flow : Galliano Fardin : Bankwest Art Gallery 23 June - 13 October 2015 (Curator Sandra Murray)

Symbiotica : 4 May - 3 June 2012
 
The City of Mandurah is acutely aware of the fragility of the Lake Clifton environment and the impact of climate change and human activity. The Adaptation exhibition being shown at the City’s contemporary arts space INQB8.mandurah highlights the issues from a different perspective—that of the project’s artists in residence. Through their eyes we have learned to appreciate other subtle, intricate and complex aspects of the lake’s ecology and to get a better understanding of the strong interest the lake and its thrombolite reef is held in international scientific circles.
Since its inception the Adaptation project has inspired a number of community arts projects in Mandurah that explore the stories of the lake. For example, two significant grant funded projects to be held during Mandurah’s 2012 Stretch Festival take inspiration, in different ways, from the thrombolite reef and its links to the production of the first oxygen on earth.
The City thanks SymbioticA for the opportunity to be part of this incredible journey of discovery—working to save this precious part of our heritage through art.
 
Paddi Creevey, OAM Mayor, Mandurah City Council

GALLIANO FARDIN

YALGORUP The Lake Clifton area has been my home base since the eighties. In this place I have had the opportunity to witness and to reflect on the changes that are continuously affecting everything around us. The northern end of Lake Clifton was connected to the ocean only a fewthousand years ago. The thrombolites which inhabit the eastern shore owe their existence to the freshwater runoff from the higher ground to the east. In nature nothing is static, adaptations happen whenever opportunities arise or when circumstances change. These natural changes are 'evolution' at work. We owe our existence to these processes but changes of a different nature are taking place all over the planet. Certain human activities, often driven by greed or lack of foresight are undermining the natural order of things. Introduced weeds and pests follow in the wake of new developments everywhere. The interference and disruption of the habitat is not evolutionary; it is destructive. Lake Clifton is a small body of water of great significance, it has become a test case for the way we deal with threatened ecosystems. This is my 'small' version of the story; the big picture belongs to the Nyungar people of this region. GALLIANO FARDIN Galliano Fardin, Yalgorup, 2011 oil on canvas.101 x 101 cm Represented by Galerie Düsseldorf Galliano Fardin was born in Mogliano Veneto, Italy in 1948 and arrived in Australia in 1972. He lives and works Lake Clifton, Western Australia. The paintings of Galliano Fardin are a consequence of memories and impressions of the Western Australian landscape. Fardin's essential concern is to find a physical experience and understanding of the land, rather than the traditional need to characterize landscape in a literal sense. Fardin's memories and notions of the land are translated onto canvas as marks, textures and colour. which echo the experience of living and working in the environment. www.galeredusseldorf.com.au

Galliano Fardin's accomplished abstract paintings are renowned for their scope and subject matter A quote from 2010 provides insight into his motivations: "The workings of nature through its endless mutations and adaptations to changing circumstances are a creative endeavour which has inspired humanity on our Journey through history. The realisation that we humans can unleash so much destructive power on a global scale, implies that we may also have the means to make some necessary corrections. Through this we could reconnect our creativity to the creative power of nature."3 Fardin does not depict landscape in the traditional sense. His Intention is that the abstract works elicit a direct and physical response in the viewer. The viewer has a palpable response to his visual patternings drawn from his observations. He has lived near Lake Clifton since the 1 980s and has a daily encounter with the life in it and around it. The Lake is the inspiration for many of his works and his environmental observations through his writings. Catherine Higham is interested in water as a subject of scientific research, still life is a short documentary film composed of still images taken over a two year period that makes links between bio indicators and water quality in Australia. A bioindicator shows the response in organisms, populations or ecosystems caused or influenced by humans in bio-molecular. biochemical. or physiological levels. Catherine s sound/still/video essay walks us through a landscape observed both at a human scale and at the microbiological level. This piece encourages the viewer/listener to engage sensorially with these landscapes, still life generates a sense of unquiet, asking us to consider the personal roles played.

• My paintings are derived from the landscape but more from the experience of being there than from the desire to represent it literally. Ideas and recollections find their way into the canvasses as marks and colours which reflect a subjective perception rather than an objective analysis of nature. Time is an important element in my paintings as the reference to the landscape is a remembered one and therefore the landscape is introspective as much as it is about "real" space. Also the process of painting is what gives the structure and discipline to the work. Usually I don't do preliminary sketches for my paintings. They derive from an ongoing stream of ideas. Ideas for my paintings flow intuitively from one work to the next in a series of themes not in a planned, premeditated way but as a series of improvisations. The physical experience of the landscape, allowing time to filter the impressions and memories, enables me to paint what I think is essential, in the confines of my studio. The inspiration for the work comes from Coastal South West WA and the Pilbara Region where I have spent much of my time in recent years.
• Galliano Fardin 2004
• The paintings of Galliano Fardin are a consequence of memories and impressions of the Western Australian landscape. Fardin's primary concern is to find a physical experience and understanding of the land, rather than the traditional need to charaderise landscape in a literal sense. Fardin translates his memories and notions of the land onto canvas through marks, textures and colour, which echo a subjective observation rather than an analytical study of the environment. The inspiration for Fardin's paintings comes from coastal south-west Western Australia and the Pilbara Region where the artist has spent much of his time in recent years.
• (Murdoch University 30th Anniversary Card 2005)

• Galliano Fardin was born in Mogliano Veneto, Italy in 1948 and arrived in Australia in 1972.
  1984-86 BA Fine Art (with Distinction), Curtin University of Technology
  1986 Studied Fine Art at the School of Museum of Fine Art in Boston, USA
  1987-89 Built a Studio and House in Waroona, Western Australia
  1990-91 Travelled with family and taught Art with wife Nancy at Tjukurla, Aboriginal Primary School near Alice Springs and Warburton
  1992-94 Living and working, Tjukurla Aboriginal Community near Alice Springs. Involved in starting 'anTEP' course for Aboriginal Student Teachers.
  1993-4 Graduate certificate 'Aboriginal Studies' University of South Australia
  1994-95 Worked as Language Production Supervisor at RAWA Community School, Punmu, Western Desert, WA
  1996-97 Part-time lecturer to Aboriginal Students, TAFE, Midland
  1998 Part-time lecturer, Painting, Edith Cowan University, WA
  1999 Lecturer, Edith Cowan University, Bunbury, WA

• PHENOMENA NEW PAINTING IN AUSTRALIA : 1