In Here, there, everywhere, Maddison Kitching reflects on the role that symbols of Australian animals play in shaping our psyche. From Looney Tunes’s ‘Taz’ the Tasmanian Devil, to gun-toting kangaroos, to the Tasmanian Government’s logo of the extinct Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger), the series brings together these cultural references and places them into landscapes haunted by their presence. Through this series of paintings, Kitching seeks to interrogate our interpretations of animals, the intentions of the brands that co-opt them, and more generally, the ways in which our extractive relationships to landscape and animals distort our perceptions of place and identity.
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This series was painted on various unceded lands: Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung, Bundjalung, Larakia, Gunai Kurnai and Jawoyn lands. I acknowledge the deep and continuous relationship that First Nations people have with these lands, waters and skies. I also acknowledge the continued harm that the settler-colonial project has on this Country and its First Nations people. I pay my respects to elders past and present.
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