With Glimpse Poulsen and Valmadre present the less known and less celebrated landscape of the far north. Instead of the ‘touristic’ ideal of reef and rainforest Glimpse traces a broader concept of place beyond the green and blue of the coast.
Poulsen and Valmadre have come together to unravel the peculiarities of the less explored environment, the inland Savannah landscape, particularly travelling between Mount Molloy and Cooktown.
In this new body of work Poulsen and Valmadre set out to explore how place can influence artists in different ways. Poulsen will pursue her passion for the dry expansive Savannah landscapes; an urge developed from years of travelling between Cairns and Cooktown. Poulsen’s up-scaled landscape expanses rejoice in the borderless stretches of this seemingly dishevelled environment. Poulsen’s play within the restricted and subtle tones of the savannah lands result in a poignant, robust sense of the place. In contrast Valmadre’s work will be her first investigations. For her this is a known of, but little thought of landscape, dissimilar in every manner to her familiar environment of lush, intimate rainforest. Through an unforgiving markmaking that cuts through layers of encaustic materials Valmadre’s works expound the snippets of landscape that flash by our car windows. It is there but not familiar, it is the glimpse that touches but does not connect.
Accompanying Glimpse is a short film by Catherine Hunter that will bring a deeper understanding of the artistic processes as it follows both artists from conception to completion.