Land Bridge
Peta Cross
Opening Event :
Wednesday 27 November 2024, 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Exhibition Dates :
Tuesday 26 November – Monday 16 December 2024
Tuesday – Sunday 10:00am – 5:00pm
Mondays CLOSED
Land Bridge by Peta Cross consists of multiple small en plein air oil paintings on wood. Painted quickly with minimal reworking they are largely sea scapes. The paintings are part of a sequence completed over several years mapping the coasts of Northern Tasmania (where the artist was born) and Southern Victoria (where the artist lives).
The exhibition Land Bridge is an enquiry into The Bassian Plain or isthmus that is now submerged between Southern Victoria, (Cape Otway to Wilsons Promontory) and Northern Tasmania (Mussleroe Bay to Cape Grim). The exhibition also includes, oil sketches from Flinders Island.
The Bassian Plain or isthmus served as a land bridge for thousands of years until the last ice age, 12,000 years ago. Many species of plants, birds, marsupials, insects and of course Palawa moved freely through the extraordinary biosphere it can only have been. The Palawa oral history of this event is notably one of the oldest if not the oldest narratives in history. Recorded in the 1830’s the narrative describes the positioning of the star Canopus near the South Pole.
Researchers were able to measure the sea floor of the Bass Straight and the ability to cover the isthmus on foot. They calculated the positioning of the star by descriptions of the Palawa and discovered that both conditions occurred at least 12,000 years ago.
The “ghost land plain” reveals itself through the many tiny islands of the Bass Straight. So many histories are now secrets of the deep and as geological time reveals, our histories may be submerged in years to come or another land bridge form.
” I have been fascinated by this sense of the land yearning for itself for so many years. I have spent most of my life living on both sides of the straight. Born and raised on the North West coast now living in Narrm ,Melbourne.
As a painter I am interested in sketches or unfinished works as much as finished works. This exhibition is an effort to draw or simply “map”, light, air, sea, coast, it is more of a work in progress, the mapping is not complete and the idea around the landbridge may be developed into a larger scale exhibition in the future.”
– Peta Cross
