Jordan Charles Stokes
Opening Event / Wednesday 31 October 2018, 6 -8pm
Runs / Thu 1 – Sun 11 November
Artist Talk / Sat 3 November, 2pm.
The Upper Nepean catchment covers almost 900 square kilometres of unspoiled bushland on the Illawarra Plateau south of Sydney. Its dedicated to maintaining water supply flow to the greater Sydney area and is closed to all public access. With nearly no human activity undertaken inside its borders for over 130 years, the demarcated land forms part of the Metropolitan Special Area.
The catchment is home to the White Waratah, the only know location of the flower in the world. It was discovered by maintenance crew of the Sydney Water Board in 1967. Like the Wollemi Pine, its exact location has been kept secret.
The boundaries of Upper Nepean are defined by dense curtains of trees and brush, bordering roads and smaller settlements. This photographic series explores the catchment edge as a present yet mysterious threshold, where all manner of intrigue and myth may lie beyond. The edge of bushland echoes many stories in Australia’s colonial past. The natural landscape is seen as bountiful but dangerous, hiding both fortune and misadventure.
Artist Statement
Jordan Charles Stokes is a visual artist exploring landscape and the built environment.
He investigates how time and place informs action, understanding and response to natural systems and human structures. How the environment can demonstrate and reveal concepts of history, change, and personality across locations and cultures is examined in photographic and mixed media.
The edges decreed by the picture frame afford Jordan a tool to explore environments with a deliberate eye, while symbols of historical significance within art and architecture are reinterpreted as visual elements of a language or user interface. Born in regional New South Wales, Jordan has been practicing for over 10 years with solo and collaborative exhibitions and participation in numerous art prizes. He is educated in fine arts and visual design.
Jordan won the Photographic Award at the prestigious Fisher’s Ghost Art Award in 2010 and has been selected as a finalist for a number of prizes since then. This is his third solo exhibition.