MARIAN DREW

Marian Drew is one of Australia’s most significant contemporary photographic artists. Her practice, spanning more than twenty years, is characterised by innovation and exploration of photo-media. Taken from the Australiana series, this highly regarded artist presents unsettling and beautiful photographs that serve as a reminder of the fragility of life and the impact that man has on our natural environment. The fallen bodies of indigenous Australian fauna are contrasted by the sensuous draped cloths, seductive colours and dramatic lighting. Her photographs have many layers of meanings and references, most obviously 18th Century still life paintings and the Vanitas of the 16th Century. Her work raises uncomfortable questions about contemporary relationships to animals and how we inherit and adapt cultural ideas. Other dualities are referred to: natural and artificial, contemporary and historic, life and death, and light and dark.