Kathryn Cowen and Natalya Shinn, To Hill End and Beyond, Hazelhurst Arts Centre, 2 - 12 September 2017
Hill End is a strange place, a town where the past is living in the present. I was fortunate enough to spend some time there with my friend and fellow painter, Natalya Shinn. We stayed at Bryant’s Butchery on Clarke St. Days were spent walking and drawing. The evenings provided time for conversation in the shadow of a large pine, and under the watchful gaze of the monstrous kangaroos that emerged to graze in the setting sun.
Some of the dwellings built by the early settlers, lured to the area by the rush of gold in the 1850s, still stand, interspersed by vacant lots where time has erased what once was. A collection of photographs taken by Beaufoy Merlin, commissioned by the wealthiest man in town at the height of the rush, chronicles the life and characters that once filled the dusty streets. Discovered in a garden shed in Chatswood in 1951, this suite of 3500 photographs came to be known as the Holtermann Collection and the glass plate negatives are now held in the State Library of New South Wales. A selection of these images can be seen throughout the town, filling in the gaps in time. I am indebted to Beaufoy Merlin for providing inspiration for many of the works in this exhibition. Other paintings in this collection are inspired by my own photographs and drawings, produced while in residence at Hill End. Conceptually my practice is driven by an interest in time, space and memory - Hill End provided perfect fodder to explore and experience a palpable and peculiar slippage between the past and the present.
It was a privilege to spend time in this unique town in the tradition of the many Australian artists who have journeyed there before me, and those that live there still. I would like to thank the National Art School for the opportunity to stay at Bryant’s Butchery and participate in their Artist-in-Residence Program; and the Hazlehurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre for granting us the space to exhibit and share the results of this wonderful experience.
Kathryn Cowen
September 2017