Towards Lunatic Hill

I have recently come across a few images of Lunatic Hill, near Lightning Ridge, NSW. It is a surreal place with unusual colours and shapes. I am interested in how our imaginations can evoke a sense of wonder about such a landscape, one that sits somewhere between the familiar and the unfamiliar. A place where leaves fan up and out like flames, whilst Flora and Fauna take on sinister associations. It speaks to the hostile associations we can have of the outback and is in the tradition of French artist Henri Rousseau, who painted surreal visions of the Jungle. The relationship between the interior and exterior spaces depicted within the artwork also play out an interesting sub-text of the menacing yet light imagery depicted

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Michael Hawkins is a New Zealand-born Artist and Printmaker who works from his studio in Melbourne, Australia.
Michael’s practice currently splits into two specific areas, limited edition works and original paintings. Both strains are interested in how meaning can be generated from the visual interaction that takes place between sign and signage -between the familiar and the unknown. Whether through common-place motifs such as a snake or a lump of wood or through more ambiguous imagery creation and juxtaposition.
Michael’s ‘Overload’ limited-edition artworks shown here are drawing-based, utilising silkscreen printing (and occasionally painting) processes. Whilst these works concern themselves with individual themes or subjects, they are also interested in exploring the visual effects of information overload and in asking questions through these works of how we divide the meaningful from the inauthentic. These works are characterised by a bold, graphic aesthetic and a playful yet (deceptively) sardonic humour.
Hawkins’s ‘Wild Things/Light and Sinister’ series evoke childhood wonder and teenage nostalgia as starting points. They derive inspiration from sources such as ‘Where the Wild Things are’, experiences of Camping and Ghost stories. There is also an interest in the Australian relationship to country. It is scary when things can kill you and your imagination can run wild. These works aim to appear light and bright initially but with more sinister undertones that reveal themselves through further viewing, creating a juxtaposition between the malevolent and the naïve and nostalgic.