Houseomorphics (1996)



Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 203 x 153

Coll: unknown

Exhibited in Arkley’s Venice Biennale ‘Home Show’ (1999), and reproduced in the Venice catalogue as from the Wesfarmers collection.

This is an elaborate example of the decorative style Arkley first developed with Floriated Residence (1994), using repeated floral stencilled patterning in modulated hues; here, every element of the work crawls with foliage, in a somewhat Baroque development of Arkley’s patterned theme. See also Floral Facarde [sic] 1995, for another, slightly earlier manifestation of this tendency towards dense, all-over detail.

The NGA painting Floral Exterior (1996), based on the same compositional source as the present work, develops a similar idea on a slightly smaller scale.

Provenance

  • Tolarno
  • Wesfarmers coll.1999 (?)

Exhibited

  • HA Venice 1999 (‘Home Show’; details as above

Literature

  • Livingstone & Morrell 1999 (HA Venice exh.cat.), p.21 (ill.)