QAGOMA | Rachel Mounsey captured the Black Summer bushfires of 2020 @QAGOMA_Australia | Uploaded February 2024 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Australian artist and photojournalist Rachel Mounsey captured the Black Summer bushfires that swept through her home, the remote coastal community of Mallacoota, on New Year’s Eve 2019. The fires raged across eastern Australia for months, burning millions of hectares of land and killing and displacing around three billion animals.
Her images record the surreal otherworldliness of those days when the air was thick with particulate matter, soot and burnt leaves. The sky went black mid-morning, then everything took on a red, amber, even mustard glow. Holidaymakers and locals alike, beach towels wrapped over their mouths and noses, were evacuated by the Navy. In 'Mallacoota fires in the sky 3' (from ‘Mallacoota fires in the sky’ series) 2020, there is a sense that the end of the world may not be all that far away. Against the burnt dusty brown of water and sky, a group of children on Christmas holiday paddle the inlet — a plastic orange kayak signalling ‘emergency’ amid the uncanny stillness.
DELVE DEEPER: https://blog.qagoma.qld.gov.au/tag/air/
'Air' / 26 Nov 2022 – 23 Apr 2023 / Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA)
THUMBNAIL DETAIL: Rachel Mounsey, Australia b.1975 / ‘Mallacoota fires in the sky 3’ (from 'Mallacoota fires in the sky' series) 2020 / Inkjet print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag paper / 100 x 150cm / Purchased 2021. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Rachel Mounsey
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Brisbane Australia
© Queensland Art Gallery Board of Trustees, 2022
#QAGOMA #AirGOMA #RachelMounsey
Australian artist and photojournalist Rachel Mounsey captured the Black Summer bushfires that swept through her home, the remote coastal community of Mallacoota, on New Year’s Eve 2019. The fires raged across eastern Australia for months, burning millions of hectares of land and killing and displacing around three billion animals.
Her images record the surreal otherworldliness of those days when the air was thick with particulate matter, soot and burnt leaves. The sky went black mid-morning, then everything took on a red, amber, even mustard glow. Holidaymakers and locals alike, beach towels wrapped over their mouths and noses, were evacuated by the Navy. In 'Mallacoota fires in the sky 3' (from ‘Mallacoota fires in the sky’ series) 2020, there is a sense that the end of the world may not be all that far away. Against the burnt dusty brown of water and sky, a group of children on Christmas holiday paddle the inlet — a plastic orange kayak signalling ‘emergency’ amid the uncanny stillness.
DELVE DEEPER: https://blog.qagoma.qld.gov.au/tag/air/
'Air' / 26 Nov 2022 – 23 Apr 2023 / Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA)
THUMBNAIL DETAIL: Rachel Mounsey, Australia b.1975 / ‘Mallacoota fires in the sky 3’ (from 'Mallacoota fires in the sky' series) 2020 / Inkjet print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag paper / 100 x 150cm / Purchased 2021. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Rachel Mounsey
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Brisbane Australia
© Queensland Art Gallery Board of Trustees, 2022
#QAGOMA #AirGOMA #RachelMounsey
