Galliano Fardin
Yalgorup, 2011l, oil on canvas,101x101cm
Represented by Galerie Düsseldorf

Biography

Galliano Fardin was born in Mogliano Veneto, Italy in 1948 and arrived in Australia in 1972. He lives and works Lake Clifton, Western Australia. The paintings of Galliano Fardin are a consequence of memories and impressions of the Western Australian landscape. Fardin’s essential concern is to find a physical experience and understanding of the land, rather than the traditional need to characterize landscape in a literal sense. Fardin’s memories and notions of the land are translated onto canvas as marks, textures and colour, which echo a subjective observation rather than an analytical study of the environment.
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YALGORUP

The Lake Clifton area has been my home base since the eighties. In this place I have had the opportunity to witness and to reflect on the changes that are continuously affecting everything around us.

The northern end of Lake Clifton was connected to the ocean only a few thousand years ago. The thrombolites which inhabit the eastern shore owe their existence to the freshwater runoff from the higher ground to the east. In nature nothing is static, adaptations happen whenever opportunities arise or when circumstances change. These natural changes are “evolution” at work. We owe our existence to these processes but changes of a different nature are taking place all over the planet. Certain human activities, often driven by greed or lack of foresight are undermining the natural order of things. Introduced weeds and pests follow in the wake of new developments everywhere. The interference and disruption of the habitat is not evolutionary; it is destructive.

Lake Clifton is a small body of water of great significance, it has become a test case for the way we deal with threatened ecosystems. This is my “small” version of the story; the big picture belongs to the Noongar people of this region.