Bea MADDOCK<br/>
<em>TERRA SPIRITUS ... with a darker shade of pale</em> 1993-1998 <!-- (recto) --><br />

hand-ground ochre and blind letterpress on 52 sheets<br />
(a-zz) 26.5 x 76.0 cm (image and sheet) (each)<br />
ed. 3/5<br />
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne<br />
Purchased, 1999<br />
1999.190.a-zz<br />
© Courtesy of the artist
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Bea Maddock Terra Spiritus … with a darker shade of pale 1993-98

Bea MADDOCK
TERRA SPIRITUS ... with a darker shade of pale 1993-1998

Terra Spiritus … with a darker shade of pale is a conceptual, artistic and technical tour de force and the culmination of Maddock’s extraordinary career. Comprising fifty-two sheets which, when installed, run over forty metres, the work depicts Tasmania’s entire coastline viewed from the sea. The simplified outlines of the land hark back to topographical drawings made to aid navigation. While English place names, printed in blind letterpress text, claim ownership, the Indigenous names that float over the sea assert a much older presence, one that was finally acknowledged with the repudiation of the concept of terra nullius with Mabo v. Queensland in 1992.