Animal Vegetable Mineral Exhibition 2012

Again we have this fuss over boat people and refugees. I am of the opinion that we should be working to help solve the problems first of all at the source, secondly in the camps and thirdly welcoming most of these people in some way or another.I hate the rhetoric of” turn back the boats” and the idea of indefinite detention for desperate people seems inhuman and of benefit to no one. My Australochidna is my perception of how many people think. I was going to put little characters skewered on the spikes but the actual appearance I feel is neat enough to look good and I think the message is clear enough. I also like the Australochidna as suggesting a real echidna which when it feels worried, buries itself in the sand and wont “talk” to anyone.

I made this piece a few years ago and it was sort of meant to be a large version of a penny( you know the old coin worth about 1 cent) Anyway I had junk in the kangaroo reflecting its status in Australia as pet food and I had it at a slightly different angle. I was unhappy with it after a while and decided to fill the kangaroo form with sheet material and also to add a landscape of junk.. and change the angle slightly. I am much more content with this version

I did Bloom and it had quite a geometric form as its structure.. I was playing with this panelling and thought a more flowing form with metal junk leaves would be interesting to explore� the sketch is a bit more fluid but the end result is pleasing to me�.a reflection on life?..an exploration of form ?�both have some truth. And a degree of beauty too.

One of the Galleries I supply asked me for a cow and having made them one I thought what better than to have a similar beast here in the heart of Dairy country This cow sort of suggest the machine type farming of the present/future�.I have used 4 of the teat cups in her construction again suggesting her value as a milker�. Although without teats she won�t have a high yield! .

This piece was made for the bonanza show. I have been moving between the use of junk metal and recycled rock and this piece combines them nicely. I also wanted to further express my ecological concerns and make a comment on the pace of change. Where I live its all lovely and green but as I live in a growth corridor I have seen fields developed into housing estates almost overnight. There was an old Ron Cobb cartoon of something similar and I just feel that this piece expresses my optimism that nature will survive. In even the most unfriendly environment