Heide

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its epic scope  traverses an encyclopaedic range of subjects, assembled from facts, quotations,  proverbs, definitions, historical documents, newspaper accounts and the  author’s own reminiscences.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.