"Thump"
21 April 2001 - 6 May 2001
Soho Gallery, Cnr. Crown and Cathedral Streets, Sydney.

Thump is a new series of work that celebrates the spirit of the kangaroo.

I began working on the series after a camping trip to the Kanangral Walls west of Oberon in NSW, last year. We camped in isolated bush near a creek that was inhabited by many kangaroos. In the mornings, through crystal cold mist, they appeared like ghosts. In the evenings, silhouetted against the backdrop of the cliffs, they appeared like warriors. They embodied a spirit of freedom and determination, sometimes comfortable with their world and sometimes watchful and restless. They seemed like complex, thoughtful creatures. They seemed powerful, yet vulnerable.

To reinforce their evocative nature, I begun incorporating into the paintings, poems about kangaroos and writings that substantiated their reality by various writers such as D. H. Lawrence, Yeats, Wordsworth and Joseph Conrad.

The images have emerged as somewhat mythical, as was my interpretation of them during that first encounter. I think they are unique and lovely animals that contradict order and create their own sense of "otherness" to inspire and ponder.

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