Anna Glynn
Antipodean Menagerie brings together an enticing survey of works by contemporary Australian artist, Anna Glynn.
Recognised for her practice which is immersed in nature, history, ecology and the environment, her works range from those referencing historical images from early Australian artists to strange chequered dystopian landscapes. Animals feature, whether they be native or introduced, some are vessels embracing past Antipodean stories and others reside or hide within the landscape.
From the Artist:
My extensive historical research draws me to creating works that are often strange and curious, reflecting the peculiarity of our Australian past and intersecting with contemporary concerns. Quite often exquisite extinct creatures feature, reawakened as reminders of the fragility of our environment, alien tableaus that reawaken our sense of puzzlement and wonderment.
The animal silhouette works create profiles that are almost map like, geographical in their presentation. Some invoke the strangeness of the first European encounters and refer to a time where depictions of unfamiliar fauna were often bizarre and curious whilst others present the new bovine settlers as vessels embracing and containing the landscapes they now inhabit. These works express my obsession with natural history and the exploration of this country where new creatures existed just beyond the horizon, a world of fantasia, a place on the cusp of reality and imagination.
In all of these works the Australian landscape is presented as a stage, a scene for reflection and for the possible reimagination of our historical narratives.
Biography
Anna Glynn is an award-winning contemporary Australian artist and curator with a passion for investigating the connection between humans, history, nature, land, place, physical and ephemeral. Her diverse international art practice includes: multimedia, painting, drawing, moving image, sculpture, installation, photography, writing, music, sound and interdisciplinary collaborations between art and science. She has an active international art practice of projects and exhibitions in Estonia, USA, Sweden, Norway, Hong Kong, China etc. Commissions: include European Union UNESCO funded ‘Art, Ecology & Science Project’, USA, Sweden and Australia 2018 as well as The Art of Threatened Species in Australia 2020. Her Promiscuous Provenance exhibition toured 2018 – 2021 to 10 galleries across QLD, NSW, ACT, VIC and SA with the support of the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program. Her numerous Artist in Residencies sees her working on projects around the world in locations including: a small island in the Gulf of Mexico, the top of an extinct Australian volcano and linking UNESCO Biosphere Reserves in the USA and Sweden. Her upcoming 2023 Artist in Residence positions include: Mt Wilson, NSW and the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland.
Her work has been acquired for public and private collections including: Australian Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra; National Museum of Australia Collection, Canberra; Shoalhaven City Art Collection; Artbank Australia and the Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings.
Anna Glynn lives on the South Coast of NSW at Jaspers Brush. Her beloved rainforest home is tucked at the base of the steep cliffs of the Illawarra escarpment. Her daily physical engagement with the surrounding natural environment informs and shapes her work. Looking out across a vast sky to the distant Pacific Ocean she regularly records the weather patterns and the moving clouds. Richly furred Swamp Wallabies graze adjacent to her studio; lyrebirds frenetically call and silent wombats meander through the garden - a rich source of material to connect her work to the landscape and environment.
“...Her sometimes surprising and disorienting combinations of historical and contemporary subjects insert history into the present. And the present into history. They remind us of just how wondrous and alienating the Australian landscape was, so puzzling and new it seemed almost the stuff of fairy tales…”
Louise Anemaat, Head, Pictures Section at State Library of NSW
“Through her interdisciplinary artistic practice and ongoing investigations of place and perspective through time, Anna finds way of challenging assumptions and what we think we know. Her work is beautiful, curious and provocative.”
Marla Guppy, Chair South Coast Arts, Inc
Superimposition. Colonial Selfie, I’m Extant, They’re Extinct - Detail
‘Extinction Game - Eastern Hare Wallaby’ responds to devastation and renewal in the local fire-ravaged landscape. Influenced by colonial images, the extinct Eastern Hare Wallaby sits, a losing player upon a black and white chess board. Referencing: a game, burnt and unburnt, race, colonial floorcloths, alternations of good and bad?
1. Extinction Game - Eastern Hare Wallaby
2020 acrylic on canvas
123cm x 153cm
$12,500
Finalist 2020 Basil Sellars Art Prize‘Extinction Game – Norfolk Island Kaka’ reimagines a historical portrait of an extinct Australian bird. Surviving in captivity until 1851, the parakeet perches, a losing player.
The black and white chess board may refer not only to a game, to race, to colonial floorcloths, to finance, to alternations of good and bad.
2. Extinction Game - Norfolk Island Kaka
2020
Pencil on Stonehenge 250gsm paper
95cm x 62cm (framed Size 119cm x 79cm)
$7,500
‘Extinction Game – Red-Crowned Parakeet’ reimagines a historical portrait of an extinct Australian bird. This parrot was endemic to Lord Howe Island and last recorded in 1869 and is considered extinct since 1870.
The black and white chess board may refer not only to a game, to race, to colonial floorcloths, to finance, to alternations of good and bad.
