MEDIA RELEASE
Artists are communicating with timber to uncover the secret lives of trees
In this upcoming exhibition, ten contemporary artists from Australia and Japan investigate the inner nature of trees, sparking conversations with our giant neighbours.
Bringing together a range of works across printmaking, sculpture and photography, the exhibition explores different ways that these artists look at a branch or an ancient piece of timber raise to questions about our impact on the environment. Drawing from sources as varied as science, anthropology and traditional cultural practices, in different ways they seek to draw out the inner being of trees, and at the same time question our own place within a broader nature.
Two artists from Japan take different approaches to the ancient art of the woodcut. Katsutoshi Yuasa allows the movement of timber within his printed works to evoke poetic scenes of Venice, which are then submerged in water to slowly dissolve and disappear over the course of the exhibition. Ainu-Japanese artist Koji Yuki uses the woodcut to give voice to vibrant indigenous-Japanese cultural practices and beliefs around the connection between people and nature.
Many of the artists explore timber as a material, often employing scientific modes to uncover the DNA fingerprint of a tree within the wood. Some, like exhibition curator and artist Julian Laffan (who is heavily influenced by anthropological research and the connection between nature-culture), this might be taken as a series of rubbings directly from timber to allow the material history a physical presence. Others like Sammy Hawker examine the nature of the whole tree, exploring the possibilities of the chromatogram – a chemical process invented by botanist Mikhail Tsvet in 1900 that reacts to the specific DNA of the tree to make a unique image or portrait. Yuwaalaraay woman and artist Jilda Andrews explores the themes through a different context to reflect on vibrant, living knowledge systems and cultural practices.
These works are less about representing the wood, and more an act of co-creation with another living thing, asking us to reflect on the impact of human environmental destruction of the natural world.
Opening: Wednesday 15 October at 5:30pm at Megalo Print Studio.
Artist talk: Saturday 18 October at 2 pm with curator Julian Laffan, anthropologist Dr Natasha Fijn and renowned artist GW Bot.
Artists:
Jilda ANDREWS, GW BOT, Lucy DAVIS + Migrant Ecologies Projects and Collaborators, Tate DOHERTY, Cecile GALIAZZO, Sammy HAWKER, Julian LAFFAN, Tracey PATEMAN, Katsutoshi YUASA, Koji YUKI
About the curator
Julian Laffan is an artist, educator and curator living in the historic town of Braidwood, New South Wales, Australia. Julian specialises in contemporary woodcuts and drawings, using these mediums to create sculptural objects and works on paper that explore themes of history and identity.
Exhibition: Inner Being
Dates: 11 October – 22 November, 2025
Opening event: 5:30pm – 7:30pm Wednesday 15 October
Artist talk: 2pm Saturday 18 October
Venue: Megalo Print Studio, 21 Wentworth Ave, Kingston 2604, Canberra
More info: www.megalo.org
QUOTES
“These artists create tangible memory works that question our impact on these non-human beings and our place within the environments we inhabit. Our own relatively temporary presence is amplified among old growth ancient paddock and forest trees.”
Julian Laffan, curator and artist
"The history of image-making is so connected to the tradition of the woodcut, in both the European and Japanese culture, yet this is sometimes forgotten in our digital age. This exhibition of Australian and Japanese contemporary artists reexamines this relationship in our current moment. It is an invitation to think about this from the point of the tree, and to reconsider the impact of human activity on the environment.”
Clare Jackson, Artistic Director
Media contact:
Francis Kenna, General Manager
e: communications@megalo.org
ph: (02) 6232 6041 | 0423 336 098
