Jo Bertini

Jo Bertini's latest body of work charts an intense and intimate journey. Sketches and works on paper were drawn immediately from the Simpson Desert landscape through which Jo Bertini walks, on long expeditions, supported by a traditional pack-carrying, camel string. The profound isolation and exposure and Bertini's uninterrupted connection with the country produces works, which contain something of the moment from which they are captured.

The works gathered in the exhibition allude to actual sites and places, particular dunes and swales. These works are not to be read literally though as geographical references, but as
hypothetical, historical sites, haunted by presences and memories.

A recurring motif is the mountain or dune as a metaphor for the sacred. The traveling camels also represent the pilgrimage. Such an expedition promotes artistic exploration, works of distinct integrity, which speak of the significance, and reverence of desert places. It is an awakening from urbanized dismissal of environment as a mere resource.

Bertini has lived in Asia, South America, the Middle East and Europe and despite this extensive experience, her work has always maintained a distinctly Australian sentiment for which she has become renowned. She has been widely published and collected both by public institutions and privately in Australia and overseas. She has been involved in numerous group and solo exhibitions and has worked as a writer, critic, teacher and lecturer.

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