INCANDESCENT
Group Exhibition
This exhibition is curated by Tracy Stirzaker
NWC GALLERY KATOOMBA
18th April to 6th May 2024
Syndy Esteves
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Cinzia
(Syndy) Esteves is an Australian visual artist and has a Bachelor of fine arts
with honours from University of NSW. She also attended Julian Ashton classes for portraiture in 2019 and 2020. Syndy, being her artist name & her art
signature name, is an oil painter and drawer, writer and a brumby
advocate. Her artwork stretches the
boundaries between art & politics by giving a voice to the wild brumbies
that roam Kosciusko National Park. Syndy has been awarded 3 consecutive
(2021,2022,2023) certificates of artistic achievements from the Luxemburg Art
Prize. Syndy has also exhibited in the art hotel in Sydney in 2022, at Equitana in November 2022 as well. In 2019 at white rhino Artspace for her first solo exhibition. Syndy also feature in the Artist Close Up
Magazine in October edition 2023, and in an online interview blog, again
featured by Artist Close Up Magazine. Syndy runs two blogs, and 2 Facebook
pages. One being for her art as Syndy Artist and the other for the advocacy of
the brumbies under Free The Brumbies.
The political upheaval of
the brumbies magnifies the problems of our human condition that governs the
environmental management of flora and fauna. By using portraiture Syndy gives
voice to the sentient by having their history and backstory attached to each
individual brumby portrait. The brumbies are wild brumbies captured from
Kosciuszko National Park and rehomed to primary rehomer Clearview Brumby Rescue.
Each with a family and a story to tell. The theories of freedom, labels,
Speciesism, family, and hierarchy are challenged as well as the rights of
animals questioned within our society via Portraiture.
By using her art Syndy can combine the understanding of the sentient via Portraiture, to express that these animals are not just animals but sentients. Giving a different perspective, that maybe we should rethink our citadels and our laws regarding animals, especially horses that have given so much in the history of our relationship with them. They are not just a commodity, but they are a sentient with families, hierarchies, and absolute spirit. Hence, the experience of each painting or drawing is personal and like with a human subject, their portrait relates their standing in life via their story, speaking to the spectator. (photo on left work of 'Arrow Boy & the Death Of Kheiron.') Photo reference below of Karen Ferguson Photographer.
THE PROCESS FORM REAL TO ETHEREAL
For the process of using portraiture and ethereal connections, each brumby is carefully chosen and with the help of real references from a few wildlife photographers.
Karen Ferguson 🐎, is a brumby
photographer that has intimate relation to these brumbies. Syndy was introduced to Karen via her advocacy
and in the process has developed a relationship with Karen that can translate ethereally
the individual brumby as a subject and bring him to life via Karen’s references,
his/her/their experiences and give voice to each brumby named, relating events,
history family, and references of theories to bring each subject to life.
This method is also
employed to the rehomed brumbies of Clearview Brumby Rescue, as mentioned
before. Having relations with Moreen and Paul and Karen (another Karen) their
volunteer trainer, and abundance of information of the everyday life of each
brumby that is rescued relating their struggle from wild to rehomed and their
documented everyday life and transition from a free wild brumby to a rehomed
wild brumby.
Now also another photographer
named Bronwyn Foster a retired professional photographer that has recently
taken photographs of the last load of brumbies at Clearview Brumby Rescue. Hence the documentation of the
process is vast, as we identify the trapped brumbies to record where they came
from, which mob they may have come from and locate family members as we go.
This of course is the advocacy process that starts to relate the stories and
hence the subjects chosen begin here.
2022 CLEARVIEW BRUMBY RESCUE
VISIT
MAKING FRIENDS FOR ART SAKE Photo left is Spirit of the Mountain with lead mare, at Clearview Brumby Rescue.
Syndy’s love of horses had begun early in childhood, but unlike most children that have this connection, they have a real-life experience of the horse. Syndy’s was always ethereal. Starting from just the love of animals, to Pippi long Stockings and her white horse, and always that desire of one day owning a horse.
With the first conversation with Moreen Levin of Clearview brumby
Rescue, in 2020, it was evident to Syndy she was talking to a real cow girl that lived
with horses all her life. Therefore Syndy had to expand her knowledge and
Moreen and Paul have been her mentor and teachers when it comes to horses, especially
brumbies.
Syndy decided that to really get this part of her art connected to her she had to somehow experience the real world of the brumby rehomed. Hence in February 2022, for the first time in her life she not only entered through the gates of a farm in the middle of QLD outback, but also went out of her comfort zone in all aspects.
The main experience was not only to see cows, farm dogs and domesticated horses, but also 50 wild brumbies, that were there at the time, that had been rehomed to Clearview. That meant she spent time with the wild brumbies running wild on the acreage and experiencing them at proximity as wild brumbies are very inquisitive and are different to domesticated horses.
So, there she met 2 special brumbies that had been rehomed. One was Spirit of the Mountain, that she had drawn a few times and had started an oil painting that was at the grisaille stage, using a photo reference form Karen Ferguson of Spirit while in the wild, when he was named Elby’s dad by Karen. The other was one that she had drawn in ink being a bachelor that was just captured named Shadow by Karen and kept his wild name.
BRUMBY ADVOCACY & FREE THE BRUMBIES FB PAGE 🐎 & BLOG
Syndy
keeps her advocacy separate to the art, but it is entangled as part of the
advocacy. Through research and writing and her poetry and art is reflective of
the everyday events of the brumbies as they are captured, ground culled or
aerial culled. Thus, It is a very fine
line that pushes the boundary between art as for art sake of our everyday life or
art as a political stand in our everyday life. Syndy has made a point that the political
side for her is done as an advocate and not to be blurred with the idea of the
activist. As activism is more ‘performed’ for the rights and fights against for
the rights of something and advocacy is instead voiced by writing and providing
information for viewers to make up their own mind. She thus remains an advocate and NOT an
activist. The aim is to bring awareness on the horse as a sentient and to respect the past that the brumbies gave us through their ancestral DNA that is now being registered and recorded from many rehomed brumbies.
Having then created a manifesto for the brumbies in 2021 and also attaching the history of each brumby with their family background, and documenting the stories of each brumby as they live through natural selection, culling, rehoming and finding a forever home. These are now greeting cards that with each painting or drawing is done so the voice of the brumbies can be heard. Each individual story told with the hope that their voice can be heard, and promote better management of these sentients without lethal ground culling, without aerial culling and without sending them to Knackeries.
When we see a field of dandelions all we see is a sea of wishes.
I would like to thank NWC and Tracy Stirzaker, for the opportunity to voice once again the brumby. Their story, my story on the journey of the snowy mountain brumbies.
SYNDY ESTEVES Incandescent Group Exhibition NWC GALLERY .
NOTE: for all inventory of all other artworks please refer to Equitana post from 2022.