3. Extinction Game – Red-Crowned Parakeet
2020
Pencil on Stonehenge 250gsm paper
95cm x 62cm (framed Size 119cm x 79cm)
$7,500
Finalist 2020 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing
In Extinction Game my drawing process is influenced by colonial historical images and the recent bushfires. The work references black and white as race, as ‘chequered’ speaking of alternations of good and bad, as a game, as colonial floorcloths, as the French escheker connected with finance/revenue and more specifically the game of chess. The wallaby on the right is the macropus greyi – the Toolache wallaby which is now extinct and featured beautiful dark face markings. Created in between my bushfire evacuations in a studio surrounded by smoke and uncertainty whilst listening to the RFS fire scanners.
4. Extinction Game
2019
ink and pencil on Arches paper
66cm x 102cm (framed size 87cm x 120cm)
$8,500
Finalist 2021 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing
In ‘Native Dog Swallows Julia Johnstone’, an imprecise Australian native fauna silhouette ‘swallows’ a colonial portrait to create a romantic antipodean anomaly.
In this reimagined work I reference two historical images from early Australian artists through a naïve engagement, expressing a nostalgia for a somewhat fictional colonial wonderland. A loose impression of the arcadian landscape of Richard Read Senior’s ‘Portrait of Julia Johnstone’ / 1824 is captured within the crisp silhouette of a ‘Native Dog (dingo)’ by T.R. Browne / 1813.
The profile of the dingo is sharp, controlled and disconnected from the surrounds. Contained within the silhouette, the landscape is tamed, a flower garden flourishes, a pup stares out and the young woman is outfitted in an azure gown unsuitable for the local climate. This is an incongruous early European vision of Australia, a physical imposition, transplanted.
5. ‘Native Dog Swallows Julia Johnstone’
2021
Pencil and watercolour on Arches paper
65cm X 102cm (framed size 87cm x 120cm)
$9,000
The Antipodean Swan works reference an archetypal silhouette of the black swan taken from the Port Jackson Painter, 1788 – 1792, First Fleet Collection of the Natural History Museum, London.
Through researching colonial historical images, I reinterpret and reimagine them using watercolour and pencil into new lives in the 21st century as artefacts of the imagination, objects of wonder and curiosity.
Works referenced:
• ‘The black Swan the size of an English Swan. Native name Mulgo’
Port Jackson Painter 1788 – 1792 First Fleet Collection, Natural History Museum, London
• View of the Heads, and part of Botany Bay - from the End of Cooks River 1822-1823 by Lycett from Mitchell Library State Library NSW
• Small Parakeet by Thomas Watling 1792’
• Bird – Star Wing from Select Specimens from Nature of the birds and animals of NSW collected and arranged by Thomas Skottowe Esq
2020
Watercolour & pencil on Arches paper 42cm X 30cm (framed Size 61cm x 46cm)
$1,600
6. Anna Glynn Antipodean Swan 1The Antipodean Swan works reference an archetypal silhouette of the black swan taken from the Port Jackson Painter, 1788 – 1792, First Fleet Collection of the Natural History Museum, London.
Through researching colonial historical images, I reinterpret and reimagine them using watercolour and pencil into new lives in the 21st century as artefacts of the imagination, objects of wonder and curiosity.
Works referenced:
• ‘The black Swan the size of an English Swan. Native name Mulgo’
Port Jackson Painter 1788 – 1792 First Fleet Collection, Natural History Museum, London
• View of the Heads, and part of Botany Bay - from the End of Cooks River 1822-1823 by Lycett from Mitchell Library State Library NSW
• Small Parakeet by Thomas Watling 1792’
• Bird – Star Wing from Select Specimens from Nature of the birds and animals of NSW collected and arranged by Thomas Skottowe Esq
7. Anna Glynn Antipodean Swan 2
2020
Watercolour & pencil on Arches paper 42cm x 30cm (framed Size 61cm x 46cm)
$1,600
Finalist 2020 Elaine Bermingham National Watercolour Prize in Landscape Painting Griffith University
Art Museum
In this reimagined landscape I indulge my perpetual curiosity to lead me back in time to an intersection of worlds. In this re-interpretation, I am referencing historical images from early Australian artists through a naïve playful engagement and expressing a nostalgia for a somewhat fictional antipodean wonderland. A loose impression of the arcadian landscape of Eugene von Guerard’s ‘Stoneleigh, Beaufort near Ararat, Victoria’ is captured within the silhouette of ‘Henry F. Stone and his Durham ox’ by Thomas Flintoff. This is a world of fantasia, a place on the cusp of reality and imagination, a strange juxtaposed natural history tableau.
