Black Saturday 2009

Black Saturday 2009' was created after the devastation of Marysville by fire on 7 February 2009, a day that has come to be known as 'Black Saturday'.

Morgan had visited Marysville just three weeks prior to Black Saturday, and had remarked at the time, "Jeez, I'd hate to be here if a fire came through".

While the focus of the work is the town of Marysville, Morgan's portrayal of Black Saturday stretches across place and time, and presents the realities of bushfire that have and will continue to shape Victoria's collective memory. Morgan drew on his own experience of loss from the Ash Wednesday fires (1983), and the memory of his feelings of "survival, guilt and why was it us".

This painting's narrative documents a slice of time; it actively depicts the intensity of emotions and the chaos and tragedy of the immediate aftermath of the Black Saturday fires. The artwork is overflowing with stories and the torn fragments of people's lives. It is also a graphic map of the landscape that became the crucible for these catastrophic fires.