This artwork is from Gavin Hipkins' Empire series, started in 2007. This body of work takes as its starting point the appropriation of line illustrations from children's Empire and Commonwealth annuals dating from the 1950s. The original images were used to illustrate stories of adventure and historical drama in accord with the formation and ideological sustainability of the British Empire and Commonwealth including New Zealand. The illustrations also record a post-war nostalgia for colonial discovery and adventure, as well as a sense of the unifying spirit forged by the war effort, coupled with the optimisms for the shared rebuilding of Commonwealth nations in the wake of World War Two. The backdrops have been overlaid with scanned patches purchased in music store and markets creating photographs that sit somewhere between history painting and t-shirt art. If you would like more information on this work, or others by the artist, please contact us at starkwhite@starkwhite.co.nz
Image: Gavin Hipkins, Empire (Track) 2009, C-type print, 1200 x 1650mm, edition of 3
