David Lancashire
Roos

Powerful, mythical kangaroo collages from Australian legend.

The land is an ongoing source of inspiration for David Lancashire, who sees Australia as powerful and mythical. Taking the iconic kangaroo as his leitmotif, he links spirit and country, people and place, and tradition and modernity.

Transforming the familiar into unique abstractions, Lancashire’s collages piece together maps, type, textures, drawings, and imagery of flora and fauna, among other ephemera. His techniques have a sophisticated primitivism and seemingly effortless natural quality that produce a striking immediacy. Vibrant and playful, these kangaroos are imbued with personality and meaning, their various elements allowing for multiple discoveries and interpretations.

David Lancashire is a distinguished graphic designer and artist with a career of more than 40 years. He has a long-standing interest in Australian culture and has collaborated with notable Aboriginal people, such as the late Gaagudju Elder and poet Bill Neidjie, as well as Indigenous nations, including those from Kakadu, the Pilbara and Thursday Island.

This book is a detailed visual study of Lancashire’s working materials and process, and features reproductions of every Roo piece at the time of publication. Accompanying the images is an incisive essay by Andrew Ashton.

Section-sewn paperback
64 Pages
215 × 150 mm
Editor: Mark Gowing
Design: Mark Gowing
Essay: Andrew Ashton
ISBN: 978-0-9875268-5-4
2014 FE003