Utes in the Paddock

Burrawang West Station

Near Ootha in central New South Wales

On permanent display

It was when passing Cadillac Ranch on Route 66 during a recent trip through Texas in the US that Graham Pickles conceived an idea for a project that would encourage people to ‘get out and explore the heartland’ of the Australian outback. Cadillac Ranch, with 10 classic Cadillacs lined up and buried to their windscreens, is a public spray-painting canvas for anyone so inclined. But Pickles ranch, on the historic cattle station, Burrawang West near Ootha in central New South Wales, intends to go two better.

Envisioning 12 utes (utilities) as the very Aussie canvasses for the project, Pickles invited prominent Australian artists; including John Murray, Shane Gehlert, Peter Browne, Peter Mortimore, Michael Jones and Paul Blahuta; to donate their time and trade to transform Holden utes into roadside art.

Utes in the Paddock is an invitation for people living on the coast to cross the sandstone curtain to visit central NSW, says Pickles, an advocate for Australia’s bush and outback cultural heritage. The bush and people that live here are at the very heart of the Australian psyche and over the last two centuries were largely responsible for forging those values we as Australians take pride in.

Depicting an Indigenous outback workforce (with Jones’ ‘The Stockman’), iconic Australians (Blahuta’s ‘Backed by Ned’), drinking traditions (Mortimore’s ‘Clancy Stops the Overflow’), environmental concerns (Gehlert’s ‘Epitaph to Fossil Fuels’) and Aussie larrikinism (Murray’s ‘Circle Work’), the sculptures are on permanent display, with all 12 due to be completed and in place by the end of 2008.

For further details visit:

www.utesinthepaddock.com.au

Images:

Top: Utes in the Paddock, Burrawang West Station, 2008. Photograph by Karen Tooth, The Condobolin Argus.

Bottom: Michael Jones, 'The Stockman', 2008, enamel on Holden ute, life-size. Courtesy the artist and Burrawang West Station, central New South Wales. Photograph by Karen Tooth, The Condobolin Argus