'Creative lights burn bright at Bunbury'

When the director of the Bunbury Art Gallery, Tony Geddes, floated the idea of a Bunbury biennial, he seemed a long way ahead of his time. There is no reason why Bunbury should not have a regular contemporary art event but to call it a biennial is to lay claim to national attention.

The show which opened in Bunbury last weekend could easily withstand interstate scrutiny. The tough-minded work by 20 or so WA artists would be warmly received anywhere.

Patrizia Tonello's ( Golden Means) shows three box-like buildings set on a flat multi-coloured plane. In another image ( Lie Of The Land), the roof and side of three parallel warehouses stretch out in an infinite perspective on the right side of the canvas.

Tonello has a little of the metaphysical spirit of de Chirico but her view of the city is far more bleak. Where the famous Italian found ruins, memories and the possibility of poetic adventure, Tonello sees destruction and amnesia, the sterile wasteland left by the greedy.

David Bromfield
Excerpt from review, The West Australian, October 9, 1993, 'Big Weekend' section, page 12

© 2007 - 2009 Patrizia Tonello
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