Kiama artist Machteld Hali has been selected to exhibit her work at Spain’s international print symposium, IMPACT 10, in September.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The nine day exhibition is themed ‘Encuentro’, or meeting.
Each year, Machteld walks the famous trail Camino de Santiago de Compostella for inspiration, enlightenment and healing, which it has offered pilgrims for the past 1200 years.
It was this experience which inspired the body of work titled ‘Camino’, which Machteld describes as “prints dreamed up along the way”.
“The body of work explores ways of reflecting the convergences along the way of different cultures, languages, nationalities and even flora in visual images with a strong narrative element,” she said.
“It reflects the rhythms of walking with repetitive variants akin to a Bach fugue.
“It mirrors the rhythms of walking, eating, sleeping, walking in this medieval Spanish landscape, with its often crumbling stone buildings revealing their years of antiquity with style and their knowledge of history.”
The work is a set of 20 related, A3 size sepia collagraph prints incorporating multilingual text and repeated patterns that tell the story of Machteld’s Camino.
It captures precious moments such as a woman hanging out washing, lovers in a tumbling down loft, and a poem found on a post in a bar in the Alsa bus station.
Machteld said that through the daily rhythm of walking, the landscape becomes imbued with a whole new level of meaning and beauty, which has been captured in the images.
“In a way it strips the metaphorical journey of life of all its contemporary clutter, so the work focuses on the mere bones of the image, the microcosm of symbolic detail, such as the shell, the symbol of the walk, often revealing the macrocosm,” she said.
“The visual world takes on an intensified reality to be absorbed in the work. As Oscar Wilde said, ‘the true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible’.”
The work will also be shown from November 9 at the Tempest Gallery, 21 Holden Avenue, Kiama.
CHILDRENS’ ART CLASSES: Machteld also teaches children after school art, including clay work, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking and collage, Wednesdays 3.30-4.30pm.
PRINTMAKING WORKSHOP: There will be a collagraph printmaking workshop on November 24-25 also with the theme ‘Water, Water, Everywhere’.
Please contact Machteld Hali if interested on 0422 542 943, 42332242 or at machteld46@gmail.com
