Giles Alexander The alternative ambassadors (Professors Ross Garnaut and Martin Green)

Ross Garnaut is best known for his influential climate change report commissioned by the Australian Government. Martin Green is a world leader in photovoltaic research, turning the sun’s energy into electricity.

Giles Alexander’s double portrait of them – his most ambitious work to date – references Holbein’s 16th-century masterpiece The ambassadors held by London’s National Gallery.
‘Holbein’s painting is an almost life-size allegorical portrait of two men from Henry Tudor’s court,’ says Alexander. ‘I’ve re-contextualised the various allegorical props in Holbein’s painting to address the climate change debate with which my sitters are synonymous. The title hints at both the original painting and the alternative energies being displayed in the place of the proto-scientific instruments of Holbein’s work.’

Alexander’s wife has a PhD in photovoltaics and lectures in sustainable energy at the University of NSW, which is how he met Green. He feels the high profile of the Archibald Prize would be well used documenting the important issue of climate change and the role of alternative energies.

Alexander aspires to early northern European oil painting techniques, but contrasts this with a contemporary plasticity that speaks of consumer culture. The high-gloss resin, applied atop months of painstaking work, acts as filter between the real and hyperreal. ‘It seduces and implicates the spectator, who is reflected in the work.’

Born in London in 1975, Alexander immigrated to Australia in 2000. He studied at the National Art School. This portrait is now in the collection of Tweed Regional Gallery, NSW.