Living with koalas artist Anne Zahalka

100 Artworks for a Koala entry by Anne Zahalka    Title: ‘ Koala, Yarra River at Woori Yallock, Victoria [Australia] 2019’ : photo-media

Anne ZAHALKA

Award-winning photo-media artist based in Sydney, Australia

100 Artworks for a Koala entry: Title: ‘ Koala, Yarra River at Woori Yallock, Victoria 2019 ‘

Size:  A1  | Medium : photo media; print on archival pigment ink on rag paper

“Three koalas and a joey cling to the branches of their eucalypt, high above the Yarra River. Land clearing and road building has led to a decline in koala numbers and driven them into remaining bushland. Usually territorial, koalas are fussy eaters and only thrive in habitat where certain species of eucalypt trees grow. Koalas primarily hydrate by eating water-filled eucalyptus leaves, and the trees are among their most important habitats. Hotter, drier conditions mean leaves are drying and forcing koalas from certain areas of bush. Sadly, this group are cohabiting on a single tree as a result of the destruction to their home. With rising temperatures, land clearing and irregular burning back, an uncontrolled fire has erupted in the background with billowing smoke that spreads rapidly, threatening to further erode their habitat and food source.” Anne Zahalka

Anne Zahalka is a photo-media artist having exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas for over thirty years and has held over 40 solo exhibitions. Her work is included in all major museums in Australia and collected privately and internationally. She often explores cultural stereotyping, challenging these with a humorous and critical voice. Zahalka deconstructs familiar images and re-presents these to allow other figures and narratives to be told that reflect on cultural diversity, gender and difference within Australian society.

More recently, her concerns have shifted to the environment and the ecological disasters that has been unfolding in her country.  In Wild Life, Australia, 2019 Zahalka reimagines early Australian dioramas from natural history museums to mark out unsettling ethical and environmental issues. By subverting these fixed narratives she reflects on the changing relationship that exists between people and the natural world. Working with conservationists, scientists, curators and photographers, she incorporates new data to set out alternative and contemporary ways of seeing the landscape and the devastation that has been wreaked on the land.

Anne Zahalka is one of Australia’s most highly regarded photo media artists having exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas for more than 30 years. Below are some exhibition highlights,

2019 Wild Life Australia, Melbourne

2019 The Fate of Things: memory objects and art, 2018 /2019

2018 Wild Life in the age of Anthropocene, Sydney

2018 Street Photography, 2018 / 2019 Sydney

2017 The Landscape Revisited, Albury

2015 Playground of the Pacific, Manly 

2015-16 Threshold, Melbourne

2010-15 The Artist’s Table, Abbotsleigh & Wahroonga

2014 Parliament House at Work, Canberra

2013 Artists 1989-2013, Melbourne

2010 The Way Things Appear, Melbourne

2010 The Appearance of Things, Melbourne

2010 Homegroundi, Sydney

2009 Playing the Game, Sydney

2008 Hotel Suite, Melbourne

2006 Wild Life, Melbourne

2006 wonderland, Melbourne

2004 Natural Wonders, Sydney

2002 Welcome to Sydney, Sydney International Airport

1999 Leisureland, Melbourne

1997 Woven Threads, Melbourne

1996 Open House, Melbourne

1993 Gesture, Melbourne

1992 Fortress and Frontiers, Sydney

1989 Bondi Playground of the Pacific, Bondi Beach

1987 Resemblance, Berlin

2008 Macarthur Cook Art Prize

2007 National Photographic Rrize

2005 Leopold Godowsky Photographic Award in Boston

instagram: @annezac

www.zahalkaworld.com.au

Living with Koalas 100 artworks