Kedumba Drawing Award 2006
Speech by
Reg Livermore AO
Guest of Honour at the Kedumba Drawing Award 2006
One night during the late nineteen eighties I was one of a group sitting around in a local pub discussing what might be done to encapsulate some sort of cohesive cultural activity on the mountains, not with a view to destroying the status quo but to enrich it, to celebrate art as a valued component of our lives here and to actively involve the numerous practitioners living in the area. Up until this time artists living and working locally were likely seen as alternative figures pursuing fairly solitary agendas, wankers perhaps; or disparate groups huddled like ancient tribes defending their stronghold against the barbarians; and painting gumtrees. It was suggested that the discipline of drawing had no real champion here or much anywhere else in Australia for that matter and that some kind of observance to that end might be worth pursuing. The vision engendered at the Grandview pub that night was transfigured by optimism, and with some generous and ongoing local support and enthusiasm the Kedumba prize, a more encompassing and broader-based concept was eventually implemented.
I don't remember whether or not its emergence was in any or every way plain sailing but over the years there have been a number of art associated projects that were forward looking but scuttled for one reason or another: I remember once looking over some very detailed architectural drawings for an extensive and wholly designated arts complex that was to be built on the outskirts of Katoomba, it was to have facilities that would cater to all branches of the arts. It was going to cost a fortune of course, and where that was going to come from nobody seemed to know; besides that, executive control of the undertaking seemed a prickly and unbridgeable issue, people with little or no experience believed they should be the one; it was anyway overly ambitious for the time and possibly for the area, but it had its fair share of enthusiastic supporters, as well as detractors. It can also be assumed that the Kedumba drawing award had its enthusiasts, likewise skeptics, I don't know why but most initiative and enterprise seems to attract them. Notwithstanding - in 1990 the inaugural entrants' work was assembled and hung as I recall in a hallway of the Fairmont resort.
I now digress slightly. When I arrived in these parts during the late seventies it was relatively unspoiled, living in such surrounds was good for the soul. Otherwise the place seemed parochial at best, certainly inward looking. Apart from the oldest local inhabitants who viewed most new arrivals as suspect, others gave the impression they were blissed-out inmates of an exclusive refugee camp, and I'm not even referring to the ones who were patently on drugs. Since we all have to acknowledge that change and progress are inevitable some of us clung to the hope we'd live long enough to see it. Perhaps to even help it along. It was a privilege living here but there had to be more to the experience than just fresh air and walking trails, and the show gardens open for charity in October. I suppose for certain folk with certain interests a small oasis of satisfaction could be found but for anyone interested in food and cooking, say, as I am, the place was hopeless, you couldn't get anything, quality pantry items or produce for a special recipe weren't to be had at any place for any money; if you needed a particular ingredient then it meant, unavoidably, harnessing up the covered wagon for a trip back down to the city from which one had recently escaped or fled. Time and many tides since things have changed; there is supply for specific demand now, for what I want too, even though much of it sits on the shelves and in the storage bins long after its use-by date.
Over years many folk have arrived to make the mountains their home, we've come here for all sorts of reasons, for the staggering natural beauty certainly, and to escape the rat race, but for what else - for a life. We have to remember that we live here - that we're not tourists. One cannot live on winter magic alone, or scraps of ham and Christmas turkey in July, or by getting your stimulation from the Mountain Gazette or from the expectation of another attempt to blow up the council chambers. You can't live on thin air. Thankfully the newcomers bring a range of new ideas and new energy, their motivation and expression often managing to involve and elevate our community, and some have been able to convert the purely local into something that reaches out, crosses over, universality - for instance the annual jazz and folk festival in Katoomba has become a fixture, regularly attracting artists from all over Australia as well as internationally; from a personal perspective, several of my performance pieces that were inspired by living in the mountains and only ever intended as local entertainment to be seen at the Clarendon in Katoomba ended up on stages across regional New Nouth Wales and Victoria, at the Arts Centre in Melbourne, and at the Sydney Opera House.
The Kedumba drawing award is home-grown but is an event that has also reached out, far beyond its beginnings and aspiration, beyond the makeshift confines of a resort in Leura, even beyond this gallery in Wentworth Falls, it is more respected and esteemed each year and has every right of claim to its recognised position in the world of Australian art. For those here today who aren't aware it is now considered the most prestigious award in Australia for drawing, some of our finest artists endorse this opinion, many of our finest artists are invited to participate, and this gallery is the award's dedicated home and headquarters where there are currently some one hundred and thirty works in the permanent collection.
I'm pleased to see that on the wall today is a contender or two for the "is it a drawing, is it a painting" award. I don't know, there are experts here better equipped to judge that, but I'm happy to believe that black is white or white is black if that's what's going down, just as my mother put foul-tasting nasturtium leaves on my school lunch time sandwiches, and swore they were lettuce.
As one who came to this area to be out of sight but not completely out of mind, who desired retreat but not the end of life as we know it, who sat in that pub all those years ago chewing the fat with some uncertain but like-minded others I am delighted and proud to be a patron here, and to have been invited this year's guest of honour, to open a show that is stimulating and diverse, and of such a standard.. Jeff Plummer and I have agreed to call this occasion the "Summer of the Seventeenth Kedumba", it's right on course I believe, and if more benefactors and more funds materialise - by gift, by sponsorship, by a grant by God - the award can be confident of a rewarding and sustainable future. It only remains for me to declare the 2006 Kedumba Art Award open, and to bring on the judge, Janet Laurence.