Bare Winter

The Botanic Gardens exhibition, Bare Winter, is a remarkable series of photographic images of female nudes in the Tasmanian wilderness.

Bare Winter is the work of Hobart photographer Kirsty Pilkington and was first shown at the Long Gallery, Hobart, in 2005 . The exhibition reflects her passion for the preservation of our natural heritage and is a sensual record of the beauty and connection between Woman and Mother Earth.

A trip to the Styx Valley in 1999 inspired Ms Pilkington with the idea for the Bare Winter series. She returned to the Styx Forest, and other spectacular locations including Mount Field National Park, Split Rock Falls, The Weld, Mount Wellington and Notley Fern Gorge in the winter of 2005 to photograph forty-four women in connection with nature. Thirty of these works are displayed at the Botanic Gardens.

“My greatest hope is that more people will rediscover a connection with the earth and respect and preserve it for future generations. The nude figures celebrate the natural beauty of people and the beauty of forests, and are intended as reminders that people are part of the environment,” Ms Pilkington said.

“I wanted to record the beauty, scale and mystical nature of the forests, and share my respect and reverence for the various elements of the natural world that provide us with so much.”

Ms Pilkington holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography, and in 1990 she established the Rappaw Prints range of greeting cards and postcards to raise the profile of animal advocacy. The Rappaw Prints logo is ‘Stamp Out Indifference’ and the initial animal models were orphaned wildlife she reared by hand.

Limited edition prints can be purchased through the artist’s website at www.rappawprints.com

Artist’s Statement

Bare Winter is a photographic shift for me, and a sensual record of the beauty and connection between Woman and Mother Earth.

It is the result of many hours in Tasmanian forests during the winter of 2005, and reflects my passion for the preservation of our natural heritage.

Somehow I wanted to record the beauty, scale and mystical nature of the forests—and share my respect and reverence for the various elements of the natural world that provide us with so much.

The idea of incorporating the nudes was to complement the natural beauty of people with the beauty of the forests. The nudes were also intended as reminders that people are part of the environment. I did not want the wilderness to become part of the background for the nude figures. I wanted the forest to be the focus and the nude figures to be secondary.

My greatest hope is that more people will rediscover a connection with the earth and respect and preserve it for future generations. I hope that decisions made today in regard to the environment will be seen as good decisions in a few hundred years time—and not that this was the era of destruction and short-term gain.

Kirsty Pilkington
August 2006

I dreamed that, as I wandered by the way,

Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring,

And gentle odours led my steps astray,

Mixed with a sound of waters murmuring

Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay

Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling

Its green arms round the bosom of the stream,

But kissed it and then fled, as thou mightest in dream.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
excerpt from The Question