It has been quite the year, starting with such precious family times, visits from overseas family, the birth of a new granddaughter, the wedding of our daughter, a solo sketchbook exhibition at The Condensery, and then Acute QFever which took some time to diagnose and a long recovery.
I’m back on deck and have been using studio time to prepare for my next solo exhibition end of the year….
13 Dec 2024 to 2 Feb 2025
Caloundra Regional Gallery
Based on years of observation and research within the bird and mammal collections at the Queensland Museum, this body of work seeks to explore the objectification of animals in nature through taxidermy, and in culture through the souvenir. We have, and are creating, facsimiles and profiting from these copies despite the real risk of losing the originals.
What is our uneasy relationship with animal objects, particularly taxidermy and the mass-produced souvenir? As a self-confessed collector, what is my responsibility in all this? Why do I tend to want to order and display, collect and own the natural world?
An extention of the exhibition held a few years ago, with new works, as well as mashups of early scientific taxonomy charts and illustrations, museum taxidermy, pop culture and the mass-produced souvenir, this body of work is presented as a contemporary Wunderkammer (a cabinet of curiosity). It asks questions about artifice, collection, consumerism, mimicry, wonder and beauty.
https://gallery.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/nature-and-culture-animal-as-object