New exhibition titled ‘From Mountains to the Plains’, featuring new work by Frances Feasey, Maree Kelly and Emily Simson, opens at Weswal Gallery on Saturday 10 November at 3pm.

The exhibition will run from Thursday, November 8, 2018 – Saturday, December 8, 2018.

// Artist statement for ‘From Mountains to Plains’ exhibition

The Namoi River has been a constant in my life, its lifegiving water sustaining this country for thousands of years. Living alongside it near Gunnedah, I feel deeply connected to this vital source and have watched its many changes throughout my lifetime.

Starting as a clear trickle, the water courses through hills, gaps, gorges and Lake Keepit before meandering across floodplains as a vital component of the vast Murray-Darling system. Across the plains the river snakes through farmland, its banks bare in places with trees clinging perilously close to the edge where the earth has been gouged beneath them. The light is ever changing with the shadows cast by these massive arbors. Mist on a winter’s morning or haze on dusk in summer, I never tire of the river lights and reflections.

Lately the river has run dry with no rain and the last environmental flow released from Keepit Dam many months ago. I wonder what will become of the Namoi and the environment and communities that rely on it. I wonder how much a river can bear.