Referenced images:
• ‘Stoneleigh, Beaufort near Ararat, Victoria’, 1866 by Eugene von Guerard (Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales)
• ‘Henry F. Stone and his Durham ox’ by Thomas Flintoff, 1887 (Art Gallery of Ballarat Collection)
8. ‘Flintoff Swallows von Guerard’
2020
Watercolour and watercolour pencil on Arches paper 66cm x 102cm (framed size 98cm x 127cm)
$9,000
An Australian pastoral ideal referencing past artists, past landscapes, past antipodean dreams. A crisp bovine silhouette embraces a reimagination of Hans Heysen’s iconic painting, ‘The coming home’.
9. ‘Heysen’s cow coming home’
2020
Watercolour & pencil on Arches paper
65cm x 102cm (framed size 91cm x 127cm)
$9,000
Finalist 2020 Fisher’s Ghost Art Award
In this reimagined hybrid landscape, I reference ‘Portrait of a Large Dog’ (Dingo), commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks and painted from an inflated pelt by George Stubbs. An inaccurate Australian native fauna silhouette swallows a menagerie of loosely stylized ponies by Stubbs to create a romantic antipodean anomaly.
10. ‘Stubbs Dingo Swallows Ponies’
2020 Watercolour & pencil on Arches paper
65cm X 102cm (framed size 87cm x 120cm)
$9,000
Finalist 2018 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award
Toured to: Manning Regional Gallery, Hervey Bay Regional Gallery, University of the Sunshine Coast Gallery, Griffith Regional Art Gallery, Latrobe Regional Gallery and the Tamworth Regional Gallery
In this reimagined landscape I indulge my perpetual curiosity to lead me back in time to an intersection of worlds. By re-interpreting images of Australian colonial artists through a naïve, playful engagement, I express a nostalgia for an antipodean wonderland, before the imprint of colonization was stamped over the landscape and its inhabitants. This is a world of fantasia, a place on the cusp of reality and imagination, a strange natural history tableau.
Referenced images: Webber’s “sketch of an OPOSSUM of VAN DIEMAN’S LAND” Tasmania 1777, Glover’s “Constitution Hill sunset, Van Dieman’s Land near Mrs Ranson’s public house” 1840 (dingo) by T.R. Browne / 1813.
11. ‘Landscape within an Opossum of Van Dieman’s Land 1777 and a nod to Glover’
2018
Watercolour & pencil on Arches paper
65cm x 102cm (framed size 90cm x 120cm)
$9,000
In this reimagination of Heysen I create a crisp bovine silhouette from his gentle pastoral work ‘ The coming home’ to embrace a stylized impression from ‘In the Flinders – Far North’. My homage to Heysen, to the Australian landscape, to past artists, to past landscapes and to past antipodean dreams.
12. ‘Heysen’s Cow Meanders Flinders Ranges’
2020
Watercolour & pencil on Arches paper
65cm X 102cm (framed size 98cm x 127cm)
$9,000
2017
102cm
$8,500
13. Colonial Hybrid Lewin Kangaroo in day dress worn by Julia Johnston
Ink and pencil on Arches paper
x 65cm (framed size 91cm x 127cm)
2017
Ink, watercolour and pencil
Arches
102cm x 66cm (framed size 91cm x 127cm)
$8,500
14. Colonial Hybrid Lewin’s Kangaroo in wedding dress worn by Agnes Thompson
on
paper
1822
2017
Ink, watercolour and pencil on Arches paper
102cm x 66 cm (framed size 91cm x 127cm)
$8,500
15. Colonial Hybrid Port Jackson Painter Bag-ga-ree in Wedding Dress Ann MarsdenWater colour and gouache on paper
20 x 27cm (framed size 43cm x 50cm)
$900
16. Black Horse Starry Night
Water colour and gouache on paper
20 x 27cm (framed size 43cm x 50cm)
$900
17. Grand Pigeon
18. Kissing Horses by Full Moon
Water colour and gouache on paper
20 x 27cm (framed size 43cm x 50cm)
$900
Extinction Game – After the Fires & Six Kangaroos frames a fire storm sky. The fire-ravaged landscape contains six kangaroos hidden in the layered paint. The black and white chess board references: a game, burnt and unburnt, race, colonial floorcloths, alternations of good and bad?
19. Extinction Game – After the Fires & Six Kangaroos
2020 acrylic on canvas
123cm x 153cm
$12,500
My work ‘Superimposition, Colonial Selfie, I’m Extant, They’re Extinct’ is composed of two layers bearing witness to the extinction of Australian fauna: an original photographic self-portrait and submerged beneath this diaphanous image is an image of my watercolour self-portrait. In this I stand with arms raised, a supplicant. My body is infilled with my reimagined renditions of Australian colonial fauna paintings. The native animals depicted are now extinct, vanished, missing and gone forever. A portent for us?
20. Superimposition. Colonial Selfie, I’m Extant, They’re Extinct
2020
photo-montage
80cm x 51cm (framed size 102cm x 72cm)
$6,500
2020 Finalist Hurford Hardwood Portrait Prize