Surfing the Bombora

Rew Hanks taps into a long history of printmaking as political commentary in his intricate and darkly humorous linoprints. A patchwork of cultural references, his work juxtaposes history and pop culture to shed light on Australia’s hidden narratives. At the centre of Hanks’ series for the Basil Sellers Art Prize is the figure of Captain James Cook, who the artist depicts as a symbol of British conquest. In Surfing the Bombora (2013) the explorer rides a wave with a cane toad on board, a dual reference to the arrival by sea of both colonists and introduced species, each wave of invasion wreaking devastation on native inhabitants. The subtle variations in tone and complex patterning in Hanks’ work reveal him to be a virtuoso printmaker, whose dexterity with his medium is rivalled only by the incisiveness of his observations about the ways that the unresolved legacies of Australia’s past continue to blight its present.