Angus Nivison

COMPLICIT by Angus Nivison:

The first inkling of the direction my latest show would take began to form in late 2018, as we barrelled headlong into another record breaking summer of heat, dry and heartbreak. I began to despair with the inability of our elected governments to show any compassion or duty towards the climate’s spiralling gallop towards the uncertain tipping point of the future.

Just before Christmas 2018 we experienced in the midst of an extreme dry period a mostly dry hurricane strength storm, which devastated parts of the Walcha landscape; my niece and her husband, being amongst the worst hit. In just an hour of frenzied winds they lost ninety percent of their property’s tree cover.

Mathew and Rebecca kept saying you must come and look for yourself, it is just unbelievable! Eventually I did, and it was! Nothing could prepare me for what I saw. Everything was unrecognisable, the landscape looked like a war zone, no trees left standing and no birds left alive. Silence- it was another world. Thus the first major work of this show began, with the title “Everything is Broken “. The scene before me though horrific, had an amazing serene and surreal beauty, like an alien world. This is what emboldened me to start painting.

Just after completing “Everything is Broken”, the bushfires began, with fires to the east, north, west and south. I began to think about the future unfolding, with our present attitudes to the state of the world. The path for my show was set. How could we not see that, through our actions and the governments we elect, that we are all responsible. Thus the title “Complicit” came into being. Next followed paintings such as “Two Degrees”, “Spark”, “Shadow of the Future”, “Perdition” and “Tilt”, all seemed to be pointing to situations where we could find ourselves, if we ignore our predicament.

Then in 2020 Covid 19 hit us. I was stopped in my tracks unable to work. I could not process this unexpected and terrifying event thrown up from overcrowding and climate change. I began to realise that nothing will ever be as it was. Now I had the catalyst for “Different World”, a sad beautiful painting depicting a moistly veiled, perhaps clouds, perhaps map of the world where everything is dislocated, indeed, a “Different World”.

The last painting I completed, “Herald” is all about hope. Perhaps we shall manage to change direction and become a better, fairer and more equal society and save the World!! I like to think so. What I have tried to give you, the viewer, in these works is beauty, sadness and HOPE. It is above all HOPE, I cling to that we will change the governments and attitudes of our little bubble called Earth. Perhaps art in some small way can help change us after all.

These works are by their nature open ended and mysterious they will reveal much more in the flesh. They are open to a myriad of interpretations. So please come along to Utopia Art Sydney and see for yourself.

Angus Nivison, Walcha NSW