Joshua Yeldham was the last solo exhibition at Art House Gallery for 2013 (I also exhibit at the same gallery), dates from the 20th November to 14th of December, at 66 McLachlan Avenue, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney. His works are a virtuoso in paint and carved pigment print on cotton paper, the colours, textures and surfaces are beautiful and seductive. The work is inspired by his home and studio setting, along the banks and on his boat, at Pittwater, (above Sydney), along the mangrove and inland water inlets.
“Yeldham’s work is a mapping of multiple realities. It charts the artist’s travels among the mangroves, the disused oyster leases and along the salty foreshores near Pittwater. Yeldham’s cartography moves within this world and without. He is not limited by the materiality of reaching tree limbs of the muddy matter of swamps. His paintings and photographic works move beyond the human-perceived environment. Instead, he deliberates on the fragile spaces in between, the liminal places in his heart and mind where imagination soars and intellect sings. He says,’the space between two lines is what connects us’.
Yeldham has been preoccupied, for many years, with the intersection of cultures, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, indigenous Australia….
Yeldham works as spiritual journeyman. He swoops, like his constant daemon-spirit or guardian owl, across these paintings which have been carved and caned, indigo-incised and marked, in time with his heart beat, in tempo with his private prayers…”
(excerpts from Prue Gibson’s catalogue text)
‘White owl n/8 and n/7’, carved resin with cane and wire, and painting, ‘Temple of Forgiveness – Morning Bay’, oil and cane on carved board, 152 x 204 cm.
Detail of painting , ‘Temple of Forgiveness – Morning Bay’, oil and cane on carved board, 152 x 204 cm.
‘Yeoman’s Bay – Hawkesbury River’, oil, resin and cane on carved board, 200 x 244 cm (and details)
‘Eagle Rock – Cottage Point’, oil and cane on carved board, 204 x 152 cm (and detail)
(detail) ‘Sway – Mud Island’ shellac on unique carved pigment print on cotton paper, 160 x 150 cm
(detail) ‘Falling water – Yeoman’s Bay’, oil and cane on carved board, 200 x 244 cm
‘Surrender Tree – Morning Bay’, oil on carved board, 204 x 152 cm
(details of ‘Surrender Tree – Morning Bay’)
Kate Dorrough 