As part of the Sidney Nolan Centenary celebrations, the Sidney Nolan Trust has developed an international artist residency opportunity which involves a group exhibition at the Rodd, Herefordshire, and a four-week residency at the Bundanon Trust, New South Wales, Australia.

Three artists have been shortlisted for the group exhibition at The Rodd which will take place from September 8 to September 30. The shortlisted artists, selected by a panel of judges comprised of Professor Rodd Bugg, Deborah Ely and Clare Woods, are as follows: Kate Bright, Joanna Brinton and Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva.

Kate Bright is interested in exploring and depicting our connection with the natural world. She uses unorthodox materials such as glitter, glass, polystyrene and resin to create interactive paintings which utilise the method of collage and seek to extend the genre of landscape painting. As an artist who has lived and worked in London since leaving college, she is eager to escape this ‘captive environment’ where she is ‘studio-bound’ and use the residency opportunity to immerse herself in the unfamiliar Australian landscape, allowing it to alter her perception and therefore depiction of the natural world.

Joanna Brinton pursues a research-based, socially engaged practice which takes the form of sculpture, print and collaborative pieces that examine the world in which we work and play. Her work begins with a period of immersion and develops through conversation and exploration, seeking to open up possibility in a people or a place. She would use the residency opportunity to explore the working relationship between social history and landscape at the Bundanon Trust, developing temporary architectural interventions to reframe the landscape of the site.

Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva is a site-specific installation artist who works across a variety of media. Central to her practice is a response to the particularities of place: its history, locale, environment and communities. Inspired by Arthur Boyd’s approach to painting, she wishes to use the residency opportunity to follow in his footsteps, tracing his journey from England to Australia where she will challenge her sculptural practice to engage with the ‘overpowering landscape’.

"These artists are not only exceptionally talented, but also resolutely ambitious, said Amanda Fitzwilliams of the Sidney Nolan Trust. "They are not content to simply sit still within the confines of a tried and tested, a ‘safe’ practice; rather, they are eager to experiment, pushing boundaries and challenging perceptions in a way that is distinctly reminiscent of Sidney Nolan himself!

During the course of the exhibition, the judges will select the one artist who will be offered the residency opportunity which will take place between October 8 and November 5 next year