Until 17 May 2020
Elephant is a response to the Mann Tatlow
collection, gifted to Wollongong Art Gallery by
William Tatlow in 2003. It’s part of a body of
recent still life paintings by artist Michael Zavros
that assume the shape of an animal or bird, and
in the context of photorealist painting, toy with
notions of the real and unreal. Elephant contains
five key pieces from the collection – three vases
or urns and two intricately carved ivory pieces,
collaged together with two Monstera or ‘Elephant
Ear’ leaves from the artist’s garden.
The carefully stacked and photographed
pieces imitate the frontal view of an
African Elephant, while its giant fanning
ears catch light and send shadows
down its totemic form to create an
amusing folly; the largeness and
strength of the idea of an elephant
acts as a foil to the fragility
of the china.