Collection Online

The Island IV
(2008)
from The Island series 2008

Medium
synthetic polymer paint and screenprint on blue metallic foil on canvas

Measurements
250.3 × 300.4 cm

Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Michael Schwarz and David Clouston through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2017
© Brook Andrew/Copyright Agency, 2023

Gallery location
Not on display

 

About this work

The Island IV reimagines an etching by Wilhelm von Blandowski that depicts a group of Nyeri Nyeri men engaged in ceremony. Brook Andrew’s gigantic screenprint parodies Blandowski’s grotesque misunderstanding of the customary ritual of tooth evulsion. In Andrew’s work, the etching is transformed into a lurid blue landscape invaded by crudely drawn ‘savages’ – whom Blandowski described as ‘writhing and convulsing in the dust.’

Artwork Details

Place/s of Execution
Melbourne, Victoria

Edition
ed. 3/3

Accession Number
2017.212

Department
Contemporary Art