‘Glyphs’ presents an outstanding series of new work by celebrated artist G.W. Bot across a diverse range of media including glass, ceramic, bronze, steel, tapa cloth and linocuts.
G.W. Bot, Engraved Poem – Mountains, Clouds and Glyphs, 2019, glass and ceramic, 120 x 200 x 3cm. Courtesy the artist and Australian Galleries, Sydney
‘From decades spent drawing thousands of quick sketches in the Australian landscape, I have devised an alphabet or language – a system of marks I call ‘Glyphs’. A ‘Glyph’, is a bit like a letter or word written by nature itself. My work is intimately related to and has a sense of oneness with the landscape and our passage through it. I work with paper, canvas, bronze, steel, ceramics, glass and most recently, granite rocks. Each of these materials comes from the earth, and each has a unique quality of the landscape, the Australian landscape we live in – a landscape that is at once resilient – how many fires, floods and droughts; the scarring by nature itself, does it endure and keep regenerating but also how fragile at the same time. This fragility has been added to by humankind through mining, overdevelopment, incompetent politicians, wars and greed and something we call, climate change.’ – G.W. Bot, 2019
After four decades of practice, Bot feels connected to the land and believes that if we do not care for it ‘we will destroy it and in turn, it will destroy us.’
Australian Galleries
18 February to 8 March 2020
Sydney
