Most of my paintings are executed in Artists Acrylic upon canvas, Hard Board or paper in some cases. Sculpture consists of many mixed media. Please email me directly for all painting dimensions, availability and prices of work. A few of the paintings shown here are still available for sale.

Whale Series

Whilst a young boy I visited Albany, on the Southern Coast of Western Australia, visiting a then active whaling station- effectively an abattoir for the huge whale carcasses. The experience, in all its colorful, grotesque and pungent reality stayed with me, and can be noted as the initial impetus for these works. I find the shocking drama of the whaling station a useful theme to explore in context with the dislocating aspects of the human condition as described in the section 'Evolutionary Psychology' (see below). The ships, themselves marooned in 'dry dock' relate to a vivid dream I also recall from childhood, and they loom in the works as the defunct rusting hulks of an alienating Industrial age. Stylistically, I enjoy the large volumes and rotund curves of the ships and whales, which serve to subjugate the individuals within the picture as well as the viewer as witness to a larger theme. The relationship of whale and boat, a pairing of elements each dislocated from its natural state, and serving as a metaphor for our own detachment as well as the dichotomy between the whales reverence within human mythology and its petty value as a mass commodity for meat, baleen and oil.

Circus Series

The idea of a dichotomy, both a reverence and a flagrant, tragic exploitation of the various creatures of the Earth is, as with the whale series of paintings, a continued theme of this work. The archetypal 'charismatic vertebrates' celebrated almost universally in mythology - the Lion, Tiger, Elephant, Whale, Dolphin, Monkeys and Apes etc, trained to perform acrobatic or 'amusing' tasks for spectators, neatly portrays this dichotomy. These animals are often captured and held in cruel conditions, trained by intimidation to perform repetitive tasks often designed to emulate a human-like act. This anthropomorphisation is at once cruel and telling in its ignorance. The paintings here represent the alien nature of the circus environment, as a back drop for an exploration of the human condition, as well as our detached, indeed ignorant, association with these large, enigmatic beasts. The idea of the Elephant going through its pathetic repertoire of tricks before a non-existent audience seeks to further evoke the detached relationship we have created with our natural world. The pot plant motif can be seen as a literal 'transplantation' of the natural world, standardised and sanitised - a motif which represents our uncompromising and facile appropriation of other living things.

Dunolly Elephant Series

In the Box-Ironbark country side of the region of Dunolly, central Victoria, Australia, local lore has it that a circus Elephant escaped its moorings and was on the run from the Ashtons Circus company. The Elephant was said to be on the run for about 3 days before being recaptured and returned to service with the circus. The paintings here portray the 3 days whereby the Elephant was within the Australian landscape. I imagine the Elephant, unaccustomed to its liberation and environment, reverting to its repertoire of tricks, even in this context of freedom. This serves as metaphor for both the animals and perhaps our own dislocation from a 'natural state'.

Elephant Captured After Night in Australian Bush
AFP Sydney

[Aug. 6, 1998] – “Australia's largest fugitive, Ginny the elephant, was
captured Thursday after escaping from a circus and spending a night on the
run in rugged bush.
The 34-year-old Indian elephant had been spooked by a passing train and
broke from her tether on the outskirts of Dunolly, a tiny town in the old
goldfields of Victoria state.
She was spotted by a media helicopter and flushed into open ground where she
was met with a carrot and a cuddle by her trainer and walked back to the
circus under a police escort.
"Ginny was starting to look a bit tired so I just sat the helicopter behind
her and mustered her in," said pilot Roger Dundas.
The 1.25-ton elephant had confounded searchers, who set up a makeshift
command post from a folding table on the outskirts of the town. Many of its
650 residents, including schoolchildren, joined in the hunt.
"It's the best thing since the gold rush, really," said local baker Rod
Stewart.
Resident Dorothy Smith said she had a shock after leaving her house in the
early morning to call out to the missing elephant as a joke.
"Blow me down, I got a trumpet call," she said.
Although one would think it was easy to find an elephant, searchers said the
early morning fog and Ginny's excellent camouflage had made their job
difficult.”

Box-Ironbark and Sisters Rocks series

The open woodland scrub of Central Victoria is known as 'Box-Ironbark' forest. Occupied for thousands of years by man, the area is also steeped in the history of the Colonial days. It is the 'Gold Rush' country of Australian folklore. The woodland is unique, and remains under-represented within the tradition of Australian landscape painting. The Box-Ironbark country stretches across northern Victoria from Stawell in the west, to Wodonga in the north-east. It joins with similar woodlands that form the wheat and sheep belts of NSW and South Australia. Only 17 percent of the original Box-Ironbark woodlands and forests exist today, and almost all of these have been subject at some stage to intensive logging. There is virtually no virgin Box-Ironbark forest left, and today's remnant forests remain dramatically altered. Nonetheless, these forests have a unique ecosystem, atmosphere and light, and at times, become peculiarly still and silent. A beautiful, and quintessentially Australian pattern exists within these environments that presents a particular challenge to the artist.
Sisters Rocks lie about 5kms south of Stawell in Central Western Victoria. These huge granite tors are named after the three Levi sisters who camped there in the early Goldfield days. Today, they are festooned in graffiti. The oldest dates in the graffiti I have found are from the 1940's, being some huge marks made with now almost faded white paint. I imagine the site had been defaced earlier still. In places, the entire rock surface is obliterated behind successive layers of graffiti. The site may be seen as a blight on the landscape, contemporary rock art, or as a visually agreeable gallery of mark-making, love-professing, and slandering. A 'public bulletin board' of an ever-changing patina. Personally, I find the site awesome in its geography, and telling in the irreverent nature of its appropriation today. I have painted the site several times.

