Viki Murray, The Call of the Cicadas, digital print, 45 x 60 cm

Forest Bathing invites the viewer along a tranquil pathway away from the other world and into the rejuvenating solace of the woods. Ambient bouquets of cedar, maple and moss permeate dream states long after immersion in the velvety greens.

Viki Murray’s combination of sumi ink work and photography is a response to sensory replenishment through complete absorption in nature. Her ethereal imagery explores dream states, waking states and the spaces in between.

I went to Kyoto and Nara in 2017 with the purpose of taking pictures in ancient gardens, walkways and forests. Time spent in the primeval Kazugayama Genshirin forest, Nara, was nothing short of transcendental. To be dually drained and invigorated by intense humidity, visually drinking in the intoxicating greens of maple leaves and moss while inhaling the musky scent of cedar and damp earth was almost sensory overload. For the longest moments time stood still as I was engulfed in a silence,heaving with the loud presence of every pore of nature. I knew then and there the kind of images I wanted to create, the visual tale I wanted to weave. Ironically it was only once back in Australia, chatting casually in a cafe about the cleansing beauty of the Japanese forests; I was introduced to the term forest bathing, or Shinrin Yoku. – Viki Murray, 2018

Viki Murray is the winner of the 2017 Outback Archies, an initiative of Outback Arts, Coonamble, NSW. Campbelltown and Coonamble share a sister-city relationship.