My name is Vanessa Barbay. This blog was created to document my PhD painting project at the Australian National University supported by an ANU research scholarship 2009-2013. My studio practice based painting project investigated animal death through the creation of the ‘shroud’, an image of individual animals created by their own decomposition. In conjunction with the practice component of the project I produced a dissertation exploring the traditional representation of animals by Aboriginal painters in Western Arnhem Land, particularly in site specific rock art. In 2013 I was an inaugural recipient of the ANU Vice Chancellor’s College Visiting Artist’s Fellowship for which I brought together visual anthropology and painting in a cross-cultural collaborative painting project with childhood friend Theresa Ardler, a Gweagal – Dharawal woman from the Wreck Bay community. My current solo show ‘Death’s Witness’ 2025 is on show at the Shoalhaven Reginal Art Gallery until May 10.
Contact: laomedia[at]gmail.com CV_VanessaBarbay
Bodily print made from decomposing male kangaroo with the addition of skull painted with gesso
Laomedia 