CONTEMPORARY artist, Benni Phillips Nozdrachev, has returned home after more than a decade in Europe to take up residence at his Numeralla property and continue his artistic endeavours in Australia. Benni has mixed feelings about being back in Australia and is open and frank about how his multi-disciplinary artistic expression is received by the general Australian public. "This was my home area, but I have been out of the country for 11 years," he said. "There's good parts and bad parts about being an artist and exhibiting here, it's not all sunshine and lollipops. I am not sugar-coating things, this area, in general, is not very supportive of the arts." Benni's work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and symposiums in Australia, Finland, Germany, Estonia, Italy and Canada. Benni expresses his art through objects he sees and gathers when walking outside in nature - the finished work is either in painting or installation form. His works are currently on display in Cooma's Raglan Gallery - the first of the two-part exhibition opened in late November last year. When asked how Part I of the Heads and Tails exhibition was received, Benni was refreshingly honest with his answers. Five of his art works sold, but to Benni it's not about the number of sales. "I don't know about how it went, it's not something I think about, I just do it. The sales are not the important part of it - they are small miracles," he said. The second instalment of his exhibition is now open and features his latest artistic projects, including a unique installation which he describes as "weird and wild". The installation is titled 'Asteroid Farm', a futuristic vision of 25 individual architecturally-designed 'asteroid buildings or constructions'. "Asteroid Farm could be on an asteroid, or it could be on earth," Benni said. "I often make these kind of architectural pieces, there's a different type of art involved in these works. I have made similarly designed work mainly in Finland or Germany, it's normally outside but sometimes inside. "This has been in my mind for a while, I am very happy with it," Benni said. The installation will have an audio as an accompaniment in the background. The recording, mainly comprising of the sound of frogs, came from the same area where material for the installation was collected on his Numeralla property. Paintings hung in Part II of Benni's exhibition have been newly produced and created in the last six weeks. "There is no theme or order to the two exhibits," he said. "I don't work in themes, it is up to people to come and look at it, and they can decide what it is. "It can change over time also, even when I am creating something new it can change and evolve from when I worked on it the day before. "It's like nature you can look at anything and call it art, so it just goes like that and then eventually I figure it out - most of the time, not all of the time!" Benni recognises the importance of the Raglan Gallery in Cooma, acknowledging the volunteers who keep the gallery operating. "We need volunteers to do these things. "This gallery is great, but it's been quiet. Exhibiting in Cooma, or this area, is difficult. "What I have said, it's not positive or negative, it's just the truth," Benni added. Having resided in Germany for five years and more recently, Finland for the last six years, he has experienced the different reactions to art as an occupation while living and working in Europe, and in Australia. "Being back here, the main question people ask, if you're an artist, is what's your real job? - it's the basic attitude I often get here, which is different to where I was living in Finland and Germany. It's totally accepted and understood there what I do, and is considered as work." Benni has presented more than 80 exhibitions in the last 12 years. "I am in Australia indefinitely, but will be going back to Finland at some point. I am not very concrete, I'm just doing whatever I can to survive, like everyone else. "What I do is no different to anyone else, it's not special, it's just work - but I don't always get paid for my work." When it was suggested his exhibition would be special for Cooma, Benni humbly responded, "I have had exhibitions here before over the years... if you want to know more about how my work is received then it would be best talk to the gallery volunteers". Raglan exhibitions co-ordinator, Jen Coles, has confirmed how it is, in fact, special for Cooma to have Ben's work hanging in the local gallery. "There has been a lot of interest in the exhibition. It's a different sort of exhibition, being contemporary art, which is great to have here in Cooma. Outside of a big city, you don't get too many contemporary art exhibitions in the country. "Not everyone likes contemporary art, they prefer their landscapes, but part of our role is to bring different styles of arts to people locally. "Benni's installation in the back of the gallery is very different - we've never had something like that, which is fantastic - in somewhere like Finland where Benni has lived, it would be quite a normal thing for him to be given a grant to create something like that - so it's there for people to see and think about. "Whereas, our relationship with art is not the same - maybe in Melbourne and Sydney, but not particularly in other places like here. "Like all of Benni's work, everyone can see something else in his art; you might like how it looks, you might like the colours...his art doesn't have to be of something. "It's a different arts scene here in Cooma. Benni has a studio in Helsinki, it can be quite isolating here, away from what he is used to, but we're really excited we have something like this to show in our local gallery," Jen said. 'Heads and Tails Part II' runs until March 2.
