This Winter season at the Australian Centre for Photography there is an exhibition that has found a new method to draw attention to conservation. Australian artist Rodney Pople has combined his painting and photography skills to create these large confronting pieces meant to challenge our attitudes to nature.

“Lie of the Land confronts the viewer with species of wild animals facing extinction. Pople travelled to Kenya to encounter creatures that challenge the human belief of absolute dominance. These large-scale close-up portraits suggest the paradox of human relationships with the wild, where the conceited will of domestication is merging with the absolute terror of the unknown. As in most of Pople’s works, Lie of the Land draws attention to the artificial and contrived nature of human authorities.

The process of visual layering reflects the complexities of the artist’s conceptual approach. Photography almost totally disappears under multiple layers of paint and impulsive brushstrokes revealing the artist’s empathic need to protect as well as to control the creatures he strangely admires.”

Exhibition now open the the ACP Gallery Sydney, for more info visit acp.org.au