Joe Blundell
Artwork title: Tormented land
Medium: oil and sand on linen
Size: 153 × 153cm
Year: 2026
$12,000
About the Artwork
Extraordinarily, Australia is now the only developed nation designated a global hotspot for deforestation. Made using videos of deforestation in various parts of Australia and visiting sites, this painting is part of a series I’ve been working on for the past 12 months. I’m seeking to illuminate what forest destruction feels like after the machines have left the scene and all is quiet. Like a crime scene or a battlefield strewn with the sinewy vestiges of a torn down lifeform. Caterpillar tracks are the fingerprints that evidence this is destruction guided by the human hand, not a natural disaster.
About the Artist
Joe Blundell is a painter with a studio practice on Wurundjeri land, Naarm/Melbourne. His work looks at the relationship between nature and mankind, be that a relationship in harmony or dischord. A persistent series of paintings has looked at the urban co existence of trees and buildings and a more recent series has been exploring the current deforestation in Australia.