Vanessa Barbay: Painting our animal selves

Abstract

From a distance, a mottled swirl of dark and lighter shades of brown, an apparent experiment with colour and materiality. Up close, the surprising essence of the work is revealed - echidna spikes jut out from the canvas at ninety degrees, matted hair and sedimented flesh hold the composition in place. Echidna and rabbit skin glue on canvas': as the materials list for Vanessa Barbay's Sorcery Painting (Autumn Echidna) makes clear, the animal is the canvas. The only obvious trace of the artist's hand is the understated shimmer of Barbay's fixative of choice: rabbit skin glue. Show more