Tatooed Man Demented By Insects
Acrylic and collage on canvas, 125 x 170cm
From the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation Collection
‘My collages are visual poems, hoping to seduce the onlooker who, pausing for a moment, might question the images that are described. As in life, the facts are not always clear, ambiguities abound, the story is open to speculation, to the imagination.
Inspired by ancient maps, museum dioramas, shrines, shopwindow displays, scientific models, puppet theatres and putting greens, I attempt to open up peep holes into a world of my own concoction. Some views seem to be through a spyglass that sweeps across the terrain, capturing a vignette before moving on to seek another.
I find myself preoccupied with various perennial themes: the passage of time, metamorphosis, renewal, freedom and imprisonment, despair and hope, and our relationship with nature.’
Andrew Townsend
Braidwood, 2008
