Images from upcoming exhibition by Stephanie Parkyn..

March 12, 2012

Images from upcoming exhibition by Stephanie Parkyn..

It was approximately one year ago when new Inka Member Stephanie Parkyn had her first solo exhibition with us. It proved to be a very successful show and now Inka Gallery is proud to present her second exhibition of pastel paintings - 'After Dark' - an exploration of colour and mood, beauty and sadness of Hobart's journey from its dark past.

To the Museum

Artist Statement

My approach to colour is influenced by the pastel paintings of the late Mark Leach, a contemporary British artist who used colour to express mood and feeling, and following in the tradition of the Impressionists who were inspired in part by the French chemist and dye maker Chevreul (1786 – 1889) to see colour as a creative force in its own right.

'After Dark' is an exploration, both literally and figuratively, of the beauty and sadness emanating from Hobart’s dark past. As darkness falls, the historic buildings still glow with colour, but a sense of foreboding, a gothic sensibility, lingers. The streets, buildings and docks of Hobart are evocative reminders of a colonial era that is protected and celebrated as part of the story of this land.

But unlike its convict history, now worn like a badge of honour, little remains to illustrate the era before colonisation. Pride in Tasmania’s other great assets – its unique Aboriginal people and wildlife not found anywhere else in the world – is scarcely evident. As an immigrant to Tasmania, hearing wallabies, quolls, possums, and native hens referred to as vermin, leaves the uncomfortable feeling that this has all happened once before.

The devils in The Devil’s Playhouse still sing oblivious to their precarious situation after being hunted to such low numbers that a genetic malfunction threatens their existence. The Mascot, now extinct except in advertising, asks if we only value our icons when they are no longer there to annoy us or whether we can learn to share. The colours of The Missing symbolise contemporary Tasmanian Aboriginal people who are sadly absent from much of the state’s media, tourism and governance. Will Tasmania continue its collective forgetting or will it learn to cherish those that were here before and create a new future that remembers, recognises and respects?

Price range $490 - $1200