- Dale Cox 2003

BLACKGROUND PAINTINGS

The ‘Blackground’ series of paintings represent a continuation of the Circus and Whale series in the fundamental sense, as all explore the notion of Human association with the natural world. The title ‘Blackground’ is a literal play on words, alluding of course to the stark black arena in which these compositions are set.

The works themselves might also be seen literally in terms of their visual interpretation. Some of the animals are seen encumbered with a ‘manufactured’ representation of themselves. They are the grounded, original vertebrates from which the fantastical effigies are strapped, tied, or suspended. I am attempting here to (literally) bridge the real animal and its anthropomorphised* alter ego

The pairings of each animal present the anomaly between actual and perceived states of being.  The distorted, exaggerated representations of each creature, or in some instances, their reduction to a cartoon outline in coloured lights, contrast jarringly with the actual creature below. That we have continuously sought to represent the world’s fauna in these anthropomophisised ways says much about our narrow understanding of these animals. In much popular culture we attribute to other creatures human characteristics, personalities, behavior and value models. The creatures are vehicles used merely to convey otherwise essentially human themes. Think Disney.

These paintings explore notions of the fundamental lack of appreciation for even these most ‘charismatic vertebrates’* When I speak of appreciation, I refer to the idea of understanding what these animals really are. With even a slightly more sympathetic appreciation of other species we afford ourselves an opportunity to see our place within a broader environment of unique and dramatically different ways of being. In doing so we might better understand our place amongst the other creatures with which we share planet Earth. We may even more readily understand ourselves.

Dale Cox

November 2003

* ‘anthropomorphise’ meaning an animal that has been given human traits or physical features. The degree of anthropomorphisation can vary widely, from something as simple as an animal with human speech and thought processes, to a creature that is made to look and behave nearly like a human.

* ‘Charismatic vertebrate’ is a loose term used to describe animals popularly, and widely recognized, ‘flagship species’ steeped in mythological or popular folk lore. Elephants, Tigers, Wolves, Bears, Gorillas, Eagles, whales etc. Australian examples would be koalas, kangaroos, kookaburras etc. Much is done to try to preserve these enigmatic species, whilst few species enjoy such attention.

Evolutionary Psychology

Our relationship to the natural world, being in part our arrogant disregard for it, is a central recurring theme in my reading, thinking and subsequent work. I’ve always pondered just when we as an animal began to believe we were somehow separate from the natural world around us. While this disassociation is woven into the very tapestry of human ‘civilization’ from well before recorded history, the frantic escalation of this division, or more so the practical implications of it, are neatly explored within the fledgling science of evolutionary physchology. The science examines the notion of the ‘natural’ human mind versus the artificial applications to which it is subject today.

New insights have been recently afforded us by a growing group of biologists, psychologists, anthropologists and sociologists. This ‘Evolutionary Psychology’ deals with the physiological parameters of the human brain, generally agreed to have evolved very little- as according to the necessary time parameters required for natural selection- for thousands of years. Putting this in context with the rapid changes to the ways in which we live, and the world we have created since historical accounts are available. Is there perhaps a marked and significant disparity between what the brain of Homo Sapiens has evolved to do, and what we now ask of ourselves within our ‘modern societies’?

Does the human brain and its resident physiological ‘hard wiring’ (virtually unchanged in an evolutionary sense for tens of thousands of years) find itself preoccupied and indeed ‘stuck’ on the pre-industrial, even prehistoric imperatives of immediate survival (food) attaining shelter (security) and reproduction (Genetic investment)? Or rather, do these imperatives underlie and actually propel the myriad of other ‘higher’ pursuits with which Homo Sapiens often cite as the defining distinctions between ourselves and other living things?

The science (Evolutionary Psychology) is revealing some interesting insights into these questions. The rise and fall of Empires, the invention of the Atom Bomb, the silicon chip, to the writing of a great novel, may all be addressed within the context of these primary imperatives. The disparity between the natural mind and the ‘modern mind’ might even (unfortunately) partially explain the global environmental crisis, and our resident apathy towards effectively addressing - indeed fully comprehending - the necessary solutions.

 - Dale Cox 2003