My work centres on environmental themes. We have found ourselves in a global economic system that seemingly makes it difficult to make change. Prominent environmental scientists say our current ways will cause the demise of many ecosystems and species will be lost. We acknowledge these reports yet, and this is what I find interesting and explore within my work, even as the dominant species, and therefore caretakers, of this planet it is because of our current evolutionary state of mind that we seem unwilling to curb this now inevitable outcome.

My work has been developed over the years to a point where I have honed a select number of symbols to explore and convey this environmental dilemma. I feature introduced and feral animals such as rabbit, deer and foxes coming from, morphing with or dominating emotive landscapes to convey our current tumultuous relationship with the environment.

I live in Northern Tasmania where the land and sky-scapes through the seasons convey a myriad of scenes to my artists eye hold storytelling qualities that I thread through my work.

The most prominent animal I use is the rabbit. It is an animal that comes weighted with meaning as it carries conflicting meanings, cute and induces memories from childhood which lure the viewer in to the work and also the rabbit represents distruction. It has been one of the most destructive of the introduced species and is a reminder of our mismanagement of the land. This sense of foreboding is emphasised by the moody landscapes used in the works. The human psyche has evolved to read stories into landscape and elements placed within it.

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Amanda Parer

Tasmanian artist Amanda Parer’s edgy and ephemeral paintings explore the natural world and its fragility, with startlingly beautiful creatures enlarged and frozen against their chosen habitat. When viewing one of … read more →