Balentes: A Living Ancient Soul
The practice of romantic landscape painting finds a modern and inherently revolutionary purpose in this new series by awarded Australian artist Jason Benjamin.
Presented by Art Index, Benjamin’s paintings and sketches in Balentes: A Living Ancient Soul reflect the work of documentary maker Lisa Camillo. Camillio’s film, Balentes, draws attention to a contamination disaster that has devastated her island home of Sardinia, a large autonomous region of Italy.
It’s not every day an art series is commissioned to accompany a documentary film, yet Benjamin’s artworks manage to poignantly reflect the themes of Camillo’s film.
“Documentaries are in general made for a call to action… to alert and inform, and I think [Camillo] is doing a really great job at that… As a counterpoint, paintings are quite simply contemplative, sort of the yang to the yin,” said Benjamin, speaking to City Hub ahead of the inaugural exhibition at Tusculum House.
In his delicate vignettes Benjamin manages to express whispers of the cultural and human experiences that Camillo surveys alongside the environmental destruction.
Without any people being painted into these settings the human impact is still evident, and audiences are also invited to imagine the benevolent, universal interactions that might play out in them.
The care taken with the most modest of elements, from individually painted blades of grass, to an old olive tree in a yard or a crumbling building – creates a sense of timelessness and ultimately of hope. (AM)
The Opening Night on Thursday April 7 includes presentation by Lisa Camillio, extended trailer presentation for Balentes documentary, and a talk on Jason Benjamin’s works from art specialist Brenda Colahan.
Opening Night: Apr 7, 6pm–9pm. RSVP: info@artindex.com.au or 1300 55 74 73
Exhibition: Apr 7–14. Tusculum House, 3 Manning Street, Potts Point. Free. Info: artindex.com.au/news
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