James Sourris AM Collection

These large-scale oil paintings depict the transformation of material or matter; that is, the relationship between subject and form, as well as the consumption of the natural world, albeit obliquely. The works explore the materiality of things at the same time as evoking translucent and transparent forms, outlines, shadows and parts that function as sub-units; for example, the diffusive layered tissues of membranes. Layers of oil paint build up strata, superimposed to create narratives that explore diversity, analogy, fragmentation and the grotesque as positive tropes.

From an art-historical perspective, two of the works quote the language of the Symbolists who were also concerned with energy and entropy, namely the first and second laws of thermodynamics. These earlier works interweave signifiers of culture, such as cars and fighter jets with natural forms (desert storm camouflage, fine fossil plant structures, terns and swallows). Two more recent works, Protean World (2010) and Dream Weapon (2010) – one the bride of the other, one vertical and one horizontal, one internal and one external – are of the same crevice taken from opposite angles. These later works continue to focus on conflating myth, archaeology and natural resources.