(Ulverstone – December 4, 2015) The Gawler Art Gallery at the Ulverstone Civic Centre will open a unique exhibition featuring the Snake Artist, aka Bill Flowers on 4 December 2015.
SnakeScapes will feature paintings and prints by Flowers, including some possibly controversial works which are not for the faint-hearted. Opening the exhibition at 6pm, Flowers will be giving a short presentation about art history, wildlife and blasphemy. This will be followed by a question and answer time.
Most of the work will feature ‘snakescapes’ where the landscapes are replaced by masses of snakes.
The paintings and prints are referenced from sketch pads containing rough drawings of snakes, where Flowers has ventured out into the field and sketched venomous snakes face to face, as he prefers not to work from photos.
One piece, which took over three months to complete, simply called Tsunami, features hundreds of snakes forming giant waves. The piece was awarded best painting in the People’s Choice category at the TasArt exhibition in Burnie. This will be the only work that has been previously exhibited, all other original prints and paintings are never-before seen.
Born in 1963 in Ulverstone, Bill Flowers attended a catholic high school before he studied art in Hobart and Devonport in the 1980s, where he continued to develop his unique style of bringing wildlife to the people through cartooning, illustrating, printing and painting.
During a 2010 exhibition in Ulverstone, one of Flowers’ paintings caused offence to a small number of Christian people. The painting, entitled I hope it is not their last supper, was after Da Vinci’s famous Last Supper. However Flowers’ interpretation featured Tasmanian devils instead of the 12 disciples. Fortunately most Christians understood that the painting had a strong environmental message, even voicing their support for the painting and its message.
Upon realising he had inadvertently caused offence with his last supper devils, which some had considered blasphemous, Flowers became fascinated with this notion.
This now raises an important question, which must be examined further: What is blasphemy in the 21st Century?
Flowers set about researching blasphemy in art.
“Certainly there are artists who set out to intentionally shock us, but I’m more interested in art that was not meant to shock and offend, but did anyway” says Flowers who found himself in a similar predicament.
The Art of Chris Ofili was of particular interest. His Holy Virgin Mary caused such a reaction that people tried to ban it. There was even an attempt to destroy it by a member of the public.
Flowers studied this painting in depth in an attempt to deconstruct the blasphemy and examine exactly which parts actually offend. Many of the works in the current exhibition contain elements and themes of Ofili’s work, but with the challenge of seeing if it is possible to paint or draw the subject in a non-blasphemous way.
Possibly, the most confronting work in the exhibition is a painting of Mary giving birth to Jesus in a landscape of snakes. This work entitled: We are all Snakes suggests that we are not as good as Mary or Jesus, but rather they are higher life forms. This painting will undoubtedly reveal and present to the viewer a number of contrasting ideas.
“I want to create a painting that explores ideas of both humanity and deity. I am depicting the very human side of Jesus while at the same time using snakes to depict the rest of us…humanity.” says Flowers who is not setting out to make a blasphemous piece of art but rather hoping to open up and explore some ideas for debate.
“I know there will be some Christians who will hate this particular work of art, but I would not be surprised if some Christians actually like it as well”
Flowers explains that Christians often remind us of what Christmas is all about, and some of these images will present an opportunity for open debate about what people do or do not believe as far as their own faith.
“I have not made any painting that is either for or against Christianity. It will be up to the viewer to decide what this image means to them.”
The exhibition will open on 4 December 2015 and will be on display until 29 January 2016
Warning: Viewer discretion and parental guidance is recommended when viewing the artworks which contain nudity, birthing, and religious themes.
Bill Flowers
