MEDIA RELEASE

April 16, 2019 | Canberra is a city in flux, changing fast in an era of light rail, urban renewal and evolving buildings being constructed all over town. Trees are coming down and being replanted, tradies, in their orange and yellow hi viz vests,  are working on roads and nature strips all over town, and we hardly notice them. But now they are all the subject of a series of paintings.

Local artists Susan Banks and Thea Katauskas urge you to step back from the tumult to explore  what is often overlooked. To see the life of the nature strip; the plants above, and the working men, often below. Their exciting collaborative exhibition of oils and acrylic works “On the Verge” opens at the Australian National Capital Artists (ANCA) Gallery in Dickson from May 1-19.

“It’s about the invisible energy and activity that maintain the life of our city, as well as the thriving nature that persists whilst being hemmed by roadways and built environments,” says Katauskas. Now based in Washington DC, she is a 1996 graduate of the ANU’s Canberra School of Art and Design, who has held three successful solo shows of her unique take on the city’s suburban architecture.

“The streetscapes of Canberra are changing – mature trees are being removed and replaced to manage the city’s environment. New plantings  are designed with the aim of establishing urban forests and creating aesthetically varied neighbourhoods, and there is both sadness and renewal in that. I try and capture both in my paintings.’

As trees are felled to make way for transport infrastructure, she says many citizens have voiced sorrow at the loss of the native Northbourne eucalypts, lamenting the absence of these tall proud markers lining our shared transport corridors.

Banks, a former scientist  and teacher, and a recent graduate of the same art school, has focussed on the disrupted upended nature strips; the diggings temporarily occupied by workers and the inconvenient diversions as people step past the barriers, witches’ hats and piles of rubble.

‘I drew, photographed and painted the people I met who were maintaining services based on the nature strip, for example the NBN engineers, electrical workers, tree pruners, workers from the water company, infrastructure maintenance workers who work above and below ground using fascinating technologies that they are happy to talk about.’

The men I chose responded extremely positively and were happy to be pictured working,’ says Banks.

‘Understandably, they became more animated and active as a result of having an audience. Their hi-vis clothing became an important part of the paintings.’

‘My aim in all the paintings was to convey the energy of the workers – whether it was bending pipes or diving into a manhole – to me it was both interesting and exciting, especially their hidden relationship to the environment they were creating.’

“My approach was light-hearted and although humour wasn’t what I was aiming for, I was happy that some moments were unexpectedly funny,’ said Banks.

ART EXHIBITION: On the Verge – Painting the Overlooked

by Susan Banks & Thea Katauskas