Opening Speech by Ron Nyisztor Artist / Gallery Director
When young a past time of mine was to venture into bushland and imagine I was an explorer seeing new frontiers, being the first person to make discoveries, walking for miles through banksia bushland around the Beeliar lakes systems near Munster.
As an art student I would wander off and imagine I had just landed on earth from another planet, make believing I was seeing everything for the first time, the world as a totally perplexing and completely new experience, trees grass clouds birds everything without a prior context, in this pretence I had to try and make sense of it all and try and come to terms with it.
In the case of gaining fresh perspectives, I am honoured to open Alan's exhibition today, as a fellow artist and admirer of his practice, I've been inspired by his deep thinking, strong convictions and his ability to communicate these visually. His practice has been a serious and dedicated pursuit and it has culminated into the epic vision we see here today.
This vision is cosmic, we are located in it: but not at the centre by any means, we are placed where we observe from a vantage point that is almost outside time.
The vision here is not a whimsical fantasy but reality, a harsh reality at times that includes us all. Standing on the very edge, simultaneously looking into our future and our past. Seeing the universe rotate as close as atmosphere, we are meaningfully included in overlapping stories and recognise ourselves as brief blips in an expansive history.
The points of view in these paintings flow freely through multiple perspectives at once. We see the Milky Way, the smoke rising from camp fires, the river coursing around a global surface; it's vast, fragile and ancient.
At a time when viewpoints have become narrow, inflexible and dangerously short sighted this is part of our story that resists a negative simplistic mindset; it is an exciting and positive chapter of humankind as a work in progress.