Distinctive lines of site

ELEMENTS of canvas, clay, paper and perspex come together when WA artists Sue Briggs, Sue Grey-Smith and Patricia Hines present their joint exhibition Site Lines at Contemporary Art Space Mandurah.

Site Lines will be officially launched at the centre on September 6 at 2pm, with a free artist talk on September 13 at 2pm. Grey-Smith and Hines live in the Peel region and Briggs has recently moved from Perth to pursue her career in Margaret River.

Each artist possesses a great affinity with the natural elements, evident in their separate bodies of work and chosen mediums.

Briggs' works reflect on the equal opposites of the natural environment encountered every day: light and shadow, sunshine and shade.

"Our moods can be deeply influenced by their transition between this broad spectrum, so perhaps it’s not surprising we can project and reflect thoughts and feelings into the environment around us, whether it be city or open countryside," Briggs said.

Paralleling her own personal uncertainty of moving physically and mentally from the city to the country, Briggs' works mark the beginning of a new phase in her life towards understanding transition itself.

Hines has also found herself in the middle of a regional move.

A ceramicist and printmaker, her work relates directly to the influences of her immediate natural environment absorbed through countryside rambles.

"Thematically I relate to my Hills landscape, farmland, forest, rocks, trees, fungi and lichen and fauna," she said.

Furthering her exploration of ceramic 2-D and 3-D works, Hines continues to relate her print history using colour, texture and pattern into and on to the new works, intimately connecting the mediums of clay and print.

Grey-Smith's new works also draw on personal travel. Using discarded maps of north-western WA, she combines the depiction of the land in the maps with the colours and textures of the actual landscape.

"I am interested in the semiotic marks or sign-systems used in these maps, as they are quite particular to the art of cartography: specific symbols are used to indicate scrub, breakaways, vegetation and so on," she said.

Site Lines will be launched by Dr Ann Schilo, Co-ordinator of Postgraduate Studies at the School of Design and Art Faculty of Humanities and runs until Sunday, September 27.