We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of NSW stands.

Richard Baxter Memory drift

oil on canvas

154.5 x 230 cm

The world is a stage without a story, or at least it’s a story that is never-ending and being written continuously. Or it is billions of stories within stories, within stories. This is how I create, without a beginning or an end, without a specific narrative – just a happening in process. I don’t want to know what is happening, and I don’t pretend to know. It is beautiful, tragic, mysterious, magical and elusive. Paradoxically, perhaps, our soul is the eternally empty stage, and the universe is the eternal act in never-ending movement. If I can hint at that, I’m happy.

- Richard Baxter, 2014