PETER MADDEN
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Cover image:
Peter Madden
Butterfly bones (detail) 2007
plastic, wood, paper and resin
28.0cm x 25.0cm x 40.0 cm
Collection of Dr Morris Low, Brisbane.
Courtesy of the artist
JUL08 CRICOS PROVIDER NUMBER 00025B
The University of Queensland
Art Museum
University Drive, St Lucia
www.artmuseum.uq.edu.au
07 3365 3046
INTERPRETIVE GUIDE
PETER MADDEN
Born 1966. Lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand
Peter Madden revives the tradition of the still life to
comment on our fragile relationship with the natural world.
The 17th century European tradition of still-life painting is
also known as nature morte, which translates as ‘dead
nature’. In these paintings, insects and butterflies were
often shown alighting from ripe fruit or flowers in full bloom.
Their presence communicated, in a poetic manner, the
transience of life and the inevitability of death and decay.
Madden reinvents this tradition of memento mori using
found objects and discarded printed materials to comment
on contemporary life and death, and on our environmental
impact.
clothing to video games. This idea of piracy helps us to
interpret Madden’s work. The butterflies in Butterfly bones
have been cut and recycled from a book titled Butterflies
of the world. On the one hand, Madden can be seen as a
pirate who robs images from one context and uses them
in another. He chooses the butterfly because it embodies
metamorphosis and transformation. However, Madden’s
ecological and sustainable approach to his practice
also highlights our environmental piracy – our persistent
plundering of the environment. An eco-Gothic artwork, the
sense of foreboding in Butterfly bones stems from how it
prompts us to recognise our environmental impact.
In Butterfly bones 2007, brilliantly coloured butterflies
spring from the ends of blackened branches, which in
turn grow from larger bone-shaped branches. The large
branches are crossed to resemble the crossbones found
on pirate insignia. Skull and crossbones were common
memento mori carved into British gravestones in the 16th
and 17th centuries, later adopted by pirates to represent
lawlessness and rebellion. Today it is common to see skull
and cross bones on all manner of things from children’s
Like many other contemporary artists, Madden is intrigued
by how nature is represented in the museum. Taxidermy
animals strike curious poses in natural-history display
cases that attempt to make them look alive. Death
pervades the museum and, in Madden’s own words,
‘nature is hijacked by collecting’. Madden critiques
collecting and the museum, but he also celebrates the
resilience of nature to be reborn out of death – the butterfly
is the perfect symbol of this renewal.
Activities
Kate Rohde
Coral vanitas (detail) 2008
Peter
mixedMadden
media
The University
Queensland Collection purchased in 2008
Butterfly
bonesof2007
plastic,
wood,
paper of
and
resin
reproduced
courtesy
the
artist and Kaliman Gallery
28.0cm x 25.0cm x 40.0 cm
Collection of Dr Morris Low, Brisbane.
Courtesy of the artist
•
Make your own still life by assembling ephemeral materials that degrade over time. Document the decay of your artwork
using drawing, photography and/or video.
•
Brainstorm all of the associations with the words Butterfly bones. Make your own artwork using found materials inspired
by this title.
•
Create a visual or concrete poem in which you shape words to create a Gothic symbol.
•
List all of the contexts in which pirate symbols or references are found in popular culture. How might you account for the
popularity of the pirate in contemporary times? Why do you think pirates have lost their subversive appeal?
•
Look for other artists in neo goth: back in black who have an environmental message in their work. What ideas or
processes do they have in common with Peter Madden?
•
Research other artists who use found materials to make artworks. You might like to start by looking at the work of Peter
Atkins, Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Rosalie Gascoigne, Fiona Hall, Linde Ivimey, Donna Marcus, Waratah Lahy, Madonna
Staunton and Hossein Valamanesh. Which of these artists have an ecological message in their work?