Exhibition Opening Event:
Saturday 19th October from 2-5pm

Nicole Welch’s latest body of work, set in the nocturnal landscapes of Hill End, captures the elusive magic that resides within the natural world at night. Using state-of-the-art infrared cameras, Welch offers a glimpse into the hidden lives of the bush’s inhabitants. However, these works are far from being mere documentation. Instead, they remind us that photography—often regarded as a medium of precision—can also embrace mystery, creativity, and illusion.

In works like Unveiling #2 – waxing crescent moon, 9°, 15th of April, 2024, Welch reconfigures time, layering the journeys of different animals whose paths crossed in the same patch of bush at various moments. In Welch’s depiction, however, their separate encounters become entangled, suggesting they might almost share the same space. Through this magical interweaving of time and space, Welch unveils the secret lives of the night—revealing a softer, more dreamlike side of the bush. This is not the harsh, sun-drenched landscape we often associate with the Australian wilderness, but a moonlit world steeped in quiet escapism, a refuge the artist herself sought as she acclimated to her new home in Hill End.

There’s an eerie, ghostly quality to these photographs, yet it is Welch who embodies the ghostly presence. She positions her cameras during the day but does not witness the night’s unfolding events firsthand. This absence imbues the series with a thematic tension between presence and invisibility, prompting viewers to consider who truly inhabits this nocturnal world—who is present, and who is not.

Welch’s images pay homage to the history of photography, alluding to the visual language of daguerreotypes and early black-and-white photography. However, her use of modern technology—typically reserved for surveillance—subverts expectations. Rather than emphasizing the stark, dangerous qualities we often associate with the night, Welch softens the imagery, transforming it into something gentle and mysterious. The result is a night-time world that invites rather than intimidates, brimming with subtle magic.

By blurring the lines between reality and illusion, Welch brings artistry back into photography. These works are not simply technical feats, but portals into a world teeming with life—a skulk of foxes, a herd of deer, a passel of possums. The Australian bush, animated by these creatures, is captured and magnified, offering viewers a renewed sense of wonder.

An undeniable influence on this series is the famed Holtermann Collection, a cache of late 19th-century glass plate negatives documenting Hill End during the Gold Rush. The echoes of this historical context, with its early experiments in photography, resonate throughout Welch’s work. Yet despite her fascination with the past, Welch’s training as a printmaker also informs her practice. This background allows her the freedom to bend the traditional rules of photography, infusing her images with a painterly quality. Welch’s photographs embrace texture and atmosphere, eschewing the obsession with sharpness and control often associated with the digital age. In her hands, photography becomes a medium of expressive potential, capable of blurring, softening, and amplifying the emotional resonance of each scene.

In certain works, particularly those in portrait orientation, there is a quiet nod to the tradition of Chinese landscape painting—an acknowledgment of the contributions of Chinese immigrants to the 19th-century Gold Fields of Hill End. Through these subtle gestures, Welch weaves together personal, historical, and artistic threads, creating a body of work that is as much about place and time as it is about beauty and mystery.

In this new series, Nicole Welch invites us to reconsider what we think we know about the night and the natural world, offering instead a vision that is tender, layered, and full of wonder.

Nicole Welch is currently working towards a major solo exhibition to be held at Orange Regional Gallery in mid 2025. This will be followed by a touring survey exhibition which will include works made between 2012 -2026, commencing at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery in 2026.

Rhianna Melhem
Curator

Artereal Gallery and Nicole Welch acknowledge the traditional custodians of the Wiradyuri country on which these artworks were made and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.

The creation of Unveiling the Night has been generously supported by 

Regional Arts Fund Project Grant
Arts OutWest
The CORRIDOR Project – Artist in Residence Program 
NAVA Benevolent Fund 
Orange Regional Gallery