This exhibition explores the elemental and symbolic relationship between earth, sky and forest: a charged space between light and shadow, order and wildness, consciousness and the unseen depths of the psyche. Across mythological, spiritual and cultural histories, these interconnected realms have shaped how humanity understands both nature and itself.
From ancient cosmologies to contemporary narratives, earth, sky and forest have frequently been understood through symbolic oppositions. The forest has often embodied mystery, darkness and the untamed, while the sky has been associated with divinity, transcendence and authority.
These narratives reveal a recurring desire to master, convert or erase the more unruly aspects of the natural world. From the felling of the cedar forest in the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh to the extractive futures imagined in contemporary science fiction, cultures have repeatedly rehearsed the tension between domination and interdependence. As Ursula K. Le Guin observed, people came ‘to end the darkness and turn the tree-jumble into clean sawn planks… more prized on Earth than gold.’
Through multi-media, installation and image-making, the artists examine these inherited myths in both their light and shadowed dimensions. In doing so, they explore the oppositions and propose a more reciprocal understanding of landscape, revealing earth, sky and forest as interdependent participants in an ongoing elemental dialogue.
About the artists
Alyson Bell is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice integrates traditional and digital production techniques across video, 2D animation, sound, and photo media. Her exploration of the moving image extends into projection, light and shadow, which she interweaves with three-dimensional materials to create poetic installations that reflect on metaphysical themes and the human connection to nature. With a background in film, art direction and design, Bell has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across Australia since 2014. In 2022, she received the North Sydney Art Prize Open Major Award for The Twilight Hour.
Kathie Najar is an artist and curator whose practice engages with immersive, site-specific visual experiences. Drawing inspiration from history, patterns in nature and Islamic geometry, her work investigates spatial and relational perception through a refined visual language. Najar works across collage, hand-painted tiles, sculpture, digital media and watercolour, and has been recognised through national awards and international residencies. Her exhibitions include Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award, HIDDEN at Rookwood, Eden Unearthed, and SWELL Sculpture Festival at Currumbin Beach.
Anne Levitch is a multi-disciplinary artist backgrounded in environmental design. Working across sculpture, photography, drawing and installation she explores human experience within a metaphysical frame of societal and cultural traditions, and mythical narrative structures both conceptually and materially. A diverse material language from both natural and industrial sources is central to her work. She constructs sculptures that in multiple become immersive environments. Shortlisted, since 2016, for prestigious national art awards in NSW, QLD, WA and Victoria, her work is held in significant private collections in WA and New Zealand.
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