Opening Event: Saturday 1 October 2022
Exhibition Catalogue writer Ross Searle states:
“Luminous: microhabitats by Jo Lankester continues her exploration of the natural world in a new series of artist prints that explore the micro habitat of lichens. Richly coloured, the lichen is a composite organism that arises from algae living in a symbiotic relationship among filaments of multiple fungi species. Lichens ‘bloom’ through a complex inter-dependence that needs each other to survive.
These images are subtle reminders of climate change and the important role that lichen plays in mapping these changes. Through fine intuitive mark- making in response to natural forming patterns, the textures and colours of Lankester’s works translate beautifully through a multitude of printmaking techniques. The artist likens the fragility of these organisms to the current state of our collective future. Lichens are in danger of losing the evolutionary race with climate change, as the algae part of many common lichens cannot adapt to temperature change at pace with the Earth’s warming.
The artist journeys through parts of Queensland’s vast northern landscape, where she “explores ideas of experience, recollections, and elements of the landscape which convert to colour, line, texture, and form”. The exhibition draws together Lankester’s multi-stranded approach to printmaking, using non-traditional techniques that allow her to work efficiently. These processes offer the immediacy of thought to translate onto plate and paper in a much faster time than traditional etching does.”