From the essay Of Site and Connection – reflections on a personal journey by Karen Ball
Gary Shinfield is known for large printed works on paper that inhabit a gallery space like wandering explorers, not lost, just contemplating the terrain. This artist records topographical, archaeological and fleeting human forms with a unique gestural mark but his overriding concern is connection to a site on a physical and spiritual level. He has traversed much of Australia and several overseas countries pursuing that goal. The artwork made from each of these expeditions intertwines to form an immersive visual diary.
The concept of ‘reverie,’ through which an individual is able to descend deeply within himself, savour solitude and reconnect with personal history, can be said to inform the work of this artist.
‘At the bottom of every reverie, we find that being which deepens everything, a permanent being’
Gaston Bachelard
