25/05/2026
Exhibition opening this Saturday May 30th || Melitta Perry "Traces In The Landscape"
Poem For Nolan
acrylic on canvas
84 x 101 cm
Artist Statement:
In 1962, poet Randolph Stow and artist Sidney Nolan collaborated to produce Outrider, a collection of Stow’s poetry and Nolan’s paintings. The poem, The Land’s Meaning there-in is dedicated to Nolan. Here, deeply emotional themes of searching and exploration of the psyche are shaped to the story of Burke and Wills – a subject Nolan painted in several iterations.
Both the poem, and Nolans works are underpinned by the idea that the physical journey over uncharted terrain is comparable to that which is taken in the quest to know the self.
In the vast and grassy savannah lands, dotted with ant hills and a haze of purple horizon, a vintage writer’s chair shades in the dappled sunlight. On a small table sits a miniature replica of the Burke and Wills statue – the glass dome representing the idea of the heroic but vulnerable nature of pioneering. There are references to journeying in the compass and binoculars, while the crows which feature in the poem act as both witness and participant within the lines of verse.
Melitta Perry 2026
