Patchwork design

The work is a patchwork of linoleum fragments of different designs, salvaged by the artist from old Canberra houses and cut into small rectangles, then reassembled in an animated and elegant composition.

Connecting to the land

The work also has a strong connection to landscape, evident in its horizontal format and the artist's juxtaposition of lino shards selected and placed to suggest land and sky.

Culture of Canberra

The work is both an emblem of the physical and cultural landscape of the Canberra region, as well as a hybrid of modernist art and industrial design.

Imagined village

Below the exploding stars is an imagined village. The church spire might have been inspired by Van Gogh's native land, the Netherlands.

Flaming tree

Connecting earth and sky is the flamelike cypress, a tree traditionally associated with graveyards and mourning.

Expressionist sky

Van Gogh's night sky is painting in his classic Expressionist style using intense colors.

Morning star

Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: "This morning I saw the country from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big." This morning star may be this large white star.