Toni Warburton works with and between and ceramics, installation and sculpture, typically working in clay, drawing, and assembling of found objects to explore scale in relation to memory, imagination and place or controversy. Her work and practice is key to the generation pioneering environmental awareness in contemporary art practice starting with her memorable 'Nuclear Series’ in the mid-1980s. She is a member of the Williams River Valley Artists’ Project (active 2010-2016) who, for some years, worked on the iconic Upper Hunter gorge known as The Drip, at the head of the Goulburn River, the Hunter River’s main western tributary, part of a ground water dependent ecosystem threatened by Yancoal’s Moolarben mine expansion and exploration drilling in this area. Toni Warburton says: ‘there has not been a major mine closure for 30 years and no acceptable proxy for completed rehabilitation, rarely do mining companies lodge financial assurances and bonds. A perpetual ‘care and maintenance’ cycle exists whereby big companies off load to small companies while the government turns a blind eye.’ Other endangered ecosystems her work has researched include the RAMSAR listed Wingecarribee swamp and Jenolan Caves in New South Wales. Her ceramic works often take the format of the sculptural landscape object, invested with painted episodes of observation or text. Based in Sydney she exhibits widely in Australia as well as internationally. Her work is represented in most major public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.
Reference: Julie Imrie in conversation with Toni Warburton, Goulburn River, 24 April 2016.
Links: http://nga.gov.au/exhibition/transformations/Detail.cfm?IRN=142284
- Writers:
-
- Date written:
- 2017
- Last updated:
- 2017
