My new works feature intimate portraits of native species housed within the Melbourne Museum’s collection. The paintings utilise techniques reminiscent of early colonial documentation, a style of art prevalent during the era of European colonial expansion, with images exploring the subject’s unique characteristics. However, instead of illustrating species within the ‘landscape’, the portraits identify themselves as taxidermy animals with their collection tags, labels, or polystyrene supports included in the pictorial space.
The paintings are void of trimmings, as documented in the works of 18th-century artists John Gould, Edward Lear, George Kearsley Shaw, and Helena Forde. Instead, they present the viewer with a still and silent portrait.
Many Australian species, once documented so richly during the colonial ‘discovery’ period, are now registered as critically endangered in the wild. The works, in their thought-provoking manner, urge us to consider the profound links between colonialism and the urgent extinction crisis we face.
A selection of painting works are being exhibited in the Archive, at Wonthaggi Union Community Arts Centre Light Box Lane Gallery, 96 Graham St, Wonthaggi VIC
The works exhibited reflect on my childhood experience growing up in the ‘wilds’ of The Cape and its surroundings, the unceded lands of the Bunurong people. Each work reminisces on past chance encounters with native wildlife and, in turn, meditates on the silence of the remaining wild spaces today.
Some of these species were once locals to The Cape, and the works memorialise and observe their unique characteristics and features. Similar to early colonial representations of Australian fauna, however, the disguise of flora isn’t present in these works, and the taxidermed mounts remain in the pictorial space.
Wonthaggi Light Box Lane is open 24/7
Address: Light Box Lane, Wonthaggi Union Community Arts Centre, 96 Graham St, Wonthaggi VIC
Exhibition dates: 3 December 2024 – 30 March 2025
Further details about the exhibition can be found Bass Coast website.
Image credit: Melbourne Museum, 2024, oil on linen, 40 x 30 cm. Image’s captured by Mark Ashkanasy.