Weekly Art Pick: Fiona Francois

Fiona Francois - Guest Curator March

Art is a fickle thing. Away from the artist's easel it takes on a life of its own, with each viewer bringing their own experiences and bias to the piece and taking away a unique viewing experience. Perhaps this is why art has remained a constant throughout history from primitive beginnings to pixels on a screen.

Each week we ask one of our artists or collaborators to select two pieces from the Quirky Fox collection and share with us why those pieces called out to them.

This week our curator is Tasmanian based artist Fiona Francois.

Formerly a graphic designer and illustrator, Fiona's latest series of work is inspired by the Tasmanian wilderness. Her work is figurative with a strong emphasis on narrative, often dealing with such themes as environmentalism, social and humanitarian issues and the exploration of the Self.

Venus by Anna Kathleen

I was attracted to this piece by its sheer quirkiness. A woman’s face emerging from a bowl of Venus Flytraps beautifully rendered in graphite pencil. I did a double-take! I love the way she looks as though she’s either furtively scanning for prey or surreptitiously hiding from something. The chopsticks in her hair remind me of that scene in Karate Kid where he makes the one-in-a-million fly catch. It makes me wonder about her subversive nature, is she luring unsuspecting men into her trap?

Who Would Like Some More Ice by Barbara Podmore

I was intrigued by this edgy still life. Seemingly innocuous and fun, a cocktail glass with a couple of cute penguins floating on ice cubes presage a more serious topic of climate change and our implication in its protraction. The objects are sitting in bright sunlight but there is a shadow in the background suggesting an uncertain future. As long as we allow ourselves to suffer from wilful blindness, more animal species face extinction and wilderness disappears. Even the perfectly orange fruit makes me consider the predicament of the bees and the increasingly unsustainable nature of big agribusiness. Party’s over. We need to act.