Capital Life

By Sally Pryor
Updated April 23 2018 - 10:16pm, first published April 12 2014 - 3:00am

Ghostly forests

There was something here before us. It seems an obvious, trite thing, but it's easy to forget when the trees are so green and so immovable. Local artist Jonathan Webster has been struck by the introduced forests of Canberra, and has examined them in a new exhibition opening at ANCA Gallery this week. "Scattered across the grey Canberra bush are streaks of dark-green groves, spirits of foreign experience transplanted into Australian soil. They are spaces of imagination. The walker is briefly immersed in the presence of a surrounding forest, only to emerge again into the bush," he says. "For a long time I have been aware of these spaces as integral to my own personal sense of home. I love the Old English Gardens, I love the Redwood Grove, I love the pines that were burnt in 2003. And yet these places I see as so inherently Canberran have supplanted the forests, stories, histories that came before." He hopes to resolve this tension through his works. Ghost Forests, by Jonathan Webster is on at ANCA Gallery, 1 Rosevear Place, Dickson, until April 27.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

$0/

(min cost $0)

or signup to continue reading

See subscription options

Get the latest Canberra news in your inbox

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.

We care about the protection of your data. Read our Privacy Policy.