Artists Erin Coates, Ian Daniell, Jo Darbyshire, Amok Island, Cass Lynch, Sandy McKendrick, Anna Nazzari, Ross Potter, Grace Slaven. Curated by Yvonne Doherty

Walyalup Waters is part of 10 Nights in Port Walyalup Fremantle Festival Supported by the City of Fremantle.
Presented at PS Art Space, 22 Pakenham Street, Walyalup Fremantle.

Inspired by the bodies of water that flow through and around our port city, Walyalup Waters celebrates the sublime power and beauty of the ocean whilst uncovering elements of the uncanny, contested and unexpected within these watery depths.

Spanning a wide range of mediums and creative approaches, this exhibition features nine leading contemporary Western Australian artists. Their diverse practices converge on a shared exploration of submerged landscapes and stories from the sea.

Through print, drawing and video installation, artists uncover camouflaging marine lifeforms and magnify salty microfauna, giving glimpses into the secret lives of sea creatures and the key roles they play in the health of our oceans. Other works use painting and screen media to draw out darkly surreal tales of human-animal hybrids, maritime mythology, hidden naval activities and monstrously altered ecologies.

The waters around Walyalup are a deeply interconnected part of Noongar boodja. Through a series of beautifully translated Noongar language haikus, the animal and human inhabitants of these waters flow in words as a continuum from river into ocean.

You are invited to continue your journey through Walyalup Waters to the shores of Bathers Beach to contemplate large-scale underwater photographs depicting the oceanic creatures found in these waters, with photography by Daniel Barker, Natali Bozhanova, Shannon Earnshaw, Tammy Gibbs, Sandy McKendrick, Daniel Messom, Jason Milligan, Janet O’Brien, Matt Smith and Kathleen Wilton.

IAN DANIELL

Working across painting and print media, Ian Daniell uses sharply defined, bold blocks of colour to create striking images of Australia’s most iconic marine creatures; humpback whales, orcas, leopard rays, dugongs. Yet amongst the highly recognisable animals, Ian also focuses in on lesser known and perhaps under-celebrated species, such as the humble krill. These tiny pink crustaceans with black eyes are presented at a 1:1 scale in a circular swarm of tens of thousands. Appearing like a seething mandala, Ian’s Krill draws us in to consider one of the planet’s most abundant, important and unseen species. Krill are critical to the ocean’s food web and also play a key role in carbon capturing and nutrient cycling. Ian’s work is all produced at a life-sized scale and is inspired by his own encounters in the ocean and his desire to capture and share these moments of wonder. His new painting Enoplosus armatus features a shoal of Old Wives, as they are colloquially known, against a brilliant yellow background. Endemic to Australian waters, these fish are a common sight on coastal reefs and their attractive zebra-striped appearance belies the venomous wounds they can inflect from their dorsal spines.

Curated by YVONNE DOHERTY

Yvonne is an independent curator, arts administrator and photographer living in Walyalup Fremantle. She currently holds the role of Art Collection Curator and Visual Arts Programs Officer at the City of Melville, coordinating arts events and managing the City’s artwork collection. A central part of Yvonne’s work in the arts is creating opportunities for artists to realise genuine moments of connection with audiences through art. With close to 20 years of arts management experience, Yvonne has worked for a number of key Western Australian arts organisations and spaces, including ARTRAGE, Perth Centre for Photography and Spectrum Project Space at Edith Cowan University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Photomedia and Museum Studies and has her own creative practice in land and underwater photography.