Presented as part of Terminus 2006, Hybrid is a site-specific artwork, influenced by a drawing of Sydney Cove by convict artist, Thomas Watling in 1793. The drawing is the artist’s first impression of a gum tree in the Australian landscape, then a daunting new frontier. Rather than a botanical representation, the drawing resembles an idyllic English pastoral scene, leading us to question the projected ideologies of colonial Australia.

Rothwell has created a structure which, like colonial Australia, is full of contradictions. Although it is a natural form, Hybrid is a constructed species, simultaneously organic and toxic. Undermining the authority of the traditional public monument, Hybrid is made from plastic and its volume is created from air. By referring to the tensions associated with Australia’s post-colonial status, the sculpture questions the impact of non-indigenous Australians on both the natural and sociological foundations of this continent. This hybrid form is estranged, an alien upon the landscape, yet also riddled with its own anxiety to survive and to belong.

Terminus Projects