Martin King: Spectres of the Outback

Martin King has titled his latest exhibition Australian Gothic, which he describes as “an ironic twist on the gothic genre.” The irony lies in the fact that while the gothic tradition typically conjures images of European castles, dark forests, and supernatural dread, King recognises that Australia’s sun-bleached landscape possesses its own inherent gothic qualities—no supernatural elements required. As someone who has travelled extensively across the country, King sees the outback as naturally a zone of strange and stark shadows, a place of macabre mammals, where birds caw rather than sing or twitter, and where a traveller grows used to spotting a scorpion sunning itself on their swag—a reminder of the land’s strangeness and unpredictability.

This vision forms the foundation of King’s approach. The melancholy that permeates his work stems from an understanding that Australia’s seemingly benign landscape holds darker truths. The irony deepens when we consider that this vast, sun-drenched continent—often romanticised as a land of opportunity—is simultaneously a place where spectres of the past still linger…