Alice and the Mad Hatter tug at the margins of a willow tea party world, where familiar forms (business man, farmer and stylish woman in little-black-dress) cross over the bridge, pagodas sport UHF dishes and solar panels while power lines stalk through the landscape. Closer inspection reveals a small waterside pagoda named after the Sydney restaurant the Rock Pool (with a minute Neil Perry himself contemplating the harbour view), the presence of a BBQ, a lawn mower, the ubiquitous Boofhead and Stubbs? kangaroo. Aficionados of willow will recognise that the pattern is reverted to its rare original un-reversed form (willow pattern imagery, deriving from originals via copperplate engraving transfer, was always reversed in the process).
Stephen Bowers: Larks Tongues in Aspic, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, 27 November - 18 December 2010