Ali Stoner - 'Fractured Landscape'

Wednesday 7 August - Sunday 1 September 2019

Fractured Landscape is a concept which explores the both the physical environment and our perception of the environment. Landcapes were imprinted into my subconscious during my upbringing on the west coast of Scotland. I was unaware at the time of the beauty that surrounded me. It was just where I lived;. Swimming in streams, boating on Loch Lomond, cycling, windsurfing, horse riding, first kisses, learning to drive, finding solitude…the hills were a constant in my life.

Time passes by, businesses thrive, populations grow, technology develops, transport and travel multiplies, building increases, mass production becomes common place. And with this, pollution, emissions, ecosystems breaking down, melting ice caps, rising temperatures and water levels, landscapes eroding. Driven by greed, the desire for more, for convenience, for speed, we consume more. At the expense of our planet.

This body of work is derived from thoughts on the ultimate effect humans have on our landscapes, climate change and one of its greatest causes, industrial agricultural intensification.

These vignettes are created using images of Australia - primarily Queensland, NSW and Victoria - juxtaposed with old and new memories. The rolling hills of Scotland imprinted in my memory are woven together with images of my new life here in Australia, creating new landscapes that blend both homes. Negative space is combined with abstracted forms of endangered insects, melting polar ice caps and industrial polluters, resulting in landscapes with both serenity and a sinister edge.

I work primarily with acrylic paint on canvas, transferring photographs through screen prints, and also with kiln formed glass. In the glass medium, images are transferred via screen prints using ceramic inks which are then fused into the glass through multiple kiln firings. Using a transparent flux I have also layered images over both the glass and canvas pieces to produce the final results.”