Spring Kookaburra triptych

I have completed a triptych for SeeChange2020 building upon the central shroud created at Worrowing in 2017 (refer to earlier posts). The kookaburra was found deceased at the Worrowing shroud site. Cost is $2400 as a triptych. SOLD

MagpieConstellation

Individual works can be sold separately.

Rising (Spring Kookaburra) 2020 bitumen, oil, gouache, aquarelle, gesso and rabbit skin glue on canvas 80(h) x 45(w) cm $720.

Magpie1

Spring Kookaburra 2017 2020 bitumen, oil, gouache, aquarelle, gesso, kookaburra and rabbit skin glue on canvas 66(h) x 73(w) cm $963.

Magpie2

Falling (Spring Kookaburra) 2020 bitumen, oil, gouache, aquarelle, gesso and rabbit skin glue on canvas 45(h) x 80(w) cm $720.

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NOW Contemporary Art Prize

My work Day and Night is a finalist in the NOW prize.

DayNight

Day and Night (Autumn Cockatoo and Flying Fox 2011) 2019. Cockatoo, flying fox, silk stitch, bitumen, oil, caput mortuum, pipeclay and rabbit skin glue on canvas. 101 x 162 cm. $3280.

Artist Statement

Road boundaries kill animals, like this flying fox and white cockatoo in Canberra 2011. I dissolve the boundary between animal subject and art object by placing decomposing animals on canvas to infest the weave. After documenting their disintegrated remains, I steep the rancid cloth in vinegar and hang it in the elements to cure before stretching onto a wooden frame. I seal the evocative bodily stain or shroud with hot rabbit skin glue and spend weeks, months, or years, in its presence. In 2019, I felt drawn to this shroud and its accompanying photographs of decayed subjects, my two younger children running in a field, their loyal father in his cowboy hat, and two white cockatoos watching from dead trees in the dry Monaro. I apply the bitumen and oil of Europeans to depict the dead creatures, and sacred pipeclay given by a recently deceased Aboriginal mentor negotiates the ground.

Bherwerre 11

Bherwerre11 The final of the twelve painted panels completed in the new year featuring a spotted pardalote in front of its muddy bank home and the silvereye in the wattle. Both photos referenced were taken by Chris Grounds. Today I joined the other Bherwerre wetland artists on a wetland walk guided by Plant specialist Rebecca and bird specialist/photographer Chris. It was lovely and inspiring.

Bherwerre 12

Finally finished panel 12 featuring superb and variegated fairy wren couples with tiny sun orchid and horned orchid. Still working on panel 11

Bherwerre12

Ghosts -Re-Imagining the Wool Road Exhibition, Shoalhaven Regional Gallery Nowra NSW. February 2019

The Other Art Fair Sydney

New Works for the Art Fair:
‘Shadow Self (Winter Currawong and Ringtail Possum)’ 2016-17. Currawong, ringtail possum, bitumen, oil, aquarelle and rabbit skin glue on canvas. 66 x 165 (h) cm. SOLD
‘Death Hatch (Spring Port Jackson Shark)’ 2017. Port Jackson shark, bitumen, oil, delek and rabbit skin glue on canvas. SOLD
‘Body Map (Spring Stingray)’ 2017. Stingray, bitumen, oil, delek and rabbit skin glue on canvas. 88 x 73 (h) cm. SOLD

Worrowing Donation

During my PhD I created many ‘shrouds’ using an installation set up on a farm in the Monaro where Tony and his partner the sculptor Steven Holland live. The crested pigeon was found deceased on a road in Canberra and placed on a sprung bed-base to decompose. The eucalypt under which the canvas lay leached its rich brown bark juice on the right hand side while the mesh protecting the body from predators left a rusty imprint. Originally exhibited without further work undertaken as Alone (Spring Pigeon) 2011 in my graduate show, I was suddenly compelled to take the work to Hill End with me in 2016. It was there I added my most common motif, the nest using delek the sacred white ochre from Madjarlngarlkum in Western Arnhem Land. The nest is a cosy home offered to the bird and myself when away from home. I then painted in the post-decomposed body of the pigeon using bitumen and a touch of oils that speak to the bark stain. I lined the bird beaks up like a reflection, a conversation between two forms of representation; one created by the disintegrating subject another the painted signifier. I then located the work in Hill End by painting in an iconic structure found in the town using a very minimal technique in which the main body of the figure consists of the raw canvas ground sized with rabbit skin glue which sparkles under lights and seals the bodily fluids and debris to the surface.

**Alone (Spring Pigeon) 2011 in Hill End Winter** 2016 Crested pigeon, delek, bitumen, oil and rabbit skin glue on canvas SOLD

Female Kangaroo Shroud

The second phase of my latest experiment in developing a shroud process indicate the black plastic and wet autumn weather created a moist environment which disintegrated the body dissipating definition in the body shape. The first male kangaroo shroud had a well defined body print as it was uncovered and made in summer during drought.

WinterKangaroopost