Introduction -
Alison Binks - Horizon

‘The subject of this work is broadly land – land with a long view. Where the eye reaches out as far as it can, to where land meets a sky that is stretching out too. Distance and pause – our minds follow our gaze. These paintings are inspired by a long road trip through the Great Victoria Desert – South Australia and Western Australia and down to the coast of the Bite. But beyond the places themselves the true subject is the expansiveness of nature. My intention is to bring the mental ‘space’ which nature provides, to those of us who spend more time in the cities. I am attempting to draw the viewer into a place where the mind is allowed to wander freely. Though my medium is static, time plays a crucial part. The experience for the viewer is a slowly emerging one. The mysterious quality that overlies some of the paintings is intended as an opening for the viewer to enter a meditative space, as well as forming a relationship with the work as different points of view emerge. In some of the pieces there is initially so little purchase for the eye to engage with, yet slowly the paintings yield depth and more. While creating a sense of quiet, a pause, the paintings are not necessarily peaceful. Most are derived from a desert landscape which is harsh and as liable to throw dust in your face as bring calm. Still a beauty is there, ‘beauty’, that quality which is so out of vogue in the serious discourse of contemporary art. But I suggest we have reached a moment in our human history when we need to acknowledge our absolute dependence upon the natural world, and perhaps the beauty of nature is one crook which can draw us back to this knowledge. The execution of the work involves many layers of paint and some wax applied with a palette knife. I’ve tried to suggest a certain freedom of application, almost a wildness in places, but balanced with a fine attention to detail in others. Through the layering a glow and a depth emerge.’

Alison Binks | 2015