Maddison Kitching

A Partial View

18 January24 February 2018

Kitching’s work has focused on commodified images of the Australian landscape, and with this series of paintings, he extends his practice to come to terms with the colonial imagination.

A partial view is a series of paintings that builds on Kitching’s previous investigations in to the commodification of the Australian landscape. Over the past several years, Kitching’s practice has been concerned with commercial representations of different parts of regional Australia.

In this body of work, Australian flora and fauna motifs that became popular in the colonial imagination frame images of an imagined Australian bush. Kitching plays with the dynamics of recreating a comfortable image of bushland and Australiana in the stained-glass windows of terrace houses and other colonial buildings. Kitching interrogates how we’ve brought the Australian landscape in to the homes of colonisers in a palatable form, and the aesthetics of creating a distorted sense of place and identity.

Maddison Kitching is an artist based in Naarm Melbourne, whose practice spans painting and collage. Kitching holds a Bachelor of Communication Design from RMIT University and is the co-founder of Daisylegs, a graphic design and mural painting practice. His recent solo exhibitions include Discover Gippsland!, Seventh Gallery (2017) and Out of Touch, Out of Place, Rubicon ARI, (2016). His selected group shows include Turbulent Exposure, Junior Space (2017); Thongs, LON Gallery (2017) and Twice Lucky, N/A Space (2016). See more from Kitching on his website.

Click here to download the exhibition essay.