Danie Mellor

I was walking up near Atherton one day and I saw (Cyanthea Cooperi)

2003, Colour Mezzotint with Synthetic Fur

I was walking up near Atherton one day and I saw (Cyanthea Cooperi) showcases a new way of expressing the artist's cultural heritage.

This print confirms Mellor’s identification with the Queensland rainforest region, and magnifies the distinctive elements of fiddle backs on the fern trees in the northern tablelands. Mellor’s concern with attention to the minute expands from a distinctive Aboriginal tradition, where the region’s art of shield making magnified simple animal and floral designs, almost to the point of abstraction. The combination of the fake fur in this work represents the hairiness of the tree ferns, and alludes to the nature of the rainforest and its sequence of decay and regeneration.

Dimensions

116 x 168 cm

Object number

2006.7

Categories

Visual Art

Credit

Donated by the artist, 2006