Peter Westwood

Peter Westwood
Australian, born 1954; lives and works in Melbourne

Field of sorrow (Untethered) 2021
oil on linen, cotton threads
Courtesy of the artist, Blockprojects Gallery, Melbourne, and Boutwell Schabrowsky Gallery, Munich

Artist statement:

Field of sorrow (Untethered) depicts a peculiar and arcane central plant that is derived from studies of the European thistle. A visceral and almost bloody red soil surrounds this central image, infused with the rise of other emerging and strange vegetation. Relocated from one ‘world’ to another, the thistle is reminiscent of an incarnate ghostly persona affecting a turbulent and changing landscape. On the surface of the painting are seven blue, loosely hung threads, each suggesting the potential for dissolution; it is possible for the things that tether us to our collective histories to become loosened, to unbind us and even unravel.

As we transition and move through new formations and difficult complexities associated with our current era, this work outlines the notion that we exist within a globalised, unstable contemporaneity, within which we are presented with unfathomable and troublesome visions.