Danie Mellor is our featured cover artist for this June Issue. He uses an expansive range of media, which includes intricate combinations of pastel, pencil, glitter, Swarovski crystal and watercolour on paper as well as sculptural installations that combine mosaic, taxidermy animals, gold leaf, neon and found objects. This choice of media is integral to a conceptual understanding of his work, which looks at Australia’s shared and contested histories.
Mellor’s work manipulates visual motifs and narratives of 18th and 19th century British imagery. He borrows iconography of blue and white Spode china to create the foundations of overlaying – and exemplifying – cultural differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia.
TarraWarra Museum of Art
Until 27 July, 2014
Victoria
From rite to ritual, 2009, oil, wax pastel with pencil, glitter and Swarovski crystal on Saunders Waterford paper, 178 x 133.5cm
Courtesy the artist and National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
