on ‘Holiday’, I wanted to achieve two things: To bring attention to the natural world and her many residents and personally reflecting on my time spent in nature.
I feel like as a modern human there is no escaping the society systems we developed for many obvious reasons, and it could feel that our environment should naturally be the urbanity. For me, growing up in Surabaya – a classically fast-paced chaotic city – I was very removed from Nature. The natural world was a fantasy I only read about in literature or saw on screen. I was 27 years old when I climbed my first tree and I often wondered how many of ‘urban me’ were out there. This year however, I did 90 bushwalks in 90 days all around Victoria, working on another Day Trip book project, and simultaneously finding inspiration and material for this body of work. My takeaways: We are not alone, we are together in this, we may be different, but there is only one natural society, and collectively it’s ours.
Whilst I didn’t see all the 48 animals I painted; I became obsessed with the lives of these animals. Some common, some dangerous, some endangered, all of them unique. I witnessed a sliver of their symbiotic society, multiple forms of Life and Death – too long to explain in an artist statement here, but not too long for anyone to quickly discover should they allow Nature to tell these stories. I invite you to enter my Holiday – destination Nature, and hope it sparks a journey of your own.
There are 48 artworks because I believe in the collective power, in anything. I also envisioned these artworks to be hung in an orderly manner to symbolise balance, whilst each having enough space to be appreciated as individuals, meant to be viewed from various angles, stating that a life form is never static. The panels are custom-made birch construction, allowing the sides to be individually painted to create multi-scenes where each personality is observed.
– Evi O