Since graduating from the ANU School of Art Glass workshop in 2004 I have worked in the Arts, both in Canberra and the Far South Coast of NSW, in various capacities (administration, curating and critical writing) ‒ always promoting the practices of other artists, but with limited time and/or opportunity to make work of my own. That notwithstanding, I have managed to keep the flame alive ‒ sneaking in the odd piece here and there until at last I’ve established my own studio workshop in the wilds of the remote, rural village of Wyndham; finally gathering up the threads of where I left off creatively. Bio/CV on my website www.prisonersofthecrown.com
My work is often driven by humour and narrative, in a melding of material and colloquialism. Like most artists I’m informed by the universal, often imponderable, compass points of life ‒ but my overriding interest lies in a laconic Australian voice; sometimes strident, sometimes worn soft by self-effacement, sometimes lyrical, but always observational.
’Live export: not a cruise (Dark Matters)’ marks a turn in the joyous mood of my ’Surf and Turf’ series (an ode to the Far South Coast where I live and practice) which references everything we all hold dear ‒ like a visual aggregate of our agrarian coastal culture (not least being the local blokes’ pub meal of choice.) ’Life export: not a cruise’, however, contemplated something far more unpalatable; the cruel live export trade in Australian livestock, where animals are shipped off to barbaric, almost medieval, slaughter in countries with scant regard to humane practices. Now, of course, in the Time of Corona, the piece has morphed into an analogy of the current Covid-19 crisis ‒ where cattle class has taken on a more alarming guise. Because now the carnevale has turned sinister and plague ships lie offshore, their crews held hapless in a captivity cloaked with the threat of contagion. Ironically, here in Australia, it’s the Federal Department of Agriculture that has responsibility for the bio-security of cruise ships docking at Australian ports.
Cattle class indeed, the world over.