Rota Fortunae

This work’s title is inspired by the medieval wheel of fortune that rests at the centre of the composition. Around the wheel, a man bites his shoe, a woman straps a pig to her back, a baby is born to a figure with a bucket on her head, and a coffin carries away a blindfolded pig bound with rope.

Kushana Bush cites Paul Gauguin’s painting ‘Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?’ 1897–98 as a visual guide for her work, together with the absurdities in Bruegel’s 1559 painting ‘Netherlandish Proverbs’. Interested in the role that chance and luck play in life’s journey, Bush’s composition of strange possibilities provides a dynamic view of another world, as she has said:

‘I’d hoped to rotate the eye around the central wheel axis, creating the circular effect of getting steady on your feet, right before tumbling again.’

Bush’s intricately detailed paintings borrow from different times and realities, and depict a range of human interactions and behaviours, from acts of devotion and torture to erotic couplings. Offering a somewhat dystopian view of human relations, Bush addresses universal themes – love and hate, revenge and salvation, devotion and rejection, good and evil – that resonate across cultures, geography and time. She draws on disparate influences, including Indian miniature painting, Japanese ‘ukiyo-e’ prints, the rich world of European medieval manuscript painting and events from modern life, and her combinations of seemingly unrelated motifs – from urns and brooms to Slazenger logos – connect different historical periods, behaviours and cultures. Intimate in scale, but dramatic in content, Bush’s painstakingly created compositions foreground the artist’s devotion to illuminating human behaviour.

Exhibited in 'The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' (APT9) | 24 Nov 2018 – 28 Apr 2019