Merchande de pommes, or Factory of inequality

Merchande de pommes, or Factory of inequality

A painting based on: “Marchande d’oranges Alexandria”, albumen silver carte-de-visite, by Hippolyte Delie, 1869; background, British Museum colonnade

From the series Hollow People:
While working on this series of 22 paintings over the year of 2018, in my mind I always referred to it as ‘Hollow People’ because the people in the photographs were almost always anonymous. Their images survived but not their names or stories; not their substance.

The series builds on my past work, which explored the impacts of the still image, the anonymous historical image, and existing and imposed narratives, especially as they relate to women.

What is present in these works? They are images that shape cultural and gender identity; they testify to cultural appropriation (multi layers of this going on); they are portraits of beauty, adornment, tribal belonging, petulance, comedy and oppression. But our almost instinctive knowledge of the sitters’ objectification and subjugation is counter balanced by the humour created by the incongruity of their settings. The visual language draws on the history of art and various cultural traditions.

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Working in oils (and sometimes adding collage), I use classical painting techniques to pursue a number of threads with equal enthusiasm. I work from photographs I’ve taken for reference, existing vintage photos, or images found online. My work is sometimes driven by my political and moral beliefs, but mostly it’s simply a result of my desire to create something beautiful. The results of these attempts are often narrative-driven, sometimes they touch on the surreal, and are often comic, ironic and absurdist.

Having worked with one of the largest collections of photography in Australia over the last twenty years as a picture librarian at the State Library of Victoria, I am heavily influenced by photography and film, and the ‘truths’ that they reveal.

Influences: Notions of alienation and loneliness. Image nausea and product nausea. Edward Hopper, Mamma Andersson, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Andrew Wyeth, David Hockney, and many other artists – too many to name.