Joe Furlonger: Horizons

29 in a unique combination, also seen elsewhere in his practice. In those moments, a quirky brand of Cubism plays with depth and recession, perhaps exemplified by myriad ink-and-scroll paintings he has completed in Australia and abroad. Furlonger has mined the narrative of journey for over 40 years, searching for imagery during immersive travels in Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and China, and from extensive road trips in Australia. On one occasion, he felt like a drive, packed up the family, and ended up crossing the continent from south-east Queensland to Broome in the far north-west, drawing along the way. For allied research, he has gone to the Gold Coast to surf and watch the ocean (and to live); worked on trawlers; visited the circus with sketchpads; and odd-jobbed as a ‘jungle buster’, charged with taming the bush and bramble along semi-rural roads. He has long admired Chinese brush-and-ink painting, with its hint of narrative within the imagery, its wild swings between obsessive detail and fleeting gesture, and the various formal experiments in verticality and aerial perspective. POURED FROM THE BRUSH