Leila Jeffreys, Bleeding heart, 2022, Photograph on archival fibre based cotton rag paper, 140 x 90cm. Courtesy: the artist and the Olsen gallery.

“My new exhibition is called The wound is the place where the light enters, which is a line from a Rumi poem. The poem speaks to the fact that pain reveals and helps us cherish what truly matters. We can only mourn what we deeply love.

The fires that tore through the east coast of Australia in the summer of 2019 gave rise to a moment of profound personal grief. I found myself turning inward.

From this time on, I began dreaming up a new mythology, one in which living creatures develop mental wounds that appear as physical markings. I had photographed the Bleeding heart dove as part as my Ornithurae series. I then set about creating an exhibition that focussed on other birds with markings that appear to the human eye as wounds. These birds – which I feature in portraits, on branches and bonsai – have natural red markings; they appear to bleed, as if their bodies are manifesting the collective pain that is felt by this planet. Yet at the same time, they embrace their wounds with a spirit of openness and beauty.” Leila Jeffreys, 2022.

Opening Event: 12 October, 2022, 6 – 8pm.