Painting the Colonial Folly

The intention of this work is to present an alternative view of colonial architecture within a notional Tasmanian ‘Garden of Eden’. It does this by juxtaposing images from Doré’s Paradise Lost (1866) with stylised trees from a painting by John Glover (1832) and 19th century botanical illustrations of apple varieties. Flat, highly coloured geometric shapes intrude on this landscape to represent exotic architecture. A wide variety of technique, including UV printing, spray gun and oil painting amplify the disjunctive presence of these imaginary follies. The picturing of the follies as unstable forms suggests that heritage values are contestable, unfixed and ultimately subject to the whims of changing societal attitudes.