Kirrily Anderson: and tomorrow the beauty returns

A series of small pencil and charcoal artworks of leaves and plants regrowing in bushfire affected areas. Two blurry silhouettes of people look at the exhibitions.

Kirrily Anderson
Mount Buffalo, 2021
Ink & watercolour
Image courtesy of the artist

And tomorrow the beauty returns presented works by North East Victorian artist Kirrily Anderson that considered the period after the Black Summer bushfires of 2019/20. Chiltern based Anderson is well known for her highly detailed drawing practice and environmentally engaged public murals.

Three large charcoal works depicted the proportion of parkland burnt during the devasting fire season. The remaining drawings balanced the harsh impacts of the fires against environmental renewal and recovery.

The significant sculptural installation Epilogue was a work conceived in dialogue with bushfire affected residents near Walwa. In this area the landscape had been dramatically changed by the fires, with burnt vegetation and undergrowth giving way, resulting in landslides pummeling properties.

With these works, Anderson reflected on the destruction that has occurred as a means to find the hope that remains. For each challenge there was promise, and in the blackened landscape there remained beauty.