‘The Lagoon’ is a site-specific project that explores how I, as a European settler, may connect spiritually with the landscape through painting. My Russian, Irish and English ancestors had pre-Christian pagan religions, however none of them arrived in Australia with stories, or myths that connected them to the land. Even if they did, stories were not passed down through the generations. In my new home of Revelstoke, this disconnection is amplified as I have no personal memories, stories, or lived experiences to orient myself. To remedy this feeling, I have used abstraction to explore what I see, feel, hear, and experience on land.
Spending time along the Sn̓x̌wn̓tkwítkw (Swift River/Columbia River) I chose a spot I was intuitively drawn to. Returning to it multiple times a week, over many months, I slowly began to build a history and relationship with this place. Over time a visual language formed that expressed personal feelings, experiences, and memories of the area. Colour, line, and shape played an important role in translating this relationship. Each element coming together to express the unexplainable, and overwhelming feelings I experience when observing the beauty of nature in a place I have come to love.
Brett Mallon is an Australian artist who grew up on Quandamooka country (The Redlands), on the outskirts of Meeanjin (Brisbane), QLD. He currently resides on the Sinixt, Ktunaxa, Secwepemc and Syilx territories of interior British Columbia, Canada. His practice is grounded in drawing and explores the possibilities of abstraction. He uses the creative process to challenge the blue meanies.
He has completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking at Melbourne’s RMIT University in 2018 and is currently working on his MFA at Emily Carr University, Vancouver. His work can be found in collections at Melbourne’s RMIT University, Western Australia’s Curtain University, Canberra’s National Art School and Queensland’s USQ Toowoomba. He has been the recipient of the Arts Law Pro Bono Print Commission (2018), winner of the Open Bite, Queenscliff Gallery Graduate Award (2018), finalist in the Peebles Print Prize (2019) and the Brisbane Portrait Prize, Salon Des Refuses (2020, 2022). As well as attending the NG Art Creative Residency in Provence France (2022).
