Where Some Find Peace explores notions of identity and belonging to place. In a time when feelings of isolation, longing and angst are amplified, Nudelman reminds us that belief, love and the collectiveness of all things are paramount.

Nudelman’s hypnotic investigations into the landscape are layered with subliminal historical and allegorical messaging. At once beautiful and atmospheric, Nudelman has distilled centuries of the technical development born from the sixteenth-century Dutch landscape tradition. The works in Where Some Find Peace are contemporary constructs of the places in which he has immersed himself. Thematically, they have emanated from his long view of Australian history and tell the stories about how we came to be, immigration and our relationship to the traditional custodians of the land.

This exhibition introduces bronze sculptural forms that act as markers as we traverse the artist’s social narrative. In the exhibition, Nudelman references the navigational markers that have for over two centuries welcomed and guided people to this place. These markers of safe passage are juxtaposed with the bronze orbs; navel mines that were used with such devastation in the world wars¾markers of destruction. Nudelman points out to us that such symbols¾representing that which is humane¾can be deceptive. This inference is poignant to our political and social landscape and is important for us to consider as a society. 

The use of graffiti text obliquely notes the undercurrent of misunderstanding associated with immigration¾something that was part of his family’s generational history. Throughout the exhibition, the artist references the traditional owners through petroglyph engravings and stacked grinding stones. They act as a reminder that all but first nations peoples are immigrants to this landscape. In Where Some Find Peace, the landscape is the metaphoric glue that harmonises the composition and as always, leads us, the audience, to consider the world in a far more compassionate light.

Ralph Hobbs
March 2022