Upcoming artist-in-residence: Wendy Tsai

Using drawing as primary research process, Wendy Tsai re-forms the information gained through observation and intuition into personal narratives that interrogate meaning and given-ness. While attracted to and nourished by the natural environment surrounding her home on Dharug and Gundungurra Country, in the Blue Mountains, Wendy also recognises the devastating impact of climate change and human interference, allowing this disquiet to inform her work, through intimate reveries that are both tangible and ethereal. Relying on an embodied knowledge of place, Wendy has a ritual of walking to experience and adapt to the idiosyncrasies of the natural world. She also photographs, collects and manipulates digitally the images that hold specific memories of place. Her drawings are an attempt to ‘be in’ place through a peaceable communion grounded in the landscape. Wendy regularly at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Gallery. She also has work in collections in Tasmania and in the Kedumba Drawing Collection.

Wendy Tsai, Inside out #3, 2020, graphite on paper, 55 x 75cm

During my residency at Gunyah, I intend to rest from a hectic routine of family support, to walk, to sit, to reflect and process the stillness in the context of such beautiful natural surroundings. I would like to start the process of drawing and writing as a means of grounding myself in daily rituals and observations. I would also like to use video and film to experiment with the process of slowing the art-making into a frame-by-frame activity that resembles breathing.

Wendy Tsai, Inside out #2, 2020, graphite on paper, 55 x 75cm

You can see more of Wendy's work on her website wendytsai.com.au and instagram @wenrts

Wendy Tsai, McRaes #4, 2018, charcoal on paper, 76 x 89cm