Ex Australis semper aliquid novi (after Gould)

Ex Australis semper aliquid novi (after Gould)

2009
25×100 cm
etching, aquatint & linocut on Stonehenge, BFK Rives & Somerset papers with chine colle
variant edition of 3

This work is inspired by convict artist, William Gould’s Sketchbook of Fishes in Macquarie Harbour (c. 1832). Gould was transported to Van Dieman’s Land in 1827 for stealing. His original works were done in watercolours whilst serving a sentence at Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania’s rugged west coast. I decided to pay homage to Gould whilst reading Richard Flanagan’s fictional account of Gould’s life in his novel Gould’s Book of Fish, during my recent residency at the Frans Masereel Centre in Belgium.

I feel there is a sense of conclusion in Gould being transported to the “New World” and creating his works, while I was “transported” back to the “Old World” where I made reproductions of his works. The observant viewer may notice hints of architectural reflections in the water segments of my prints, which are typical of the type of warehouses that line the canals of Holland and Belgium. These convey a sense of feeling like a “fish out of water”, something I experienced whilst undertaking my residency and which I imagine Gould must have felt in his strange new world.

Ex Australis semper aliquid novi (after Gould) belongs to the following groups:

Fine Arts, Let's Pay Homage, Printmakers and Printmaking, Shameless Self-Promotion and Works On Paper Available for sale as

Greeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints, Framed Prints and Posters