Australia, insurance, car, home, live, holidays

Not master and student:Reg Mombassa and Glenn Smith with linocuts and digital reproductions that will be part of their exhibition Creatures:Losing the War on Nature in Redfern.Credit:Steven Siewert

Mombassa,who is famous for his paintings,drawings and thousands if not millions of Mambo shirts,had never tried lino cuts before. But when he decided to collaborate with Smith,the timing just felt right.

“I had been asked previously to collaborate and either I wasn’t available or I just didn’t fancy the work,” Mombassa said. “I just thought this project was interesting as I’ve always liked lino cuts and wood cuts and apart from doing a few lino cuts at art school I hadn’t really done it before.”

Smith would prepare the lino then send it to Mombassa,who would draw on it,then Smith would carve and print the designs.

“Glenn has a really great carving technique,and he suggested the idea of me drawing on lino and then he would carve,” Mombassa said. “When he carves my images,he gives them a slightly different look and feel than if I’d painted it myself.”

According to Mombassa the title of the exhibition refers to some of the themes in his artwork,including ecological loss,climate change and extinction.

“It’s a war that we should be losing – the way that we put ourselves at the top of the food chain is very arrogant,” he said. “I’ve been drawing a lot of koalas because they are an endangered species and one of Australia’s most iconic animals.

“I’ve been drawing them with suicide belts or terrorist masks,because I had this idea that if koalas were a race of humans and they were having their habitat destroyed by another race they’d be fighting back.”

Smith admitted the two artists have had parallel lives – albeit a good 20 years apart – as both have played in bands,worked for Mambo and designed album covers and T-shirts.

“I had never seen his artwork in lino form,” he said. “I just asked him if it would be OK if I turned some of his drawings into lino cuts and he immediately said yes.

“I just thought this project was interesting as I’ve always liked lino cuts and wood cuts”:Reg Mombassa.Credit:Steven Siewert

“Reg doesn’t collaborate with a lot of people. I think I just came across as someone who was keen to make something great without much hassle or fanfare,” he said.

Smith agreed that the exhibition had a dark ecological theme running through it.

“When I look at Reg’s drawings,there’s a dark element to it.” he said. “There’s not a lot of celebration of humanity. Humans have done some stupid things over the years and we continue to do so.

“If there’s a narrative with Reg’s work,it’s human frailty and some of the bad decisions that we’ve made. And it’s all done in the context of the suburban Australian backyard.”

Not only are the prints for sale at the exhibition,there’s also a limited amount of hand screen-printed yardage.

“We have about 100 metres of yardage for sale,in the style of the golden era of Mambo when everything was hand screen-printed.” Smith said.

While a celebrated artist in his own right,he is an unabashed fan of Mombassa.

“At first I was a bit nervous spending time with him,” Smith said. “But I like to think that I’m a friend now as we’ve spent a bit of time together.

“At art school,I was compared to Reg in a disparaging way,saying our art was less than high art. But that world ate itself when things became overly intellectual and conceptual.”

The new collaboration could be seen as the master and student working together but that’s something Mombassa is quick to dismiss.

“It’s definitely not the master and the student,” he said “If anyone is the master it would be Glenno. He’s the one that has done the hard work on this project so I take my hat off to him.”

Creatures – Losing The War With Nature is at the Rogue Pop-up gallery at 130 Regent St,Redfern,from October 5-30.

License this article