JOANNA BRAITHWAITE – Call of Nature – 20 Aug-13 Sept, 2024

New Zealand born, Sydney based artist, Joanna Braithwaite titles her new exhibition Call of Nature. Pun intended. With the curiosity of an anthropologist she wittily comments on human and animal behaviour. Snakes, couches, newspapers, monkeys, laptops and lavatories abound. Her brush moves with sure intention. When Joanna paints animals it is as if she has thought her way into their bodies. The monkeys have an inner life. The snakes are easy in their skins.

Joanna describes visiting Banana Cabana in NSW, a sanctuary for primates who have had previous lives as pets or in zoos or circuses. Each creature is an individual with a back story. Some have been traumatised and arrive with behavioural problems. At this sanctuary they are looked after. They climb trees. Some are attracted to television. Some listen to music. The Bathroom Suite paintings emerged after she saw clips of monkeys in hot pools in Japan. For a fee you can bathe with them. Joanna’s imagination was sparked and, in her paintings, primates began showering. It wasn’t long before they proceeded to the lavatory and were attending to bodily functions whilst being cognitively engaged elsewhere. Regularity can see a book read.

Recently, a new species of snake was discovered in Australia. It is of an almost iridescent blue/green hue. Reports caught Joanna’s eye and she was soon mixing a souped-up version of the colour. Wanting to know more about snakes, she visited the Australian Reptile Park at Gosford NSW and was able to observe and hold snakes, finding them fascinating for their strength and litheness. Snakes have long featured in mythology and our response to them is therefore loaded. For anyone who has read the first chapter of the Bible’s Old Testament, the very notion of a snake – a serpent – stimulates connections: from snakes we leap to Eden, from Eden to apples, from apples to downfall, from downfall to knowledge. On laptops there are apples.

Braithwaite’s career spans many decades and stretches across both sides of the Tasman. Her paintings are held in numerous private and public collections. In 2005 the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, exhibited a survey show of her work entitled ‘Wonderland’. She has been a finalist in the Archibald and Sulman Art Awards in Australia and was runner-up in the Portia Geach Art Award in 2006. In 2019 she was awarded the prestigious Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize.

ARTIST TALK: Thursday 22 August, 12noon