Joshua Parry and His Art

When I was a child I constantly drew and as I grew older I knew that art would become something I would pursue professionally. I’m quite romantic and sentimental and these character traits drive my work. I am also inspired by my fascination for imagery drawn from far western NSW. I gather the material for my work by exploring and re exploring this area where my family originated, indulging these emotions and my senses. When I return to the studio my intention is then to distill the essence of these experiences in the work that I create.

Series unofficially titled 'Unforgotten Things'

The way I conceive all my work is through personal and physical exploration.  I spend time with camera in hand re exploring the vast backyard of desert that is Broken Hill, where my family is from.  Over time I’ve refined the mood and feeling of the work I make, so when I’m looking at landscapes, and objects situated within I consider how these can visually communicate that.

The main themes of this series are nostalgia, origin and time.  Every image deals with these themes in some way and in doing so remains true to the landscape and environment from which they are drawn.  What I have always found compelling about the landscape of this area is the contrast, desolate and dynamic, harsh and beautiful; it’s raw. The themes of my work, nostalgia, time and origin parallel with this contrast because of the dual nature in all.  The nature of nostalgia is bitter sweet, origin can be both a curse and blessing, and time is the bane and soundtrack of the human endeavour.

The physical creation of this series took place at two locations.  At a local studio in Sydney, Australia I printed six of the sixteen works in this series.  I then printed the remaining ten over a three month period at Chiang Mai Art on Paper Studio, a printmaking studio in Thailand owned and operated by my close friend, Kitikong.  I conceived, finalized and made print ready all the images for the series in Australia.  My printing process is considerably tight as there is a significant amount of time that has gone into perfecting it.  For this reason there was no technical advantage or disadvantage to printing in Thailand. There was an advantage though in being able to focus solely on making the work without distraction and with the assistance of the studio staff.  Additionally, through my friend Kitikong, I have a connection which has made Chiang Mai in Thailand something of a second home.  The prints printed in Thailand are in larger editions, normally around twenty, and are stamped in the bottom right corner with the mark of the studio. The agreement between myself and the studio is that the edition in halved, so if there were twenty in the edition, the studio owns ten of them.  All the prints owned by the studio are in private collections.

Joshua Parry

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