Steve and Vici Funnell own and live at Hat Rock Vineyard. Steve has always been a photographer. His photographic practice is predominantly in landscape photography and photographic abstraction.
In recent years, Steve has travelled to many parts of Australia to photograph some outstanding aboriginal rock paintings. He has had an enduring interest in this subject as he believes ‘the art reflects in a very direct way, the emergence and flourishing of the human imagination. It gives us a valuable glimpse of the aesthetics and spirituality of the artists and their culture.’
In this exhibition, there are photographs that were taken when Steve and Vici visited Mount Borradaile in the Top End in 2014 and again in 2018.
The Mount Borradaile region of Western Arnhem Land contains some of the world’s most spectacular and elaborate rock paintings. For much of the estimated 55,000 years of human habitation in this area, the inhabitants recorded their presence in ochre on rock. Painting was one of their most important and durable mediums for describing life, law, and history. Unrivalled in terms of variety, and vividness, the Mount Borradaile rock paintings document countless millennia of human and environmental change.
Stephen Funnell is also a member of the Rotary Club of Kardinia and is involved in fund raising for Indigenous Health Scholarships to attend Deakin University’s NIKERI (National Indigenous Knowledges Education Research Innovation) Institute to undertake degrees in nursing and social work. All Funds raised are channelled through Australian Rotary Health and are matched dollar for dollar by the Commonwealth Government.
Funds from the sale of Mount Borradaile photographs in this exhibition will be directed to this programme.
