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Larry Mitchell: The 1°C Project

CAE1404

Summary Note

Larry Mitchell: The 1°C Project contains materials relating to his project of the same name that chronicles the effects of climate change on the islands in the Indian Ocean through painting. Materials include journals, watercolor and gouache studies, maps, and photographs.

Biographical Note

Larry Mitchell was born 1953 in Northhampton, just north of Geraldton, Western Australia. Spending as much of his childhood as possible near or in the ocean, he traveled to London in the 1980s, and studied the work of everyone from the abstract expressionists through Lucien Freud with the ambition to be an abstract painter. Upon his return he worked at more than fifty jobs to support himself before landing a teaching job at St. Patricks College in Geraldton (1976-1987). After working as a lecturer at various TAFE colleges in the Perth district (1989-1992), he became a full time painter. In 2010 he worked with writers Barry Lopez, William Fox, and Mark Tredinnick in the Pilbara Project organized by the nonprofit arts organization FORM in Perth.

Scope and Content

Artist Larry Mitchell has been traveling to the Pacific Islands since the late 1970s, and for more than twenty years sailing to and painting the effects of globalization and climate change on the islands in the Indian Ocean, in particular the Abrolhos group off Western Australia. He has taken these concerns into the Kimberly region, as well as to the Antarctic Peninsula and other maritime locations in the Southern Hemisphere. His works, often panoramic paintings based on detailed topographical studies, use the techniques of visual representation deployed by voyages of exploration during earlier centuries, but ironically now in the cause of documenting the changes wrought as a result of that very colonialization. Materials include journals, watercolor and gouache studies, maps, and photographs.

Arrangement

Larry Mitchell: The 1° Project is organized into five folders: Letter to Bill Fox and journals, maps, reference photographs, studies, and exhibition ephemera.

Inclusive Dates

1986-2014

Bulk Dates

2010-2013

Quantity / Extent

2 cubic feet

Language

English

Related Publications

Mitchell, Larry. A Pilbara Project Exhibition. Perth, Western Australia: FORM, 2009.

Mitchell, Larry. Not Lost to us all. Perth, Western Australia: FORM, 2012.

Wright, Alison, Victor France, and Larry Mitchell. Abrolhos Islands Conversations. South Fremantle, Western Australia: Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1998.

Container Listing:

  • ARCH-FILE 13-1

    • Folder 1 Explanation Letter and Journals, 2010 – 2014
    • Folder 2 Maps, 2004 - 2011
    • Folder 3 Reference Photographs, 1995 – 2012
    • Folder 4 Studies, 1994 – 2013
    • Folder 5 Exhibition Ephemera, 2009 – 2012

Additional Materials

    ARCH-OBJ 16 Objects

    • 1#3 The Mentawai Diary – A Manifesto of Sorts, Journal, August 2010 – July 28, 2013
    • 1#4 West Papua and the Spice Islands, Journal, October 16 – 28, 2010
    • 1#5 A Voyage to the Antarctic Peninsula, Journal, January 25 – February 1, 2011

    ARCH-OBJ 17 Objects

    • 1#2 West Papua and Cenderawasih Bay, Journal, October 17 – 28, 2013
    • 1#6 Kaviang to the Sepik River, Journal, November 3 – 15, 2011

    Archive F7 Oversized Items

    • 2#6 Australia - North Coast: and Adjacent Waters, Chart, 2008
    • 2#7 Houtman Abrolhos and Geelvink Channel, Australia - west coast, Western Australia, Chart, 1986
    • 4#1 Jane’s Shack (Study), Painting, 1994
    • 4#2 Davis Island, Abrolhos Group (Study), Painting, 2001
    • 4#3 Deserted Island, Duke of York Group, Reproduction, 2006
    • 4#4 Cali Buri’: Canoe Building Camp (Study), Drawing, 2010
    • 4#5 Swingkrai Village, Gam Island (Study), Painting, 2010
    • 4#6 Wayag Island (Study), Painting, 2010
    • 4#7 Western End of Tulaman Island (Study), Drawing, 2010
    • 4#8 Antarctic Peninsula (Study), Painting, 2011
    • 4#9 Deception Island (Study), Painting, 2011
    • 4#10 Deception Island, NE End (Study), Painting, 2011
    • 4#11 Paradise Bay (Study), Painting, 2011
    • 4#12 Drowned Forrest, Mentawi Islands (Study), Painting, 2012
    • 4#13 Inundated Islands (Study), Drawing, 2012
    • 4#14 Lake Houses on Sepik River (Study), Drawing, 2012
    • 4#15 Sepik River Flood Plain (Study), Painting, 2012
    • 4#16 Sepik River Spirit House (Study), Drawing, 2012
    • 4#17 Yende Village (Study), Drawing, 2013

    Archive F18 Oversized Items

    • 4#18 Devastated Island, New Britain (Study), Drawing, 2006
    • 4#19 Louisiade Suite (Study), Drawing, 2007
    • 4#20 Palapatini Islands, Louisiades (Study), Drawing, 2007
    • 4#21 Antarctic Peninsula (Study), Painting, 2011
    • 4#22 Deception Island Entrance (Study), Panting, 2011
    • 4#23 Iceberg Graveyard (Study), Painting, 2011
    • 4#24 Wordie Hut, Antarctic Peninsula (Study), Painting, 2011
    • 4#25 Sepik River Scenes (Study), Painting, 2012