Susan Wald, The Gathering 1, 2023. Oil on linen, 123 x 183.5cm. Courtesy: the artist and Tacit Art, Melbourne.

Susan Wald’s luminous canvases, with their distinctive foreground assemblies, invite storying. In each scene, the assemblies become animated; the players take on disposition and purpose. They herd together, their eyes on the interloper; they gain safety in numbers. Sometimes, humanoid, they converse – convivial guests around a dining table. Other times, they form a conga line, dancing along an infinity loop across canvases. The images lure us to find a narrative, despite their subject matter.

For the models of these players are bleached skulls of animals, vestiges salvaged from beaches, roadsides and deserts – goats, a sheep, kangaroos and wallaroos, a fox, a dog. For one, there’s a weathered fragment of spine; for the rest, no clues, no shards of former lives. The little heads suggest powerlessness, counter to their likely past lives. The goats’ horns suggest authority. This is haunting. Globally, we are witnesses to the menace of such hubris and horn-locks.

Opening Event: Wednesday 28 February, 6.30 – 8pm.

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