Joshua Merchant Lost landscape

Lost landscape explores the increasing commercialisation of the Australian landscape, and the environmental impacts on my immediate surroundings. My body of work has been inspired by my migration from the city to the country, where I have been amazed by the vast scale of the impact of humans, most notably in the Snowy Scheme, and surrounding ski resorts. I have used a reductive painting technique in conjunction with wood carving to represent a range of destructive forces that catalyse to degrade the natural environment. Portraiture highlights how natural function has been severed by the human presence, with various causes conveyed by text.

Influencing artists:
Eko Nugroho
Gareth Sansom
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Andy Warhol