When the fires came

A Together In Art Pocket Exhibition curated by Rachel Piercy

The fires came with such ferocity to our regional community. They changed us.

We lost a human life. We lost homes. We lost animals and habitat in too large a number and too large and area to comprehend.

Many artists have used fire to question our practices and our place in the world. I have chosen these artworks as a way to reflect on destruction, resilience and regeneration.

Rachel Piercy is the director of Manning Regional Art Gallery

AGNSW collection Fred Williams Burnt landscape, Upwey no 1 1968

AGNSW collection Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri Warlugulong 1976

It was like the ancestors were asking us what we were doing and why we were here.

AGNSW collection Shaun Gladwell Maximus swept out to sea (Wattamolla) 2012-2013

Disconnection, displacement and fear were common feelings.

AGNSW collection Hossein Valamanesh Longing belonging 1997

We felt lost in an unfamiliar land.

AGNSW collection Janet Laurence The memory of nature 2010

It was so unimaginably quiet after the fires, not for days but for months. We all felt a need to belong. A saddening sense of loss still hangs in the air.

AGNSW collection Rosemary Laing groundspeed (Red Piazza) #4 2001

Resilience came. New green growth and butterflies were the first signs of life.

AGNSW collection Rusty Peters Waterbrain 2002

We revisit a world where all things are connected. We try to make sense of what happened.