Souvenirs for the Present  

                      Gallery East, Clovelly  

           Opening September 29 + Exhibition dates Sept. 29 - Oct. 9 2022

 

Souvenirs for the Present offers a visual way in to our current reality through beauty and connection. Seeing beauty in the present moment can help us navigate an uncertain and often anxiety making reality. Offering subtle ways through a quiet narrative is intended to help sustain happiness in difficult times as well as encourage a healthy appreciation of nature and the living world around us. Themes like forest bathing, solastaligia, eco-grief and eco-anxiety are touched upon.

 

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The exhibition is a journey through varying landscapes offered up as souvenirs; documenting something to behold while reflecting a changing landscape back on to the viewer to contemplate, embrace and to reconcile with.

 

Connecting wth nature and our environment is also a metaphor for connecting deeper with what’s around us and with those close to us, within the confines of a more limited world. By connecting with nature and seeking solace in nature, we can better connect with ourselves and others while hopefully lessening our eco-anxiety.

 

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The abstract, double exposure images reflect gratitude in a moment’s observation, showing that new ways of seeing can increase our awareness, even for the smallest of things that might help to sustain us.

 

Many of us have been living in a quiet desperation about loss of landscape; the destruction from bush fires, land clearing, loss of wetlands and effects of floods and drought  Some may recognise the syndrome where detachment from nature leaves them feeling powerless and disconnected from others and ourselves. Many people have expressed distress about the state of the environment.  There is now a word to describe this sea of emotions - solastalgia: homesickness you feel while at home.