Bushfire-inspired art headlines Eurobodalla exhibition in Sydney

Embers, Epicorm: Art of the Eurobodalla ran at the Incinerator Art Space from July 6 to July 24, and featured the works of Walbunja/Ngarigo woman Cheryl Davison-Overton from Central Tilba, Mirabel FitzGerald from Guerilla Bay, Jennifer Hawkins from Dalmeny, Julie Mia Holmes from Moruya, Raewyn Lawrence from Moruya, Amy Schleif from Moruya Heads, and Jo Victoria from Mossy Point.

Ms Davison-Overton owns and operates Mungala Bugaali in Central Tilba where she sells her paintings, prints and handprinted homeware designs.

Her work is featured in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, NSW Art Gallery, and the National Museum of Australia.

Ms Davison-Overton created the piece 'Unsanctified' for the exhibition, sharing her cultural knowledge and response to the Black Summer bushfires.

"We know the fire; we know the Black Cockatoo was created from the fire. We know this from our language, our stories, our song," she said.

"The forest is the guardian of our sacred sites. The clearing of forest has removed these guardians, exposing our sacred sites, exposing our hidden stories."

Ms FitzGerald is a printmaker who studies at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London in the 1960s. She was later appointed to the Sydney College of Arts to teach courses in printmaking.

Ms FitzGerald said her art was borne from the "momentum of the event".

"The early works described the residue of ash and blackened leaves, which for months washed up with every tide and filled every rock-pool," she said.

"These drawings, collages, and etchings were responding to the desolation of the fires and the after effect on our environment.

"It took a while before I could appreciate the intense green of the epicormic growth on the blackened trees as signs of wondrous new life and recovery."

Ms Hawkins is a write, poet and visual artist who provided a wall installation called Fire Tiles and an interactive association game called Playing with Fire

"The bushfires were an intense event shared by the whole Eurobodalla community," she said. "Yet, each person's takeaway from that time is individual: breathing smoke, evacuation centres, charred trees, injured animals, or the first glimpse of a blue sky.

"The fire memories are still very present here; many homes, studios and business premises have still not been re-built. There are people who visibly wilt if the fires are mentioned in passing."

Ms Holmes is a printmaker who was drawn to "painstakingly capture her observations" after spending six months away from her studio after the fires.

"What do you do when your world is on fire? You crave green like there is no tomorrow," she said. "You look for signs of resilience and energy in new growth and green shoots."

Ms Lawrence focused her paintings on the regeneration of the bush close to her Moruya home.

"I'll not forget the smoke and constant noise of sirens, of water-bombing planes and helicopters," she said. "Also, the eeriness of black eucalyptus leaves raining down from a brown apocalyptic sky as the fire approached town.

"The landscape has changed so much since the fires. From the bare black trunks, ash-covered ground, and then the vibrant red epicormic shoots and luminous greens of the under-story - it has been a privilege to witness how the forest can return."

Ms Schleif, a native of the United States, created three windowed glass works that showed the "significant impact" the fires had on her art.

"Initially I found all the complex emotions I was feeling were emerging as an undercurrent in my work from immediately following the fires, and this is continuing today," she said.

"The idea of continuously living in recovery now underpins a part of the perspective I take when making work."

Ms Victoria created hope in the bones, a tribute to all the living things that died in the fires.

"When I was considering making work for the show, I was asked to explore something positive that had emerged from the fires, and at the time I really struggled with this," she said.

"I didn't feel anything positive, only despair for the environment and our future.

"It wasn't until the devastating floods in Northern NSW this year that I understood it is human nature and the way communities come together at moments like that that reveal the little, small glimmers of hope."