pamela kouwenhoven
collections prizes
'Pressing Dry Land Site1' Malthoid 140 x 132 cm 2007
Barossa Art Prize
2009
'Pressing Dry Land Site2' Malthoid 140 x 132 cm 2007
In Collection
of University of the Sunshine Coast QLD 2008
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Pamela Kouwenhoven:
Dryland Tamsin Kerr - 'eyeline' no 67
University of the sunshine Coast Art Gallery
17 July - 17 August 2008
When Pamela Kouwenhoven
won the Heysen Prize for landscape art for her work in South
Australia, not everyone was happy. Two letters to the local newspaper,
The Courier, said her art was insulting and that it so
missed the beauty of our country that Hans Heysen would be rolling
in his grave. But Kouwenhoven's rusty portrayals (or betrayals)
of country have captured a sense of place; they speak the ethos
of the dry land we inhabit.
Her works are large (around
two square metres), using scrapings of discarded malthoid on
board or galvanised iron. Malthoid, a heavy black gritty tar-paper,
was once rolled onto the base of water tanks to keep them watertight.
Its hidden deterioration from long contact with earth, tank and
water capture images of the dryland spirit. Kouwenhoven puts
these remnants of discarded tanks to a new use which both memorialises
a way of life and comments on the state of our too dry environment.
She and we together are 'scraping the bottom of the tank'.
South Australia and Adelaide
have been most aware that the Murray-Darling River is drying,
dying. So it is appropriate that this work now comes to Queensland,
the source of the water and of the river's precarious state.
The work combines both startling beauty and environmental comment.
These works reflect the
round bases of tanks, in browns, rusts, and an almost greenish-grey.
They are memories of water, stilled. The symbol of the exhibition
is the circular Dryland base 2, the welds of tank base
more obvious in the pink with orange centre. The unusual pink
seems somehow more thirsty for water. These are stranger planets
than we know; our familiar blue-green earth is transformed into
a more threatening image of the future. Only one piece includes
any lifeform: Scraping Global with Frog is a large ellipsoid
shape, in which a small brown mummified frog disappears into
the rusted bitumen colours - only the title makes you seek it
out and mourn its passing presence.
My favourites in the show
are the series of slightly smaller square boards called Pressing
Dryland Site. The rust and browns allude to a past of less
industrialised, smaller scale farming. The abstract layers form
a complex minimalism. And there are landscapes to be interpreted
here, both aerial and traditional. The aerial view might be dying
farms, their regular patches dividing the dry land with hopeful
claims; the ripples in the dark malthoid reflect the plough.
A mountain looms, its tip glows rust in the final touch of sunlight
as night falls. These are 'edge places'- maps of both the past
and the future- just as our society is an edge place at the moment
in its climate transition.
Kouwenhoven's careful framing
makes the dryland wild; created by but free of humans. The work
suggests both beauty and fear. Malthoid has become a useless
barrier between man and nature's dry revenge for its misuse.
The malthoid, while holding a memory of the earth beneath, dissolves
in drought's fury to form an awe-ful art.
The calcified rust on iron
welding creates whole universes that tell of fearful futures
and past struggles, as well as striking art. This is an exhibition
that says a lot with little didacticism. It looks beautiful,
minimalist on the white walls, enlivening and calming the gallery's
space. While there is despair, there is also hope. Pamela Kouwenhoven's
grand works are humbling, using cultural cast-offs to change
the environmental future. This is green art that accesses what
lies beneath.
Tamsin Kerr
Tamsin Kerr
is a freelance writer and artist working on green art on the
Sunshine Coast. She has a PhD on art and the environment called
Conversations
with the Bunyip as well as many published articles in newspapers,
magazines, and journals.
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PATRICK McDONALD, ARTS EDITOR
August 15, 2007
A WORK with strong environmental themes, constructed from the lining of an old
water tank, has won The Advertiser Contemporary Art Prize.
Mt Barker artist Pamela Kouwenhoven said last night she was "elated" that her
entry, Scraping Global, had won the $1500 competition in its inaugural year.
