A LOST PLACE
These images are a heartfelt reaction to the dramatically increased global threat from destructive wild fires, which have recently wrought devastation in numerous countries and particularly in my homeland, Australia.
Images featuring preserved Victorian museum specimens of both indigenous wildlife brought back to the UK by Australia’s colonising powers, and animals that were introduced to Australia and become rampant pests, serve as an ironic counterpoint to the millions of contemporary living creatures that perished in the wildfires.
Using my own archival photographs from Australia I have painted and manipulated them, stripping them of their original peaceful quality and reimagining them to represent the violent power of these conflagrations, and my own fear and anger at such devastation. The intervention of my brushstrokes on the prints are intended to mirror human intervention in nature and to implant into them my emotional response to its continual destruction, whilst simultaneously trying to find beauty and hope amidst the tragedy of these lost places.