Heide is an epic poem about history,
painting, painters, patrons and the people who made art happen in Australia —
from Louis Buvelot to Edith Rowan, Tom Roberts and Robert Streeton to
Vassilief, Nolan, Tucker, Joy Hester, the Boyds, Mirka Mora, and Albert
Namatjira, with a particular focus on the artists gathered around Sunday and
John Reed at Heide in Melbourne.
It is a poem that explores the influence of
art and poetry on the psyche, and the influence of social class on both, from
the upper echelons and industrialists of Melbourne, to the struggle of the
working class through such artists as Alisa O’Connor, Noel Counihan and Yosl
Bergner. It begins with the foundation of Melbourne, and in its epic scope
traverses an encyclopaedic range of subjects, assembled from facts, quotations,
proverbs, definitions, historical documents, newspaper accounts and the
author’s own reminiscences.
Heide is
about the poets and artists who put their lives on the line, the Australian
preoccupation with landscape, the dominance of a masculinist aesthetic, the sidelining and
denigration of Indigenous art, the struggle of women artists to assert their
influence and presence, and the impact of migration on Australian culture.
It
is a long poem made up of almost 300 poems, each bringing to life characters
and incidents that are fleshed out in vivid detail and with a dramatic
intensity unique in Australian poetry.
