Giclée print on archival fine art paper – 94 × 140 cm Editions 1-6 of 6 + 2AP Provenance: Purchased by Art Gallery of Ballarat Foundation for the Art Gallery of Ballarat Collection, Vic, April, 2020. Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Sydney, September 2019. Private collections in Australia and New Zealand
In the Illumination series, a lit crystal chandelier is installed in the landscape, suspended from a crane and powered by a generator. A chandelier offers illumination and has a distinctly European history, a history that allegorically links it to power, specifically imperial power. pigment ink facemounted 60X120cm 2013 edition of 6
“In Wildēornes Land #3 something has shifted. Nature is no longer secure. With climate change the big scary wilderness has lost its power. Welch occupies the same position as Casper David Friedrich’s confident wanderer, immaculate in 18th century gentleman suit, surveying the mighty realm. Welch by contrast, in mourning garb, offers herself, naked and sacrificial, to a world on the brink of being lost.” Dr Ann Finegan Wildēornes Land Catalogue essay giclée print, face-mounted 80 x 142cm edition of 6
Nicole Welch pigment print, face-mounted 80 x 142cm edition of 6 Provenance: Adelaide Perry Gallery, NSW, 29 April to 24 May 2019 (Finalist) Grace Cossington Smith Art Award 2018, Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, NSW, 3 to 24 November 2018 MAY SPACE Sydney, 2017 Wildēornes Land, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, NSW, 1 April to 7 May 2017
An illustration by ornithologist John & Elizabeth Gould of the the critically endangered Regent Honeyeater appears as a digital projection on the embankment of Coco Creek in the Gardens of Stone National Park, one of its last remaining habitats. giclée print, face-mounted 60cm diameter edition of 6
Ganguddy as it is known to local Wiradjuri Aboriginal people, or Dunns Swamp is a serene waterway on the Cudgegong river, the vast swamp is an unnatural phenomenon created when Kandos weir was built in the late 1920s. In Wildēornes Land #5 – Wollemi the actual landscape is juxtaposed against the illusory landscape reflected in the water with both existing simultaneously – parallel – as scenes within a photograph; an illusion. The skyscape within the skyscape becomes a double translation, a hall of mirrors, a beautiful deception. giclée print, face-mounted 80 x 142cm edition of 6
In the Eastern Interiors series the placement of a mirror into the landscape is symbolic of history and perception, an invitation to the viewer to reflect on the numerous historical paradigms that inform our present-day relationship to country. giclée print on archival Hahnemühle fine art paper 100 x 200cm (also available 65 x 130cm) edition of 6 in two sizes. 2015
In the apparitions series of photographs of media installations in the Australian landscape, projected images emerge from the terrain and escarpment, appearing and receding simultaneously. Working on location in the Australian wilderness Welch has projected circular fragments extracted from iconic Australian landscape paintings using a high resolution media projector. These works reveal the embedded cultural history and idealism projected onto this land since colonisation, centering on the Australian Romantic landscape painters who brought a European sensibility and vision to their depictions of this 'new' world. pigment ink, face-mounted 95 x 200cm (also available 61 x 130cm) edition of 6 in two sizes (Projected image - Mount Arapiles and the Mitre Rock 1863, Nicholas Chevalier, courtesy of the National Gallery of Australia)
Nicole Welch Placed in the Australian environment, the chandelier used in the Illumination series (2012) becomes a representation of the British Empire and the empirical conviction that to colonise was to spread the light of civilisation. in Lightscape #4, the empire has fallen. pigment ink facemounted 60x120cm 2012 edition of 6
Nicole Welch East West from the Eastern Interiors series (2015) captures an antique mirror placed on the ground to reflect the sky as it transitions from day to night. Constructed from 3000 photographs taken over a twelve- hour period, the film acknowledges the sky as an enduring navigational device, historically used by humans to traverse the terrain of the earth from east to west, a tool to map, contest and claim. The clouds and stars reflected travel across the mirror forming a hypnotic sequence, encapsulating the recoded time (past), viewed in current time (present), while creating a space for contemplation (future) timelapse film - 3:30min edition of 6
Nicole Welch on location shooting Yarrahapinni 2019
pigment ink, face-mounted 60cm diameter edition of 6 Provenance: Adelaide Perry Gallery, 29 April to 24 May 2019. Wildēornes Land, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, 1 April to 7 May 2017. Purchased by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, 2014. MAY SPACE Sydney 2014