Plastic Apocalypso
30th October 2020
This is the latest body of work from Australian painter Elizabeth Barsham. With imagery and iconography that are uniquely Tasmanian she walks a stylistic line between Surrealism, illustrated children’s fairy tales and Heironymous Bosch. She refers to herself as a Tasmanian Gothic painter. Giant kelp covered foreshores and deep forest glades are peopled by ghost thylacines, loggers, bushwalkers and nature worshippers. Her settings are as unique to her as sterile industrial landscapes are to Jeffrey Smart’s paintings and it is appropriate to think of her as allied to Australian Surrealism in her practice.
