JACQUELINE LARCOMBE

The Goat Horn

The area known as Earlwood is the subject/muse for The Goat Horn. The title refers to the horn of the goat that nurtured Zeus. Torn off unceremoniously by the infant god, at once the horn began to overflow with an eternal abundance of fruit and earthly delights…

I’m interested in the vernacular architecture of this area that has transformed the look and form of the houses and businesses, buildings that have been repurposed and adapted by the local community. Just one example of this is the 'Acropolis Funeral Services' building that at one stage was a bank. Now painted white with its looming columns it has become a type of Parthenon for the dead.

Prefab Corinthian columns, Greek border patterns, floral motifs, ethereal statues of women carrying grapes, all these things are offered up to the eye of the curious passerby. Images of monumentality, in a suburban context become superfluous props on a stage of domestic and cultural performativity, standing in equal relationship with the orange and lemon trees. These fragments and facsimiles are just a blip in the history of the area. Porous and temporary they sit on the lands of the Bediagal people, the traditional owners and custodians.

Making, thinking and showing on the unceded lands of the Wangal, Gadigal and Bediagal peoples I pay my respects to their elders past present and future.

To pay the rent for this exhibition, a percentage of sales will go to Aboriginal Legal Service.