The topic of climate change and the human impact on the environment will be explored through three new exhibitions due to open at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery this weekend.
The work by artists Vanessa Barbay, Lynee Roberts-Goodwin and Kristen Farrel use a variety of mediums to highlight pollution, the death of wildlife and geomagnetic storms.
Dr Barbay's body of work, Death's Witness, commemorates the lives of animals and birds killed on our roads, through a shrouding process. The decomposing bodies of the wildlife are absorbed into the canvass, forming a unique mortuary ritual.
After a month, the transformed bodies are photographed and painted on canvass using bitumen, oil and collected earth pigments to create a series of unique artworks.
"I consider myself a realist painter. While I am not painting stone breakers like Courbet, I am recording the truth about wild animal death in our society," Dr Barbay said.
A visual arts teacher at Vincentia High School and daughter of a taxidermist, Dr Barbay developed the shroud painting process while completing her PhD at the Australian National University 16 years ago. She has since had residencies at Bundanon, Worrowing and Hill End.
She has also travelled to Western Arnhem Land where she developed a deeper connection to animals after seeking guidance from Aboriginal peers and mentors.
"Aboriginal knowledge shared with me has shaped my worldview and informs my practice," Dr Barbay said.
"My work seeks to confront the hypocrisy of a culture that records animal life while simultaneously destroying it."
"These are rare animals that are just being annihilated by our expanding population, the roads and the development. I find it traumatic, and I try to take stock of what is happening through my artistic practice," she said.
Meanwhile, Kristen Farrel's exhibition, The Anything you Want Machine, explores the changing perception of plastic, its overuse and the material's devastating impact on the environment.
A former Bomaderry resident, Ms Farrel works with installation, textile, drawing, performance and paint to depict how plastic is contributing to climate change.
Sydney-based photographic and sculptural artist, Lynne Roberts-Goodwin's body of work, Balancing Acts, documents extreme geographic and upper atmospheric planetary storms of exceptional force at a time of increasing climactic devastation.
The exhibition focusses on the Shoalhaven's unique topography and was researched and developed through a residency at Bundanon.
The exhibitions will open at the gallery in Nowra on Saturday 15 March at 2pm.
The official opening will include a performance by Rosie Westbrook, a contemporary composer, performer and multi-instrumentalist, classically trained in guitar and double bass.
