This work looks at past and present policies that different governments instigated to help or deny entry to people in need of a ‘Safe Haven’. This project is a reminder of Australia’s responsibility as a first signatory of the United Nation Human Rights Charter. Over 12 books, I am bringing the stories of these refugees, often relegated to the margin of society, to the centre of the page.
Nathalie Hartog-Gautier’s works are in prestigious collections in Australia and overseas. She has received grants from Create NSW, NAVA and the French Embassy in Australia as well as residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, Hill End and Tweed Regional Gallery in Australia. In 2021 she has been awarded Artist in Residence at Bundanon where she will keep working on her River project.
Hartog-Gautier is constantly searching through archives, image banks, memories and landscapes looking for new ways to 'see' as an artist. This process of scanning allows her to uncover unique connections between seemingly disparate elements that are in turn unified by her own major themes and preoccupations. It is through this process of comparing her vision with that of others, that she attempts to depict nature in a new light – as if seen for the first time. Using different techniques, Hartog-Gautier offers a physical and conceptual journey questioning in a contemporary way the topics of the encounter as well as the memory and the identity. http://nathaliehartog.com.au
Hartog-Gautier has recently collaborated with Broken Yellow to develop an animation of the project “Looking for Paradise” to branch out into a new realm of work pushing the boundary of her practice.