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Catherine Bennetts-Cash

MAN AND NATURE MY ASS. Human progressionand other modernist myths 2011 by Clare Milledgereads as a blunt response to our present state ofenvironmental distress. Painted in capital letters onglass over hessian, the work is raw both linguisticallyand materially. lt registers an artist's protesl athumanity's inability to reach a balanced andsustainable relationship wilh nature. lt wryry pinpointsthe schism between society and nature, a point oftension, even crisis, at the Jorefront oI social, politicaland creative consciousness.

This awkward juncture between society andnature is the locus oI Un-acclimatised. Basedon works from the Monash University Collection,Un-acclimatised examines modes throughwhich contemporary Australian artists expresstheir connection to, and concern for, the naturalenvironment. The works reflect a sense ofuncertainty, disjuncture, vulnerability and nostalgiaas they explore both the affinities and estrangementthat exist in the nalure-culture contract.

Our incursion upon the naiural environment isimmediately apparent on the fringe of cities wherenew resjdential developments embody the ever-encroaching suburban sprawl. ln Rosemary Laing'sProwse 2010, the timber frame of a house is plantedupside down amongst a stand ol majestic gums. Asif dropped from the sky, this structure is clearly out ofplace. lf the scene might once have been painted asthe idealised pastoral, as in the landscapes oI HansHeysen or the Heidelberg School, Prowse suggeslsa shift to a new Australian identity and lifestyle, asanother tract of farm land disappears.

Yet nature continues to find its way through thesuburban barrier. Cat\ cradle 2004 and Scene 32003 by Siri Hayes depict the Merri Creek whichruns through Melbourne's inner suburbs. The liguresappear diminutive in their sunounds, reminiscentof sublime Bomantic landscapes. However, theseworks are also unsettling. Evidently contemporarythe environment is overgrown with European grassesand trees entangled with rubbish.

Universal love / unconditional regard 21995-1996by Geoff Lowe examines our experience of place

from a global perspeclive, and the relationshipbetween ecologies, faith and community. Arepresentation o, Earth linking directly to the holein the ozone layer presides over the landscape.Several dispersed objects convey a slrong senseof disconnection. A double neck guitar, amplifier,camera and two figures having sex appear ascarnlvalesque motifs, The Virgin l\.4ary with armsextended in petitionary prayer appears throughoutthe scene. One can imagine lhe communalexperience of nature and music as Lowe commentson the collective capacity of communities to createenvironmental awareness, and the global implicalionsof a lailure to do so.

Showing an atfinity with the natural world, Starf,sh2004 by Roy Wiggan is one of a series of dancewands called i/ma which represent a vocabulary ofstylised emblems. Although traditionally made withnatural materials, Wiggan has constructed the workusing paint on plywood and brightly coloured acrylicyarn. Cotton-wool, employed as a substitute lor thesacred material of bird down, speaks of the ethereal.The lragile materiality and celebratory colour honourthe delicacy and vulnerability ot the elements - ofland and sea - that the work represents.

Sandra Selig's suile of fitteen drawings titledUnlverses 2007 similarly speaks of ethereal forces.The artist has caplured spider webs and care{ullyimposed them onto black paper with enamel paint.The webs are modest in scale yet complex in form,robust yet fragile. They evoke links between thenatural and technological worlds. The title alsosuggests that these works might be understood asanalogous to larger networks. Encompassing themacro and micro, and cycles of existence and decay,they reveal the complexity, beauty and transience otthe natural world-

The works in Un-acclimatised invite {eelings ofwonderment at the intricacy of nature and concernfor the environmental imbalance that we mustaddress. They hold a sense o, both connection andalienation as they engage with the uncertainty of howhumanity and nature will travel into the Iuture.

