Eurotipodes Awaiting – Armchair, Kangaroo & Horse

Archival photomontage on cotton rag paper No. 2 in edition of 7 plus 2 artist’s proofs 43 x 100cm 2023

$3,250 unframed / $3,750 framed

In this reimagined landscape I indulge my perpetual curiosity to lead me back in time to an intersection of worlds. In this re-interpretation, I am referencing historical images from early colonial artists through a naïve playful engagement and expressing a nostalgia for a somewhat fictional antipodean wonderland. This is a world of fantasia, a place on the cusp of reality and imagination, a strange juxtaposed natural history tableau that references time, ecological and cultural change. The horse hangs upside down, an arrival from Europe whilst a kangaroo gazes into the future standing upon a colonial plush velvet chair. Two iconic creatures embedded in mythic Australian folklore are present interwoven in a romantic narrative of country. In reimagining elements of ‘Sydney Harbour Looking West’, 1848, an oil painting by Jacob Janssen from the State Library, NSW collection I switch the colours to now reflect the ever-present contemporary mauve jacaranda hues. The craquelure of the image surface has a fine pattern of hairline cracks, a patina of age holding stories from our past. The term, ‘Eurotipodes’, is one I created to express my feelings about the Eurocentric interpretation of the world, the notion that the Northern Hemisphere is the right way up and we hang upside down in our opposite ‘Antipodes’. The velvet armchair is from the collection of the Bendigo Art Gallery by an unknown maker labelled “Armchair (cockfighting/reading chair) c.1870 mahogany, velvet, cotton