The Advertiser Contemporary Art Prize was presented as part of the 2007 SALA
(South Australian Living Artists) Awards.
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"Scraping
- GLOBAL" 200 x 175cm discarded malthoid 2007
2007 The Advetiser
Contemporary Art Award, SALA 2007 - Winner
"Murraylands
Palmpsest " malthoid 172 x 290 cm 2006
2007 Art Gallery
of SA - Aquisition
" Maltha-Dryland
Series - no1 " 120 x 120 cm malthoid on board 2005
2007 Murray Bridge
Regional Gallery - Aquisition
Arid Lands Malthoid
137 x 137cm 2003
2003 Heysen Prize
for Australian Landscape - Winner
"Australian
Landscape Series - Heartland" 92 x 92 cm
2003 Waverley Art
Prize, Woolahra Art Centre Sydney, NSW - Viewers Choice Prize
and
Heysen Prize for
Australian Landscape - Highly Commended Painting
"Desert Landscape"
81 x 79 cm
2001 Port Pirie
2001 Art Prize, Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery - Winner Open
(Acquisitive)
Landform Series
- Formation 70 x 80 cm mixed media 2000
Barossa Vintage
Festival 2001 - Fine Art Exhibition, Winner Work acquired.
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Grants and Prizes |
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Kurrajong Art Exhibition, Pultney Grammar School, Adelaide SA Best in Show
Barossa Art Prize, Barossa Regional Gallery, Tanunda SA Winner
SALA 2007 Advertiser Contemporary Art Award - Winner
Arts SA Independent Makers and Presenters Project Development & Presentation Grant
Murray Bridge Combined Rotary Clubs 20th Anniversary Art Show, [Invited Acquisitive Section]
Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, SA Winner: Acquisitive Section
Eckersly's Art Prize (Acquisitive), Rotary Club of Victor Harbor Art Show, Victor Harbor SA
Craft-in-site Grant, Craftsouth: Centre for Contemporary Craft and Design, Adelaide SA
Eckersly's Art Prize (Acquisitive), Rotary Club of Victor Harbor Art Show, Victor Harbor SA
Wentworth Art Prize 2004, Wentworth NSW Winner Council Acquisitive
Heysen Prize for Australian Landscape Hahndorf, SA Winner: Best Regional Artist
Whyalla Art Prize, SA Winner: Country Arts Most Innovative Regional Artist Acquisitive
Port Pirie Art Prize Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery, SA Winner Acquisitive
Heysen Prize for Australian Landscape Winner
Waverley Art Prize, Woolahra Art Centre Sydney, NSW Viewers Choice Prize
Kernewek Lowender Art Prize, Kadina, SA 2nd Prize
Port Pirie Art Prize, Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery, SA Highly Commended Award
Rotary Club of Port Adelaide Winner (Country)
Heysen Prize for Australian Landscape Highly Commended Painting
Accepted for the National Sculpture Prize and Exhibition, National Gallery of Australia.
The Heysen Prize, SA Winner, Mixed Media,
Craftsouth Small Grant Program (Promotion), SA
Port Lincoln Art Prize, Winner
Barossa Vintage Festival 2001 - Fine Art Exhibition, Winner Work acquired.
Port Pirie 2001 Art Prize, Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery, Winner Open (Acquisitive)
Heysen Prize for Australian Landscape Winner , Mixed Media Section.
Lions Club of Glenside Winner, Best Watercolour.
Glenelg Apex Art Show Best Watercolour.
Rotary Club of Pt. Adelaide Judges Choice Open Section.
Heysen Prize for Australian Landscape Winner.
Glenelg Apex Art Show Best Pastel.
The Inaugural Heysen Prize for Australian Landscape.
South Australian Country Arts Trust Grant.
Glenelg Apex Art Show Winner, Open Aquisitional
Toorak College Fine Art Exhibition Best Pastel.
Department for the Arts, Arts Project Grant.
Toorak College Fine Art Exhibition Best Water Colour
Associate Landscape Prize, R.S.A.S.A.
Salisbury Art Prize, SA Winner
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