The Lost Voyage of Captain Foley and the HMS Laburnum – Craft Victoria, Melbourne 2012

Tapping into the mysteries of ‘under the sea’ and ‘into the woods’, this collaborative project explores and exploits the unknown, the uncanny and the unbelievable. Artists Anna Davern and Lucy James combine their shared obsessions of collage, composition and story-telling to present a tongue in cheek perspective of colonialism and the 18th Century fascination for the bizarre creatures that were brought back from the strange new continent of Australia.

Referencing the sea and the voyages taken by these creatures, Davern and James present an alternative result of these expeditions: a ship loaded with live specimens is overwhelmed by a large mythological wave, which changes things. Koalas descend Poppinsesque to the ocean floor and sea bass snuggle in wallaby pouches. Hybridised creatures gain super powers from their new environments and the Captain leads his motley crew on a hunt through the deep.

This coalescing and hybridisation of the creatures reflects the process of collaboration between the two artists. Long-time fans of each other’s work, Davern and James have pushed the process of collaboration to inform and extend their own separate practices. This is less an exhibition of two artists’ work and more an exhibition of work by the blended entity of the collaborative process.