In 1989, just after the bicentennial when there was a lot of conversations concerning our history and colonisation, I embarked on a satirical series of etchings looking at the antics and exploits of the ‘Great White Hunter’ – a series of 24 prints.
Recently, I was in the process of organising and cleaning out my print drawers and came across a number of these etchings. Given the old cliché, history repeats and the current state of the planet, I thought it was appropriate for the Great White Hunter to return after 35 years.
My practice has since developed in a ‘hybrid’ practice utilising traditional and digital processes. I thought it would be great to re- interpret these earlier ideas within the knowledge and source material I have built up over the years ( 17th/18th/19th century engravings, lithographs and woodcuts documenting the age of exploration, discovery and new worlds. Most of these prints depicted idyllic, romanticised and exotic places full of wonder and intrigue.
One example of these folios is Joseph Lycett’s Views of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land published in book format in 1824/25 it contained a total of 50 prints. It was designed to be a history of discovery, settlement, and progress of these new colonies. In my series I adopted the format and the ‘look’ of Lycett’s series to offer an alternative, satirical view of the colonisation process.
– Milan Milojevic
Solo exhibition, Return Of The Great White Hunter presents a poignant new suite of works by Milojevic that critiques the Age of Discovery and the conquest of exotic new worlds during the 18th and 19th Century. This includes engravings and wood cuts that recorded the exploration of Terra Australis Incognita and the destructive cycle of discovery, colonisation and possession. Included in this new suite of works, are a set of prints that references the print folios of convict artist Joseph Lycett 1774-1878, published in book format in 1824/25, which were intended to be a history of the discovery, settlement and progress in the new colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land.