Australian history is itself an absurdist collage. Cut between our landscapes are narratives of colonial mythology that render our environments complex and Eurocentric in the colonial fight for ownership over the material and the ideological. My triptych Naarm 1836, is itself a visual manifestation of this confusion. Borrowing elements from historical paintings, my colonial figures highlight how colonisation and the ‘objectivity’ they present, is fuelled by individual greed and patriotic desire. In that same way, this work is both a mix of personal truth and fiction. I like to play with the idea of historicization, reimagining and using the tartan to overlay nature & connect my Scottish heritage alongside my signature use of hi vis fluoro yellow to illustrate the legacies and complexities of colonisation .

This work was first shown at Melbourne Art Fair 24.