HOLDING GROUND FOR ARTHURS SEAT
23rd April – 14th May
The work of 76 leading contemporary artists comes together in HOLDING GROUND, an online art exhibition fundraiser to help stop a massive quarry being blasted into Arthurs Seat / Wonga on the traditional lands of the Boon Wurrung people on Mornington Peninsula.
A charitable organisation, the Ross Trust, and the company it owns, Hillview Quarries, plan to initiate the biggest mine the Peninsula has ever seen. It would be located on the north face of Arthurs Seat / Wonga and would destroy precious remnant old-growth bushland that is home to koalas and 27 threatened or endangered species.
HOLDING GROUND will run from 23 April to 14 May. Curated by Penelope Gebhardt, it features an exciting selection of local, Melbourne and interstate artists working across mediums including sculpture, painting, drawing, jewellery, ceramics, textiles, photography, digital art and printmaking. The works are related thematically to ideas of connection, identity and the natural world.
Organisers aim to raise $100,000 with all proceeds going to support the community campaign Save Arthurs Seat, including increasing efforts to convince the Ross Trust / Hillview Quarries to withdraw their proposal. If the EES (Environmental Effects Statement) is released, the funds raised will be used to employ experts to assess the EES and provide legal representation at the hearings.
Fox has donated “What goes around II”. Gebhardt states “Recently returned to Australia from The Hague, Belinda Fox’s major work ‘What goes around II’ is another highlight of the show. This piece was a finalist in the 2021 Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery’s National Works on Paper Prize. Here the artist uses the digital print medium to create a macro experience of her work – it’s much larger than her comparatively small drawings. Fox’s choice of medium speaks to the concepts she explores about seeking balance in an untethered world where desire and reality are distorted in the digital realm. Embedded in this beautiful and perpetually breaking wave are swirling undercurrents and abstract forms” – Penelope Gebhardt.
How can I support?
Contact www.savearthursseat.com http://www.silverleaf-artbox.com.au