Anne Wallace
Born 1970, Meanjin/Brisbane. Lives and works Narrm/Melbourne.
"I shall be released" 2013
oil on canvas
Collection of The University of Queensland, purchased 2015.
Reproduced courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.
The title of this artwork is ‘I shall be released’ by Anne Wallace. It is an unframed painting created in 2013, measuring 1.46 metres high and 1.14 metres wide. It is made of oil on canvas. The artwork is unsigned on the front.
The artwork features a realistic painting of a close-up view of one dull suburban house and its unkempt front lawn, viewed at eye level. In the centre, filling most of the surface, is a large and dense cluster of green plants in grey rectangular planter boxes around a green mailbox. The mailbox sits on a narrow, almost completely covered post and has a curved top and rectangular body with a top slit. The number 13 in light yellow is on the front, with the number one partially obscured.
The cluster of plants around the mailbox are primarily mother-in-law’s tongue, also known as snake plant. They are tall, narrow, and rigid, ending in a point at the top, with alternating light and dark green horizontal stripes and a thin yellow or white border on the outside. They are largely the same height as the mailbox. Poking through the lower half of the clump of mother-in-law’s tongues are marijuana plants. They have fine, narrow light green leaves with a jagged edge that radiate out from a single point, like fingers on the palm of a hand.
In the top section of the artwork there is the lower exterior of a grey house. The top left features a grey grid of latticework followed by the start of the house’s exterior wall. On the top right, a staircase aligns with the latticework, descending diagonally toward the bottom right, with a thin blue scalloped banister. In the top right corner, the bottom edge of a window with grey-white frames is visible. A row of upright green ferns lines the bottom edge of the house.
Across the bottom of the artwork is the edge of a grey footpath, with a small section of a grey driveway on the left-side, in front of the latticework. The rest of the bottom section features a green and slightly scraggly lawn. In the bottom right corner, on the edge of the lawn, there is a wire rectangular bird cage with a curved top containing 3 budgerigars: 2 blue budgies on low perches on the left side of the cage and a green budgie on a perch in the top centre. The budgies are all looking straight ahead at the viewer. Seeds are in containers at the bottom of their cage, with a white box of seeds outside, displaying an image of budgerigars in orange and the text: ‘Budgerigar Seed, 2 pounds, Golden Cob’. The cage and box of seeds sit on a flat white rectangle. The overall tone of the painting is dark with shafts of light illuminating parts of the front lawn, mailbox, surrounding plants, and birdcage, while the rest remains in shadow.
The house featured is based on one near the artist’s former residence in Toowong, Brisbane. Wallace draws on pop culture, including music and film, capturing compelling and unsettling moments of tension with elements of the real and unreal, suggesting something has just happened or is about to.