Natural Order
- Angus Fisher

Angus Fisher’s recent work further investigates ideas of how the ‘natural’ world exists in human imagination and our ever-growing efforts to contain and control it. Much of the work was conceived while he completed a residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris throughout early 2019, as well as work made later back in his studio in Australia. Fisher’s work poignantly reflects upon European traditions of collecting, collating and subjugating nature, observed throughout his visits to many grand museums of Natural History and various European gardens that continue long-held traditions of taming and placating the ‘natural’ world. Other work in this exhibition investigates Australian subject matter and the intersection of the ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ worlds.

The large drawings in the Unnatural Histories series illustrate particular historical and contemporary accounts of people’s interactions with nature. The sequence of poetic scenes are highly researched and imaginatively displayed in an aim to form a series of allegories for our often tragic and misguided entanglements with the ‘natural’ world.

Fisher has long been interested in the ancient art of falconry, and his series of drawings of this subject are informed by his experiences in France and Qatar throughout 2019.
“I’m particularly fascinated in the accompanying pageantry and the paraphernalia that has developed in different, independent cultures around the handling and training of the birds. The birds exist in a symbiotic relationship with their handlers in a state of semi-freedom. The falconers utilise the bird’s natural instincts but shelter them from the wider ‘natural’ world. The ‘tack’ – hoods, gloves, jesses etc. exist as a potent reflection of this relationship.”

Angus Fisher’s intricately detailed and vibrant drawings are testament to the breadth of the artist’s reverence for his subject matter and his deft technical skill across a variety of media and techniques.