Artists statement

Alex Pittendrigh completed a degree in painting at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1994, was awarded an Australia Council residency at The British School in Rome and was a resident artist at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces.

In his series of three artworks, 'Worlds through worlds III', 'Worlds through worlds IV' and 'Phenomenon', the scenes appear as if extricated through a kind of portal or void. They are landscapes as imagined or perhaps remembered, ‘pictured’ in the mind’s eye. Seen as an exercise in rococo excess and ornamentation, these artworks suggest a tension between the ornamental and pictorial. The decorative filigree within the painted surface set these scenes further away from the real world. They are ideal, and idealised, places that remain at a distance.

Physical description

In this dark landscape-like image, viewed from above, is a central pale yellow shape, bordered irregularly by twig-like forms, which is perhaps the earth, shone on by a moon in the top right. Ornamental vegetation - leaves, grapes - appear to be spinning off the earth into corners or out of the frame. Acrylic and ink on linen.