The underarm bowling incident of 1981

Noel McKenna revisits the moment Australian cricketer Trevor Chappell was instructed by his captain Greg Chappell to bowl the last ball of a One Day International along the ground, denying opponents New Zealand the opportunity to tie the match. Composed of visual and text elements, the painting is both a depiction of the event and a comment on the pressures faced by professional sportspeople. McKenna depicts the point of no return as the ball is released from the bowler's hand. The image is stripped backed to its bare essentials; the figures are ghost-like, the playing arena has disappeared, and the maddening crowd no longer exists. All that is left is a moment of silence, where this unthinkable, cowardly and disgraceful act is suspended in time as an allegory for the failings of a winning at all cost ethos. The small vignette of a white cricket ball resting on a patch of grass, symbolises Greg Chappell's failure of courage and sportsmanship. Its link to the pale horseman of death references the temporary death of Australian cricket. The depiction of the Baggy Green, the hallowed cap handed to Australian players when they make their debut for the national test side, is a counterpoint to the white ball and horseman and a reminder of the responsibility to uphold the code of fairness and to always compete in good spirit. McKenna celebrates the ordinary and investigates the nuances of the everyday. He has painted suburbia, its homes and their inhabitants?human and animal alike. He reveals their frailties and struggles, but always with empathy and insight. His works highlight the positive and the beautiful, but also the dark and disturbing; a reminder that an understanding of one is dependent on an acknowledgement of the other.