The Other Side of the Mountain

Karlee Rawkins creates a series of colourful and bold paintings in this exhibition exploring perception and change. The works depict extinct species of birds and animals in her confident and instinctive style, creating a wondrous realm and a reminder of the fleeting nature of life. 

Catalogue Essay by Phe Luxford 2022 Conjuring up a menagerie of curious creatures, exquisite foliage and sensual forms, Karlee Rawkins’ paintings are at once alluring and quizzical. Depicting a realm neither real nor fully imagined, her images invite us to glimpse an alternate reality in which myth, museology and childhood storytelling coalesce. Housed within the loose layers of her intentionally transparent brush-marks are deliberate suggestions of hope and possibility. 

Interested broadly in notions of resilience and transformation, her latest exhibition The Other Side of the Mountain explores these concepts via a contemplation of loss, extinction and species decline, underpinned by processes of ritual and the demarcation of change. The exhibition’s title, taken from a childhood nursery rhyme, suggests the navigation of difficult terrains and the seeking out of new and uncharted territories. It also alludes to the process of parenting, and the means by which narratives are used to impart life lessons to children.

In part triggered by the loss of a close relative, Rawkins’ decision to depict species in decline serves as both a joyful celebration and a reverential homage. Suffused with a bright and energetic spirit, it seems contradictory to view these essentially happy looking paintings via the lens of ecological loss. To do so requires an acknowledgement of these creatures demise and an awareness of humanity’s part in their decline. Rather than dwelling on the negative however, Rawkins hopes her images provide an opportunity to highlight the fragile beauty of the natural world and to chart a new course through the global challenges that face us.

Her exquisite painting Ibex depicts a species of mountain goat that for 30,000 years, inhabited the French and Spanish Pyrenees. His is an impressive character and Rawkins obviously delighted in painting the woolly textures and curvaceous forms of his body. Taking up the entire canvas he deftly struts upward as he casually turns to gaze toward us. His agile legs and dainty hooves are dwarfed by the top heavy weight of his enormous horns. The last of his species died in 2000, driven to extinction through excessive trophy hunting. 1

In another work, Superb Cyanea, the tropical splendour of this palm-like tree is depicted with free and lively brushwork suggestive of swaying movement and glistening sunlight. With its strapping leaves and tall slender trunk, this unique plant is now extinct in the wild due to habitat destruction,  loss of pollinators and the impact of invasive species. Despite the gloomy backstory, this is a truly joyful painting, celebrating an exceptional botanical specimen.

Within each of her highly expressionistic, almost childlike depictions of these once living things, the artist is intentionally triggering feelings of gentle affection, memories of childhood fairytales and the reverence of ancient artefacts. Suspended within fields of bold colour and intentional echoes of under-painting, these plants and animals have been removed from both the reality of their former habitats and their state of non-existence. In so doing Rawkins is constructing a series of complex spacial relationships that locate her subjects in an in-between state, from which they can convey an important message.

Free and unfettered, Rawkins’ images are in themselves a kind of visual journey, reflecting a desire to positively process the challenges that arise from a deeply felt lived experience. Determined to transform experiences of loss, upheaval or change, her images invite us to also optimistically reassess our relationship with the natural world.

1. A clone of the last Pyrenean Ibex was created but it died at birth.

Artists Statement: This series of work explores the idea of overcoming a challenge or going through an event that changes us. I am interested in transformation and transition, and how these concepts can be visually represented. Experiences effect who we are, what we think and how we see things so the idea of perception is a key consideration. The story I tell is one of finding opportunity and potential in a situation, we tend to resist change but there can be new or different perspectives that can bring great joy. What is on the other side of the mountain? What will we see? Possibly just the other side of the mountain!

Journeys and transitions are often marked by ritual or ceremony and associated with certain motifs. Across cultures there are concepts shared; spirit worlds, animal guides or totems. Winged animals are often associated with the ability to transport spirits or go between realms. My interest is in these topics and others often in the margins; death, difference, magic. How can I represent these themes in an empowering and dynamic way? Being a mother to a disabled child has profoundly changed how I view life and ways of being so documenting and sharing this experience has become central to my work.

I compare my painting practice with my experience of parenting; where and how these two great loves of mine intersect. There is immense self discipline, time management, learning, resilience, problem solving and cross pollination. This space is the source of many of my ideas and the desire to express them visually. I look to imagery of birds and animals in children’s books, vintage reference books, illustrations pre-photography and often drawn from dead specimens. The awkwardness in this imagery appeals to me, there is an oddness and nostalgia I hope translates to my finished work. All the species I selected to paint are sadly extinct; a reminder of the fragility and splendour of life, the beauty and diversity of nature.

My compositions reflect my interest in the more ambiguous and obscure. These works are dominated by expanses of colour and pattern, subjects are divided by under layers and line work. They are designed to challenge how we see and recognise things. I aim to capture the immediacy of my painting process, to show the transformation and movement involved. New to this series is the use of metallics and more layers of transparencies.

Artist Profile: Rawkins trained at Southern Cross University and has exhibited extensively since 1994. In 2003 she was the recipient of The Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship and in 2004 she held a 5 months residency at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France. She has been a finalist in the Mosman Art Prize (2020) and won the Mosman Art Prize Margaret Olley Commendation Award in 2019. She has also been a finalist in the Clayton Utz Award (2019, 2018), the Korea-Australia Arts Foundation (2016) and the Prometheus Art Award (2007, 2005). Her work is held in the collections including that of Maitland Regional Art Gallery and the Art Gallery Of NSW.