'The Greenpeace Series' (Post Graduate 93 Exhibition)

‘The Religious procession’ (after Repin) 2 x 3 m. Quote from John McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald, April 2007

“He does something similar in his Greenpeace series, The Religious Procession (after Repin) (1990), where a large copy of a famous painting by a 19th-century Russian master is interrupted by a band of psychedelic political slogans that runs like a subtext through the crowd. The Orthodox Church never brought much to the Russian poor except consolation, while the landscape in which the procession takes place is blasted and barren. By relating this picture to a contemporary demonstration, Wilson is emphasising the need for ordinary people to take a stand on issues that affect them and their environment. One might call this approach postmodernism with a conscience”.

‘The Religious procession’ (after Repin) 2 x 3 m. Detail

Greenpeace series, oil stick on paper 1.3 x 1.6 m

‘The martyrdom of the innocent’, oil on canvas 242 x 171 cm 1992

“This painting was completed in the manner of nineteenth century Salon Art and purposely parodies that tradition. The deliberate theatric lighting and composition hint at Gericault’s epic painting ‘The Raft of the Medusa’, and like that type of history painting, seeks to express a sense of struggle. Unlike Gericault’s painting however, the struggle here is for the preservation of the natural environment, not a heroic struggle against it. The Innocent is a self-sufficient ecology”.