Hugo Michell Gallery
14 June to 14 July 2018

Spurious Natures taps into the current state of eco-anxiety by exploring the relational disconnect between the colonial-settler body and its environment.  Through these works Sue Kneebone explores the affective nature of colonial settlers already afflicted by chronic illness before emigrating to South Australia in the 1850s.  This was a time when nineteenth century British doctors held the underlying assumption that disease developed if one’s bodily constitution was irritated, imbalanced or out of harmony with its environment.   The temperate climate in the southern parts of Australia developed a reputation as a potential restorative haven for those with consumption and other delicacies of the chest. Despite this hope, many colonial emigrants succumbed to their illness within a few years of arriving in Adelaide (Kaurna Country).  In Spurious Natures a tide of colonial pathos left over from failed self-cures and anthropogenic neglect has been expressed through the tremulous tensions held within these mixed media tableau.