This exhibition brings together myself and three other Australian contemporary artists whose works, guided by a surrealist inclination, engage in a fascinating dialogue with personal ideas and with works selected from the Hassall Collection. The juxtaposition creates a rich exploration of the surrealist inspiration within the Australian context.

My response to the works I selected from the Hassall Collection explores the concept of “thirst” in both a creative and spiritual sense. The pieces I chose include three works by Sidney Nolan, two by James Gleeson, and one by Louise Hearman. Engaging with these artworks inspired me to write a poem titled The Horse and the Grotto, which became the conceptual spine of this installation. The exhibition is spatially structured around the poem and brings together a series of recent and newly created paintings, drawings, mixed-media works on paper, and ceramics.

The exhibition catalogue includes an introduction from Simon Weir Artist and Academic, Sydney School of Architecture, Design & Planning, The University of Sydney

The exhibition title (in which the artists also used as a framework for their response) is taken from a 1976 poem by Australian artist James Gleeson in which he states:

The aim of Art

is to approach the unknowable;

and the only approach

is by way of the known, to use it

as a springboard.

Installation exhibition documentation courtesy by Richard Glover photography.