Mont Blanc ( 'Ol Bitey)

Extending the Reach celebrates recent acquisitions of APW prints by a number of distinguished Art Galleries and Museums including the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Victoria & Albert Museum and The British Museum. Showcasing a small selection of these recent acquisitions, this exhibition exemplifies the breadth of printmaking by some of Australia's foremost artists. APW's partnership with these major public institutions ensures that limited edition prints produced by Australian artists are represented in these collections and made available to a broader audience via exhibition programs and scholarly research. The Australian Print Workshop is a not for profit institution that has a board of directors and a curatorial panel that peer reviews and selects living Indigenous and non Indigenous Australian and International artists for exhibition and residency within Australia and globally. Mont Blanc ('ol Bitey') was acquired by the British Museum for their permanent collection. This work of Weaver's contributes to the further 6 prints already held by this Internationally renowned Museum, which has the largest collection of the most culturally significant prints and drawings in the world. The photographic lithograph 'Mont Blanc ('ol Bitey') considers the environmental implications following the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokul Volcano in Iceland. In particular, the Volcano's expulsion of microscopic particles and poisonous vapours upon the islands Razorbill Auk colony. (Approximately 230,000 pairs). A 'snowball' pom-pom is balanced on top of the bird's head. Suggesting with humour, and imagination that the bird carries a potential remnant of its habitat to begin life in a new environment. This work highlights the fragility of our environment, its decreasing systems of bio-diversity and our hysterical quest for control over nature.