Serbian-born Jovana Yoka Terzic has been artist in residence for the past year with the South Sydney Uniting Church. She currently has an exhibition in the church’s Orchard Gallery. The title of her exhibition is Vision Quest.
The Opening on June 1 was a magical event, with mood music (water tones and forest sounds), candle-lit artworks and a warm gathering of friends and neighbours. One keen observer said: “On entering the gallery space I was immediately taken by Jovana’s striking use of colour and her mastery of different media. Her talents are clearly displayed by a striking variety of works ranging from delicate ink drawings, to larger paintings and mixed media. [Terzic] has a light touch and a deftness of hand that draws us into her world.”
Parish minister, Andrew Collis, thanked Jovana for her many contributions to the life of the parish, in particular her involvement in the arts program and her teaching Saturday art classes in the church. He went on to say: “These themes are present in the art of Jovana Terzic: work and play, compassion, the possibility of mutual response, joy, curiosity, respect, companionship, humankind’s dependence on creatures great and small. They are powerful and confronting themes, rendered colourfully, lyrically, by way of myth and mysticism, Indigenous wisdom, radical Christian literature and pagan poetry. The artist rarely depicts a human figure without some figure or hint of another species. To be one is always to become with many.”
Engaging with the spiritual motifs in the work, he added: “The kindom of heaven makes a mess of categories of kin and kind. Whatever heaven we might imagine for ourselves entails the healing of the earth and the inclusion of myriad companion species. The Latin specere refers to looking, to mental impressions or ideas. Looking again, seeing again – respecere – means showing respect, holding in regard, paying attention …”
Another appreciative critic said: “For me, what shines through Jovana’s work most powerfully is how our environment shapes us – the influence of her family’s roots in the rugged Montenegrin mountains on the Adriatic coast now further shaped by her journey to the other side of the world and the Australian landscape.”
