'Forest of the Dammed'

Art Statement

In the murky tea-stained depths of Tasmania’s artificial lakes, lie the hulking remains of drowned forests.  The twisted shapes of once grand and ancient trees, litter the bottom of these lakes in a tangle of limbs and roots, an eerie reminder of the apocalyptic effect one species can have on the landscape.  This is a tribute to the lost forests, the eco-systems and fauna that were sacrificed for our pursuit of progress.  In recent times, some of these buried bones have been exhumed and given a new life as further novelties and tourist trinkets and the beauty still runs deep.  Their stories can be read by few, forever etched into the lines and pattern of the wood.  A life of suffering and loss.

Fiona Francois