The firecracker

The young princess is seated on a golden chauki and is holding in one hand an ornate golden huqqa decorated with flowers, and in the other a firecracker.

The five attendants

Behind the princess stand her five attendants, holding a surahi, a morchal, candles, a fly whisk, a wine tray, and a pandan.

The pandan

Close to the princess is a pandan (container) for keeping betel leaves, a thali (tray) with some fruit or food items, and two gold surahi’s (long necked flasks) filled with wine or water.

The jewelry

Shown in profile, the princess wears a gold ghagra skirt and is accessorized with jewelry made of pearls.

The smoke

The smoke from the sparkles of the firecracker has been painting by the artist to disappear into the air.

The terrace

The white terrace building of the palace has intricate wall paintings, depicting trays of vases filled with flowers.

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.