Like Water

Fremantle artist Jo Darvall has built an enviable reputation for creating works of timeless beauty as she reinterprets historical narratives, the colours and marks expressed by significant WA female artists and collaborates with a range of artists to create engaging and memorable experiences.

“Art and storytelling are intrinsically linked to my practice. I have to be inspired - to love the story and feel the urgent need to tell everyone about it.” Jo Darvall

Darvall’s exhibition Like Water, reconnects us with WA’s water history at a time when the world issearching for innovative solutions to provide fresh drinking water for future generations. The artwork on show at the Mundaring Arts Centre (6 April -27 May) celebrates Darvall’s interpretation of the waterways of WA, drawing inspiration from artist Kathleen O’Connor (1876- 1968) and her father C.Y. O’Connor, the visionary engineer responsible for the construction of the Mundaring Weir and the Golden Pipeline from Mundaring to Kalgoorlie.

Darvall explains, “understanding where we come from helps us define our future”, to this end she has curated two installations to be held respectively in the main gallery of the Mundaring Arts Centre and the National Trust’s No. 1 Pump Station at the Mundaring Weir, complemented by a festival event to be held on 22 April.

The Like Water public program brings together historians, poets, artists and iconic historical sitestied to the legend of C.Y O’Connor. The ticketed event starts at the historic No. 1 Pump Station with a presentation by Mike and Dr Kathryn Lefroy (descendants of C.Y O’Connor), followed by a brief introduction by the artist herself, Jo Darvall. Participants will then be treated to a music performance by an international pianist Setsu Masuda, a delicious long table lunch in the Mundaring Weir Hotel Ball Room with local historians, artists, and poets from the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writer's Centre. The wonderful day will finish at the Mundaring Arts Centre with a reading from 'Paris Bled into the Indian Ocean’ by eminent author Amanda Curtin. Tickets are limited and bookings for the event are via https://likewaterfestivaleventjodarvall.eventbrite.com

Like Water is a tribute to these visionaries and the beautiful waterways – oceans, rivers lakes thatdefine Darvall’s adopted state of WA. The exhibition is open free to the public at the Mundaring Arts Centre on the corner of Nichol Street and Great Eastern Highway Mundaring until 27 May. The Gallery is open 10am - 5pm Tuesday to Friday, 11am – 3pm Saturday and Sunday. No. 1 Pump Station, Mundaring Weir is open 10am - 4pm, Saturday and Sunday. For more information and to book visit Mundaring Arts Centre www.mundaringartscentre.com.au