Joshua Yeldham: River Song

20 November - 18 December 2010
Works
  • Joshua Yeldham, Barrenjoey – Pittwater, 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    Barrenjoey – Pittwater, 2010
    carved paper with shellac
    200 x 200 cm
  • Joshua Yeldham, Bird Island – Pittwater, 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    Bird Island – Pittwater, 2010
    carved board with oil & cane
    240 x 152 cm
  • Joshua Yeldham, Blessed By the Tide – Hakesbury River , 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    Blessed By the Tide – Hakesbury River , 2010
    carved board with oil, fibreglass & wood
    120 x 92 cm
  • Joshua Yeldham, Love Birds – Hawkesbury River , 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    Love Birds – Hawkesbury River , 2010
    carved board with oil, cane, fibreglass & drum
    152 x 240 cm
  • Joshua Yeldham, Love Owl – Morning Bay, 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    Love Owl – Morning Bay, 2010
    hand-carved pigment print and shellac
    145 x 96 cm, 156 x 108 cm (framed)
    ed. 13/20
    Sold
  • Joshua Yeldham, Morning Bay – Black Moon, 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    Morning Bay – Black Moon, 2010
    carved paper with shellac
    200 x 100 cm
  • Joshua Yeldham, Morning Bay – Lovers Rock, 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    Morning Bay – Lovers Rock, 2010
    carved board with oil & cane
    152 x 240 cm
  • Joshua Yeldham, Owl of Blue Taro – Pittwater, 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    Owl of Blue Taro – Pittwater, 2010
    carved board with oil, cane & shells
    182 x 122 cm
  • Joshua Yeldham, Prayer For Protection – Hawkesbury River , 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    Prayer For Protection – Hawkesbury River , 2010
    carved board with oil, shellac, resin & cane
    152 x 120 cm
  • Joshua Yeldham, Protection – Mangrove Country , 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    Protection – Mangrove Country , 2010
    carved paper with pigment
    98 x 148 cm
  • Joshua Yeldham, Red Bird – Morning Bay , 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    Red Bird – Morning Bay , 2010
    carved paper with shellac
    121 x 103 cm
  • Joshua Yeldham, Rivers Edge – Hawkesbury River, 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    Rivers Edge – Hawkesbury River, 2010
    carved board with oil
    120 x 92 cm
  • Joshua Yeldham, White Creek – Mangrove Country, 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    White Creek – Mangrove Country, 2010
    carved paper with pigment & shellac
    98 x 145 cm
  • Joshua Yeldham, Wood Owl (Ed. of 20), 2010
    Joshua Yeldham
    Wood Owl (Ed. of 20), 2010
    carved resin with cane
    170 x 39 x 39 cm
Exhibition Text

There is a graphic intensity to Josh Yeldham’s latest works that is rarely – if ever – seen in contemporary art. This is the work of both an obsessive artisan and a potent visionary. This is the stuff of dreams made solid, carved impeccably, stroke by miniscule stroke, tethering the smoky regions of memory and mind onto a solid surface.

 

Each of us will see our own dreams here. We will try and grapple with why these images seem so immediately recognisable and then realise we have never seen them before outside of somnambulistic flights of fantasy. We will think of the iconography of Eastern mysticism only to realise that this is a ruse – it may be an influence but these images are very much Yeldham’s own.

 

Of course they are not paintings per se. But nor are they sculptures as we have come to know that term. Technically these works are truly unique, beautiful hybrids of craft and vision.

Technically they are works by a youthful master.

 

Excerp from River Music (2010) catalogue essay by Ashley Crawford