83.0 x 157 5 cm

Llniversai love I Dncanditlohal

synthetic poymer pa nt on r'ne.

synthelia p. yner FaLnt onp\,w.od a.d cottoravool

All works lronr the Ir,4onashLlniversity Co lection uniess

Lydia Balbal Giinabalyi /l",lattakulu 2010

171.0 x 205.0 cmPurchased 2010

Siri HayesCat's cradle 2004type C pholograph112.0 x 142.0 cmPurchased 2005Sce/re 3 2003iype C photograph112-0 x 142.0 cmPurchased 2005

Bosemary LaingProwse 2010type C photograph83.0 x 157.5 cmPurchased 2011

Geoff LoweUniversal love / unconditianalrcgard 2 1995-1996syntheiic polymer painl on

182.A x244.O cnPurchased 2005

Clare MilledgeH|man progrcssion and athermodernist myths 2011oil on glass, hessian, irame94-0 x 75.0 cm

Sublime soiar anus 2Aloll on glass, frame94-0 x 75.0 cm

The island 2OO1oilon linen100.0 x 100.0 cmPurchased 2002

Susan NorrieNatura/ dlsasters fore) 1 995cibachrome photograph171.0 x 142.0 cm

Nai./ral dlsasters trro) 1 995lacquered custom board20.0 x 220.5 x 10-0 cnrPurchased 1995Natural d/sasters (trree) 1995

91.5 x 122.0 x 18.0 cmPurchased 1995Natu/a/ disasters (four) 1995synthetic polymer paint and

50.0 x 38.0 cmPurchased 1995Natl/ral d,saste,'s frve) 1 995syntheiic polymer paint and

240.0 x 180.0 cmPurchased 1995

Sandra SeligUniverses 2OO7spider silk, enamel and

each 42.0 x 29.scmPurchased 2008

BlairTrethowanChanqe2005neon tubing, electrical

40-O x 220.0 cmDonated through theAustralian Governrnent'sCullural Glits Program byWendy Foard and Peter Baiein memory of Blair Trethowan2009

Boy WigganSlarllsh 2004syntheiic polymer paint onplywood and cotton'wool88.0 x 88.0 cmPurchased 2005

Mon6h Univ€rsiiy Museum of Art29 May - 5 July 2012

Gippsland C€ntl. for An & OsignMonash UniveBily Gippsland CampusMonday io Friday, gam - 5pm

Cat€log,r€ pubhsh€d byMonash Univecily Museum of Art I tvlUMAGmund Floor, Building E [,tonash Univ€Eiry CdmeE Campus90o Dandenong Road, Cauli€ld Easi, VIC 9145, AustralhT: 61 3 9905 421tE: muna@monash.eduww.monash.edu.au/mumaT'iasday - F day 10am-5pmi Saturday 1 2-5pmEdltid 600 rsBN 978-0-987] 139-93

Curalor: Cathenne Bsnatts{ahCatalogue d6ign: Yanni Florenc€@ 2012 Monash Univorsity Mus€um ot Art lie artists and author. Theviews and opinions aeresEed in inis catalosu€ arc thos€ of the authq. Nomaierial, whdner wntlen o. photographic. may b6 reprcduc6d without thepermisslon ol the anists, authd and Monash UnileBity Museum of Ai.

G6raldire B4lN, Sen'or Curaio/Coll€ction M&agerJill Wnlteld, Proq.am AdmhtsAatorCathsine Bennoris-CaBh, Curator - Coll*tionF @os E. PartB, Curator - ExhibdionsPatrics Sha{sy, Assisiani Curator/RegistrdFos€mary Fote, Communi@tions an; PuD'lcationsCoordinarorxd" e",t*, A,ii*;;,"r;;;il";d;il;;;;" ---David H. Ihomas, Museum OffrcaEmma rdirler, Aneta TEjkoski, Daniel With€ls, Museum Assistants[Ius6um VolunieeE: Pauicia Rubiani] Chaniago, MEhael Davison, Ad€leHanmer, J6sica v€n H€cke, Aqh te. Cahlin Untowood, Siephanie Luo,Lh, Mengj€, Call'ope McRae, Nircla Surr Holry Turner, Bebeoca Vaughan,SIMa l rlgt, Chnda winkols

Saidra. SelisuriveEes (detait) 2oo7 .

spider silk, €namsl and ilr€tive on pape.42.0 x 29.5 cm

,8. l\4ONASH Universily