JANINE GOOD

Surreal Landscape

Surrealism is probably the first genre of art that captured my imagination as a teenager and I have found it a useful style to explore concepts and ideas.

More Ancient Than Time, was a reaction to the experience - that the Australian outback seems to make Western cultural history seem small and so recent in comparison so I have placed the Venus de Milo like a tiny ornament in the landscape.

Perhaps also to ask are those of us from colonial ancestry just tourists in our own country?

The imagery is used symbolically, I am certainly not appropriating Indigenous Art or culture, this is a fabricated landscape, a composite of various sites - no such place exists. I am expressing an idea about how the Australian Centre affected me even though I have no indigenous heritage that I know of. Ownership over culture is something I don’t know how to fit with - my family has been in this country since early settlement, a blink in the scheme of Australian history. I feel a strong connection with the land, it’s plants and animals and features but I’m still considered European even though I have only barely experienced a little more than a month of Europe in my entire life. My interest in European Art History connects me, in the absence of having my own sense of Australian culture.

I think this is why I identify as an artist, so that I can be of the world instead of belonging to a country.

        

Rocks on Beach 1999 shows a rock collection placed on a magazine photo of the landscape, making a comment that most Australians view the continent via the media. I also like the visually surreal play of imagery in this work. Many of these rocks were formed when this ancient land contained an inland sea that no longer exists but may possibly reappear with rising sea levels.

 

Rabbit Chiller Ghost Pastel on rag paper 43x65cm

Not many people notice the surreal shape of the rabbit that the background landscape makes. A Rabbit Chiller is a relic from the past, during the depression when rabbit was a popular supply of cheaper meat and the skins were made into felt. The Rabbiter’s would take the rabbit carcasses to a chiller building to keep until a truck would collect them and transport to the capital cities. Catching rabbits was a source of income for many rural families. This one was in Cudgewa and the person who bought this artwork was a relative of H.K.James and remembered going with her father in the butcher’s truck to

 collect the rabbits.

Still Young at Heart, Oil on canvas 152x122cm is self-explanatory. The flower is still blooming inside the dried shell of the seed pod. This was a challenging concept to describe. It is a statement about how even though looks fade, often the young spirit is still alive inside if permitted to be. Often older people are frowned upon for ‘letting themselves go’ in society today where youth is idolised.

Face of Light features a figure holding a carrot that adds a surreal element to the painting with its luminous light.

The figure is an actual Melbourne character named Nathan who is a beacon of light trying to encourage people to smile by using various props. He found the giant carrot the most successful.

I had permission from Chris from the Humans of Melbourne Facebook page to use their photo of Nathan as a reference.

Janine Good 2022