The inhabitants of Vipoo Srivilasa’s enigmatic porcelain kingdom have much to tell us. As contemporary figurines they communi- cate through gesture, pattern, colour and texture: their delicately configured messages are full of poetic insight into the human condition, carrying more than just a touch of wry humour.
Srivilasa’s newest cross-species characters embody a discussion of ‘settlement’. “Animals that are so cute you don’t know how bad they are – rabbits, feral cats – invaders”, thus setting up double-edged analogies with asylum seekers, the European appropriation of the Australian continent and his continuing investigation of the fluidity of borders between East and West.
Carol Schwarzman