Inspirit Wilderness | Bettina Willner
Tickets
Dates
Venue
Access
Accessible bathroom, All gender bathroom, Assistance animals welcome, Seating available, Wheelchair accessibleInspirit Wilderness subtly prods and pokes at the boundaries between art and nature, seamlessly blurring the dichotomy within the gallery space.
Through her unique approach, Willner transfigures her sculptural ceramics into manifestations of the relationships between all things, uniting architectural, organic, and sculptural elements. Characterised by textural and glistening glazes, as well as gestural hand-building techniques, her works come to life in an ambitious staging that brings nature’s relations into the heart of Melbourne Design Week.
The ‘outside’. Draped muddy oils of painterly strokes resembling flames. The dense tree ridden wilds, cast shadows; alluding to the aura of the wilderness.
Bringing the outside in. Rising up and encompassing; engulfing the hushed white walls of the gallery. Breathing. Allowing the wilderness to seep in, serving as an act of resistance and receptivity to nature’s influence:
“The wilderness rose up to it, And sprawled around, no longer wild.”
Concurrent with her selection as a finalist in the prestigious Officine Saffi Award, The exhibition acts as a suggestion to viewers to engage, dually, with creations of the hand and the natural world in new and meaningful ways, fostering a deeper appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things.
Participants
Bettina Willner is an artist working between Naarm (Melbourne) and Gunaikurnai (South Gippsland). Practicing over two decades, Willner draws inspiration from the natural world, helping shape her ceramic sculptures and drawings. Walks in nature along the Gippsland coast bring forth layers of curls, twists, and coils into her hand-built sculptures. Time and the helical nature of ideas and experience also underpin her work, entwined lines like the snakes in Medusa hair wrap and twist around each other. Memory and her subjective relationship to ancient cities, architecture, both organic and of human design are also present in the development of her ideas and forms. Glistening bronze, deep ocean blues, stipples of black and red, pastel pink and sand like glazes coat clay drawings, reflecting the deep thought and connection Willner has to the aura of time and nature. Ornamentation is present in Willner’s work drawing on Baroque aesthetics and art history. Like the helical columns of Bernini’s baldachin, Willner celebrates an ornamentation that desires complexity, metaphysical connection, and multiplicity.
Willner studied at Monash University completing a Bachelor of Fine Art (1988-1991), and Wangaratta TAFE completing a Certificate in Design (1987). She has exhibited widely in Melbourne and Sydney at; Gippsland Art Gallery, Gippsland, Sydney Contemporary, Sydney, Metro Gallery, Melbourne, Caves, Melbourne, Saint Cloche, Sydney, Daine Singer, Melbourne, C3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne and Bundoora Homestead, Melbourne. Willner has also exhibited in design and art events in Melbourne and Sydney including Spring 1883, Melbourne, NGV Design Fair, Melbourne, Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne and Art Fair Sydney Contemporary presents, Sydney. Willner’s work is in private collections, Australia, USA, United Kingdom, Indonesia.
Dates
Tickets
Venue
Access
Accessible bathroom, All gender bathroom, Assistance animals welcome, Seating available, Wheelchair accessibleInspirit Wilderness subtly prods and pokes at the boundaries between art and nature, seamlessly blurring the dichotomy within the gallery space.
Through her unique approach, Willner transfigures her sculptural ceramics into manifestations of the relationships between all things, uniting architectural, organic, and sculptural elements. Characterised by textural and glistening glazes, as well as gestural hand-building techniques, her works come to life in an ambitious staging that brings nature’s relations into the heart of Melbourne Design Week.
The ‘outside’. Draped muddy oils of painterly strokes resembling flames. The dense tree ridden wilds, cast shadows; alluding to the aura of the wilderness.
Bringing the outside in. Rising up and encompassing; engulfing the hushed white walls of the gallery. Breathing. Allowing the wilderness to seep in, serving as an act of resistance and receptivity to nature’s influence:
“The wilderness rose up to it, And sprawled around, no longer wild.”
Concurrent with her selection as a finalist in the prestigious Officine Saffi Award, The exhibition acts as a suggestion to viewers to engage, dually, with creations of the hand and the natural world in new and meaningful ways, fostering a deeper appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things.
Participants
Bettina Willner is an artist working between Naarm (Melbourne) and Gunaikurnai (South Gippsland). Practicing over two decades, Willner draws inspiration from the natural world, helping shape her ceramic sculptures and drawings. Walks in nature along the Gippsland coast bring forth layers of curls, twists, and coils into her hand-built sculptures. Time and the helical nature of ideas and experience also underpin her work, entwined lines like the snakes in Medusa hair wrap and twist around each other. Memory and her subjective relationship to ancient cities, architecture, both organic and of human design are also present in the development of her ideas and forms. Glistening bronze, deep ocean blues, stipples of black and red, pastel pink and sand like glazes coat clay drawings, reflecting the deep thought and connection Willner has to the aura of time and nature. Ornamentation is present in Willner’s work drawing on Baroque aesthetics and art history. Like the helical columns of Bernini’s baldachin, Willner celebrates an ornamentation that desires complexity, metaphysical connection, and multiplicity.
Willner studied at Monash University completing a Bachelor of Fine Art (1988-1991), and Wangaratta TAFE completing a Certificate in Design (1987). She has exhibited widely in Melbourne and Sydney at; Gippsland Art Gallery, Gippsland, Sydney Contemporary, Sydney, Metro Gallery, Melbourne, Caves, Melbourne, Saint Cloche, Sydney, Daine Singer, Melbourne, C3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne and Bundoora Homestead, Melbourne. Willner has also exhibited in design and art events in Melbourne and Sydney including Spring 1883, Melbourne, NGV Design Fair, Melbourne, Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne and Art Fair Sydney Contemporary presents, Sydney. Willner’s work is in private collections, Australia, USA, United Kingdom, Indonesia.