Episode 9: Raymond Arnold on community in the environmental battlegrounds of Tasmania
Season 1 Lutruwita | Tasmania
Episode 9: Part 1 - Raymond Arnold on community in the environmental battlegrounds of Tasmania
Raymond Arnold photographed outside his studio Landscape Art Research Queenstown with one of his four whippets in 2020 by the wonderful photographer, Ollie Khedun.
We are in conversation with the wonderful painter and print-maker Raymond Arnold who has lived in Queenstown, on Lutruwita/Tasmania’s West Coast since the late 1990s with his wife Helena Demczuk and their four whippets. The conversation naturally shaped itself into two main themes: environmental activism and his art practice, so we have divided his podcast into two 35-minute parts.
In part one, Raymond explains his involvement in the Franklin Dam blockade. He had just taken a teaching position at the Tasmanian School of Art when he was invited to join the busload of artists travelling to protest against the damming of one of Tasmania’s last wild rivers. They were all among the 1300 arrested. This formative experience contributed to Raymond’s intimate understanding of Tasmania as a social, political and environmental battleground.
In this episode we cover:
Raymond Arnold’s reflections on Queenstown’s unique geological and cultural heritage, including Mount Reid volcanics and Indigenous history, including ochre quarries and the trading of the meteoric Darwin glass,
Queenstown’s transformation from a mining hub to an arts and cultural centre, highlighting the impacts of mining, hydroelectric development, and grassroots environmental activism,
The Franklin Dam Campaign, including Raymond’s involvement, and the broader movement's role in reshaping environmental policy in Tasmania,
Balancing industrial development with community and environmental health in Queenstown, and
Fostering an artistic community in Queenstown, through his and Helena’s community art centres LARQ and PressWEST, their involvement in establishing festivals like "The Unconformity," and proposing initiatives like a UNESCO Global Geopark to celebrate Queenstown's heritage.
BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1950, Raymond Arnold studied teaching and art in Victoria, Australia before developing his professional career in Tasmania. Over the last quarter of a century he has helped run an artist’s co-operative in Hobart, lectured at the Tasmanian School of Art, been Chief Examiner for HSC Art, printed thousands of screen print posters for community groups, worked as an artist in mining towns, schools and Universities, completed public art commissions, participated in Arts Tasmania and Australia council committees and received a Federation medal for services to the Art Community.
He lives out his days in Queenstown, Western Tasmania, where for ten years he directed, with his partner the painter Helena Demczuk, a regional art space titled Landscape Art Research Queenstown (LARQ) which fostered exhibitions, workshops, residencies and forums. For essentially this work Raymond was awarded with a Australia Day Tasmanian Local Hero award. LARQ morphed into WAS or Western Art Space which is about archiving the work of both Raymond & Helena. They are now engaged in helping to run a community art space titled PressWEST Tasmania which has a program of exhibitions, workshops and residencies.
As a compliment to this world, Raymond researched the intaglio print medium in Europe, working and exhibiting in France and the UK on a regular basis since 1993. This includes an ongoing collaborative project ‘Double Vision’ with Scottish artist Ian Westacott.
Raymond Arnold has held over 60 solo exhibitions of his paintings and prints in Australia, Europe and the US and participated in many group shows. He is represented in the collections of the Imperial War Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Musee Courbet in France. The National Gallery of Australia, the Australian Parliament House and various State Galleries have Raymond Arnold prints in their collection.
Raymond Arnold is represented by Australian Galleries and Bett Gallery, Hobart.
You can see Raymond’s work on our instagram page @artdestinations.podcast.
