Sunday Arts Magazine

21 Jun 2021

Artist Ed Bechervaise – Talks to the Sunday Arts Magazine Team

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Artist Ed Bechervaise – Talks to the Sunday Arts Magazine Team

EXPLORER

This period is a thoughtful one that reflects on past history, my great uncle John Bechervaise was an explorer that ventured into Antarctica in which he was subsequently awarded the order of Australia Medal. Mount Béchervaise is a great brown rock in the Athos Range named after one of his endeavours. He published a number of books that touch on these explorations. It’s all an interesting parallel to creativity and leadership and It’s only at this time in my life that I’m delving into lineage of thinking and some of the timeless concepts we all share.

For me this same sense of exploration is what drives creative questioning, searching for the new and pushing through the status-quo. It’s a mind exploration and mental leadership to push into the unknown, it creates new ways forward and establishes new frameworks. Creativity for this reason is fraught with danger of failure as well as the delight of discovery and breakthrough. As graffiti questions establishment, as poetry questions life, as art questions the soul, we explore more of who we are and what we have now. To see who we could be for the time to come. This is as much about the instinct as it is about the defined result. The endeavour is equal in importance to the destination.

For this reason this body of work is a celebration of mental and physical travel from Greece to Italy in late 2019 and then into an exploration of a post Covid landscape which has become our new normal.

There’s beauty in some of the work. Joy of discovery and a poetic notion of serene colours and the peaceful landscapes in European settings. As well as night and day activity which is full of humanity and movement of this sensual period. This part of the show was painted in Summer of 2020 and is every bit as magical as those pre Covid memories would allow with moments from Paros, Mykonos, Rome, The Amalfi Coast and Naples. The bold colours, the sense of philosophy, the energy of richness in life experience and beauty of shape and historic culture of these places.

The second part of the work is of an era of relief. To find inspiration outside of Lockdown and to see the natural Australian landscape of localised areas through newly awakened eyes. This work is highly charged, a mixture of angst and questioning, as well as fluid expression and acknowledgment of the immediate surroundings that perhaps weren’t previously seen. They are now exposed and raw. Right up in your face. A savage beauty in the landscape and discovery of the immediate. Fear, pensiveness and serenity and at times deep foreboding can be found in this exploration. An honest flurry that in glimpses captures a highly romantic feeling and in others exposes deep worry,

It’s a continued exploration and discovery of the external and internal to find a language of honesty. To create new expressive ideas, frameworks and conceptual endeavours. One that can be lived with in this no doubt beautiful world of continued uncertainty.

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