A few years ago, when I was doing a little sojourn at the
Canberra School of Art, I made a cup for a Canadian friend of mine, a white coffee mug with a little kangaroo bouncing around the bottom of it and the words “come on skip” (a quote from the iconic tv show
Skippy) printed next to it. It was a joke really, a kitsch little Australiana souvenir for her, but over the years that little kangaroo just keeps popping up in my work. Recently I’ve been developing this series of porcelain wall pieces
(above). You can keep adding pieces, and make him jump longer and higher. Go
skip go!
And it seems I’m not the only one with a kangaroo preoccupation. I keep stumbling across wonderful kangaroo-inspired work lately. While browsing the
Craft Victoria website a few months ago I found this
very stylish interpretation of the kangaroo by Melbourne jeweller
Anna Davern.
Florence Forrest (below right) has also been making some lovely creatures based on the kangaroo (see more of them
here). And
Pru Morrison (below left) whipped up a few nice kanga pieces recently for her show at
Ray Hughes Gallery . A kanga here and a kanga there.
So I’m thinking
skip's got a message for me.....
What’s that skip?
There is just something about the iconic, nostalgic, kitsch
Australian-ness of the kangaroo that I love. Now if you (Australians?) want a little trip down memory lane check
this out…
A few years ago, when I was doing a little sojourn at the Canberra School of Art, I made a cup for a Canadian friend of mine, a white coffee mug with a little kangaroo bouncing around the bottom of it and the words “come on skip” (a quote from the iconic tv show Skippy) printed next to it. It was a joke really, a kitsch little Australiana souvenir for her, but over the years that little kangaroo just keeps popping up in my work. Recently I’ve been developing this series of porcelain wall pieces (above). You can keep adding pieces, and make him jump longer and higher. Go skip go! 
3 comments:
I really do like the idea of adding pieces over time to make the kangeroo's journey go further..very nice!
Isn't Pru's work amazing, I like this skippy piece a lot.
Thanks for the mention btw :D
xx
That cup is still one of my faves!
Gotta love a bit of cute aussie kitsch!
oh you have sent me back 35 years! I had a melamine dinner plate with skippy and sunny (that was his name wasn't it?) and I would never let my mum put food on their faces! thanks for the memories. Love the Kangaroo addable pieces, too cute. Looking forward to the little pieces blog :-)
Post a Comment