Vanitas Drawing

The title "Vanitas Landscape" refers to the tradition of using Vanitas symbols throughout the history of Western art and is used in this case ironically as a reference to what is sometimes seen as an antiquated form of expression in contemporary art practice :_ pencil drawing. The skull is presented in a landscape format in an additional reference the tradition of landscape painting which is also neglected sometimes in contemporary art practice, yet is relevant to the history of Australian art practices. In a statement about the process of selecting the chosen works by Sydney artist Mr Kingston AM, who was the selected peer reviewer, said: "In judging the drawings I have been guided by the words of Van Gogh: 'The figure of a labourer - some furrows in a ploughed field - a bit of sand, sea and sky -are serious subjects, so difficult, but at the same time so beautiful, that it is indeed worth while to devote one's life to the task of expressing the poetry hidden in them." I have intended the work to add to the continuing history of research into the relationship between personal artistic research and expression with role of emotion in work. I used the skull image because ever-present in all cultures and throughout all periods of history is this image as a visual icon. It is not the only vanitas symbol but it is the primary one. Often used in popular fashion as humorous symbol it carries with it a gravity that is inescapable. This drawing references in its topic themes of vanitas painting in the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries as well as the expressionist nature of current street art. It seeks to combine an image of the landscape and associated environmental issues with skull being used as a symbol what is both eternal and temporal in earthly life. Although using different drawing media it seeks to reference in composition Victor Hugo ink drawings in which the accidental mark can refer to an image of eternity that is constructed from abstraction.