Micky Allan Untitled

The  Artist

Micky Allan is one of the most unusual and accomplished of contemporary Australian artists. Pioneering hand-painted photography in the late 70‘s and early 80‘s she has continued to show inventive use of materials and adventurous interplay between media. Her work covers painting, works on paper, installation work (both in its own right and in dialogue with paintings) and, most recently, engraved glass panels over works on paper. She is interested in the dialogue between abstraction and representation and in subjective inner territories that synthesise the diverse and unexpected. Often based on notions of travel or cycles of change, they are drawn from places and cultures she has lived in or travelled to, including landmarks of the Australian landscape. (From the artist's website:  http://www.mickyallan.com/ )

The Work of Art

Athough untitled, this  image is quite controversial.  It  depicts the statue of  James Cook at the site where he allegedly made his first landing .  The  second image below  focuses on  the native response to the landing . The bordering stripes  too  makes the image look like a hazard. I think this was intentional as a warning from history.  The print was included  in a portfolio  titled, the  land, which was published to mark the bicentennial of European settlement.  The work of art also achieves  another purpose,  that is  as a point of conversation.  It is there to make you stop  and talk about the subject matter.

The University of Canberra acquired the 54th edition  of 80 published around the time of the bicentenary.