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Helen S. Tiernan Fish Out of Water - Cultural Collisions 2021 oil on canvas 180 x 330 cm (triptych)
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Helen S. Tiernan Scar Tree - Red River Fun 2021 encaustic on pine board 45 x 30 cm
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Helen S. Tiernan Holding the Land - Fish Net 2021 oil on canvas 170 x 110 cm
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Helen S. Tiernan The Strangers 2022 oil on canvas 161 x 59.5 cm
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Helen S. Tiernan Songlines Living to Fish 1 2021 oil on canvas 170 x 110 cm
Exhibition
Helen S. Tiernan : Storied Country
22 Oct 2022 – 18 Nov 2022
Regular hours
- Monday
- Closed
- Tuesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Wednesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Thursday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Friday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Saturday
- Closed
- Sunday
- Closed
Free admission
Address
- 5 Malakoff Street
- Caulfield North
Victoria - 3161
- Australia
Travel Information
- Walking distance from Malvern Station on the Frankston/Packenham/Dandenong line
Helen S. Tiernan draws on her Irish and Indigenous heritage to create multi-layered paintings exploring themes of identity. Her landscapes depict 'storied country', marked by knowledge, memory, journeys and Songlines.
About
A retrospective exhibition of paintings by Helen S. Tiernan showing at Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne from 22 October - 18 November 2022. As she returns to Victoria, Tiernan’s painting is informed by her mixed cultural heritage including Irish and Indigenous ancestry and her work references colonial history including Black/White contact and the experience of women. Beyond her own point of reference, she draws on art historical sources from indigenous artists; colonial artists; Australian impressionists and modernists; and the important NMA exhibition Songlines – Tracking the Seven Sisters; as well as numerous literary texts including Lynne Kelly’s Memory Code; Ian McLean’s Rattling Spears and Bill Gammage’s The Biggest Estate on Earth in Plain View.
In this context Tiernan’s recent paintings, playfully remind us that landscapes are neither innocent or pristine, but rather, cultured spaces; repositories of ancient knowledge and deep memory where, from an Indigenous Australian perspective, they are storied with Songlines and Tjukurrpa and inflected with the moralities arising from mythology that remind us of how values and identities formed.
Preview the exhibition on our website www.diggins.com.au and download the illustrated catalogue with essay by Dr Marie Geissler.
