Design and Art Australia Online

“The drylands are the interface between the known and the unknown. They stand at the edge of order and chaos. Dust particles float into the ethereal realms and glint before disappearing; a scene that leaves me enthralled. It is, t me, the closest representation of a quantum reality – but then, how does one paint the light of the desert.”

Selected works over recent years representing Engelman’s feelings on her desert treks.

Engelman was invited and responded by sending an artwork titled “Riversong” – a quadriptych of panels that are a statement on the state of the Murray-Darling Basin. The four panels “Loved/colonised/exhausted/abandoned” show the decline over time of the land as we, the settlers rape and pillage the very earth that feeds us. The panels were selected to be at the entrance to the show.

Engelman participated in an invitation only exhibition “Water for Life” held at the Niagara Falls History Museum in Canada. Her work “The rainmakers have all gone” is a statement on how water has been lost from the Australian landscape over millennia and it is now one of the driest countries on earth. Water is indeed precious and by sending her work over the Canada, Engelman felt her work made an important statement.

Engelman exhibited “This Sacred Place”, alarge triptych featuring the Willandra Heritage Region at the biennale in Firenze and was awarded Fifth Premio Pittura and received a platinum medal and award document. There were over 2000 artworks from 179 countries at the biennale.

“The spirit of the land” was painted in collaboration between artists, Joy Engelman and Nyree (Ngairi) Reynolds and selected for the inaugural awards in 2007. The work was purchased by the then Dept of Climate Change as an important statement and hangs today in the Dept of the Environment in Canberra.