A Lost Place by Aletheia Casey

These images are a heartfelt reaction to the dramatically increased global threat from destructive wildfires, which have recently wrought devastation in numerous countries, particularly in my homeland, Australia. Images featuring preserved Victorian museum specimens of indigenous wildlife brought back to the UK by Australia’s colonising powers serve as an ironic counterpoint to the millions of contemporary living creatures that have perished. My own archival photographs from Australia have been stripped of their original peaceful quality with the addition of oils and inks. I also scratched and reworked them to represent both the violent power of these conflagrations and my fear and anger at such devastation, my own hand attempting to control the uncontrollable. The intervention of my brushstrokes on the prints is intended to mirror human intervention in nature, and to implant into them my emotional response to nature’s continual destruction, whilst simultaneously trying to find beauty and hope amidst the tragedy of these lost places.