The Garden of Sorrows
November 2013
Marco Luccio at Steps Gallery, Carlton.
Currently on display at Steps Gallery in Carlton is a new series of etchings by Melbourne-based artist Marco Luccio. Conceived in partnership with writer John Hughes, this print series captures in inventive visual vernacular a collection of fourteen contemporary fables written by Hughes and featuring Australia’s native wildlife. This exhibition coincides with the launch of a collaborative book, also titled The Garden of Sorrows, published by UWAP.
Originally inspired by the characteristic eccentricities of Australia’s animals, theses fables serve to invert the classic narrative structure of human-to-animal metamorphosis. Here the animals become human. The first thinkers, the first practitioners, the first merchants – all emerge from the forms and habits of the Australian fauna. Hughes thus re-imagines the ancient storytelling traditions of the west – those of Ovid and Aesop, for instance – through the idiosyncratic environment of Australia.
In Marco Luccio’s etchings, these fantastical, anthropomorphic subjects are realised through the artist’s skilled printmaking practice. This series nevertheless represents a major departure for Luccio, whose previous subjects have centred on architecture and cityscapes.
After being approached by John Hughes to consider the aforementioned fables in visual form – with the anticipated aim of compiling an illustrated book – Luccio embarked upon the twofold task of, firstly, learning to handle human/animal subjects in his work and, secondly, conceiving a new sequential visual language through which to bring Hughes’ transformative narratives to life.
This process led the artist to spend time in the museums of Melbourne and Sydney, studying and sketching specimens from the collections. In approaching the project in this way, Luccio discovered a fresh and revelatory perspective on the forms of living animals – namely, through their bone structures. As the artist notes, “When you look at these creatures as skeletons, it is a revelation.” Included in the exhibition is a print showing a seemingly medium-sized skeleton upon a branch, with few remarkable characteristics other than a long and slightly curved spine. This image, from the eighth fable of the book entitled ‘The Birth of Agriculture’, turns out to be a study of a koala.
Hughes’ stories could very easily translate into caricature-like images; indeed the realisation of human characteristics or emotions in animal forms is a challenge for any artist. For the most part, Luccio overcomes this hurdle by employing only very slight allusions to sentiment, such as an arched brow or wide eyes. The artist’s depiction of human form in the stories is similarly nuanced. In ‘The Birth of Wisdom’, for example, the emu Echo, after encountering her reflection and having a run-in with the goanna, leaps into the hole in a tree and ultimately emerges, after “days on end”, as an old, frail, and very wise woman. In Luccio’s interpretation of this scene, the woman has a tree-like appearance and seems as ancient as the very first of anything could be, which is in keeping with the tenor of the fable.
The current exhibition of this series comprises 80 etchings, 60 of which are represented in the recently published book. Also on display are examples of the etched plates from which the prints were made, as well as several bone specimens that provided instruction and inspiration for the artist. These works are not simply illustrations of John Hughes’ writing, since Luccio was given vast scope for reimagining the fables in his own visual language; the print series can thus be appreciated independently of the stories. Yet together the words and images create an amalgam that seems to effortlessly withstand logic and reason. After reading the book, at the back of your mind, there is a new history of how the human world began.
Images:
1. Garden of Sorrows
2. The Irony of Medicine
3. The Origin of War
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