In richly layered prints, Jo Lankester evokes the texture of Queensland’s north. A recent move onto the foreshore of Townsville’s North Ward, an established beachside suburb which overlooks the sea toward Magnetic Island, has ushered birds into the foreground of her imagery, along with the trees, undergrowth and lichens that attract them. Behind the abstracted layers of her prints is an ambient tropical light exuding local heat, warmth and fecundity.
In this exhibition she includes the black and white cockatoos which frequent the local Beach Almond trees between September and March (when they produce seeds). She describes these birds as ‘curious and confident characters’, overlaying their images on surfaces constructed like the lichens Lankester finds so compelling—thick, deep and full of mysterious organic layers. This background shines through the images of the birds, the texture and tenor of their form denoting their sensitivity and longevity—as avian creatures (the great survivors of the dinosaur age)—within the global ecosystem.
Image: Jo Lankester, Diurnal cycle: Xanthoria Parientina—
