Encounters with Music: Bill Henson in Conversation

Bill Henson is one of Australia's most distinguished artists. His darkly enigmatic photographs have been exhibited extensively both in Australia and around the world over a period of more than four decades. An internationally acclaimed artist, Henson's images encompass many themes. His sublime imagery capture fleeting sensations through the shadows and the distanced golden glow of nature, the transition between the known world and the unknown. The sense of mystery and ambiguity within the images is heightened by Henson’s use of chiaroscuro to selectively obscure and reveal forms. The intensity and the intimacy of his images reflect a space between the mystical and the real. Henson's artistic process is not unlike the painter's: 'just as you can scrape back areas of painting and go over them, you do follow something along over maybe several weeks and change things until it slips past its best point and you lose it. And then there's a long, often a very long, period when the work is turning into something else – you can't wind it back to whatever it was.'². Henson's first solo exhibition, held at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne in 1975 when he was 19 years old, heralded the beginnings of a unique photographic vision of the Australian landscape. The NGV has now acquired over 100 works by Henson, the most significant of any public institution. Henson represented Australia at the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995. His photographic works have been exhibited extensively both locally and internationally over an incredible 45-year career. Henson's seminal work is held in every major public collection in Australia and numerous important museum collections worldwide, including the Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA; Denver Art Museum, USA; Houston Museum of Fine Art, USA; Sammlung Volpinum, Vienna, Austria; Museum Moderner Kunst (MUMOK), Stifting Ludwig Wien, Vienna; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada; Tate Collection, London; and the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Fenella Kernebone is the host of ABC TV’s new weekly half hour arts show, Art Nation.

In conjunction with the ABC’s new Arts Gateway, Art Nation follows on from the ABC’s previous arts show, Sunday Arts, which Fenella began working on as a presenter and producer in 2006.

Fenella continues to report on current significant art trends and interviews local and international filmmakers and artists. Feature interviews include; Geoffrey Rush, Phillip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Michael Nyman and Ang Lee amongst others.

Fenella’s passion for the arts started over a decade ago after she volunteered at the local community radio 2SER at the age of seventeen. At twenty-one Fenella won a competition to be a Triple J presenter as part of the youth arts festival Noise. Soon afterwards Fenella was selected to host the youth arts program, Artery (1999-2004) interviewing hundreds of performers, actors, artists, filmmakers and musicians. In 2003 Fenella launched a new show on Triple J called The Sound Lab, which she continues to host every Sunday night.

Fenella moved into television in 2004 as one of the hosts of The Movie Show on SBS TV. Reviewing hundreds of films each year, Fenella also reported from the Toronto and Berlin International Film Festivals and interviewed scores of filmmakers and actors such as Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Tilda Swinton and Keanu Reeves.

In addition to her television and radio commitments, Fenella has also presented awards at the Lexus IF Awards, MC’d the Melbourne Leg of Tropfest, hosted Q & A sessions at the Art Gallery of NSW as part of their Art After Hours series, hosted The APRA Classical Music Award as well as providing her services as a judge at film festivals and art competitions. She also has written for various magazines including film reviews for Limelight and has extensive voice over experience.