“Can these bones live...”

It’s hard to articulate the seduction and sensation of the highlands and other wild places in Tasmania. There is an invisible threshold where your presence or sense of self abates until you are left with simply glimpses of an ancient, timeless land, one that has great collective wisdom, untamed power, synergetic co-dependency and life force. This experience of the highlands simultaneously reassures and humbles me. Yet over the last few seasons, I have had a sense of foreboding that this could be my last encounter, much like visiting ageing parents: where nostalgia and transience define the moment.

I am frightfully aware of the vulnerability and irreplaceable value of these sacred spaces and deliberately tried to harness that sense of angst and nostalgia in this work. The title “Can these bones live …” refers to the ancient story where God asks Ezekiel if a valley of dry bones, symbolic of human rebellion and destruction can ever be reversed. It is meant to be a story of hope, miraculous restoration for a seemingly impossible situation.

This painting is my prayer that these precious places will rise up and become flesh again, and not be consigned to history as old stories, pictures and myths.