Convergence

The Sydney Gay Art Group spent Sunday afternoon at The Shop Gallery in Glebe for a special visit to Convergence, bringing together the work of Carol Gill and Redherring (Mark Wilson).

The two artists approach their work from quite different directions, but share an interest in place, materiality and personal experience.

Carol’s richly layered Australian landscapes begin with sketches made en plein air and develop through collage, gouache, watercolour and handmade papers. Rocks, waterways, native flowers and birds emerge through layers of colour and texture, and hearing Carol speak about her process gave us a fascinating insight into how these carefully constructed landscapes come together.

Redherring takes us into a rather different world. Working across painting, printmaking and ceramics, Mark draws on nostalgia, popular culture and queer lived experience. Childhood memories are particularly important, with familiar superheroes including Batman, Superman, the Hulk and Buzz Lightyear reappearing in humorous and decidedly less conventional relationships.

That playfulness continues in Mark’s ceramics, where familiar objects are transformed into Master Spray, Break Up Spray, Cowboy Spray, Leather Spray and Adonis Spray, alongside ceramic hard hats that similarly play with familiar ideas of masculinity and identity.

The exhibition’s title becomes particularly apt in several collaborative works. Carol’s richly textured landscapes provide the setting for Mark’s stencil imagery — including a wonderful meeting of Waratah National Park with Sonny and Skippy for those old enough in the group to remember.. Here landscape, childhood nostalgia and personal memory quite literally converge within the same work.

Having both artists there to talk about their work, answer questions and mingle with the group made for a particularly enjoyable GAG afternoon — with plenty of looking, talking and laughing along the way.

Our thanks to Carol and Mark for sharing their work and stories with us.