Fiona Lowry Through me forbidden voices

This work is from a series of paintings inspired by the chance discovery of a 1950s book that listed Australia’s bushrangers. Surprisingly, the first was a man named John ‘Black’ Caesar of unknown African parentage. A slave in America, he sought freedom in Britain only to end up a convict in Australia.

It’s a curious story, revealing that colonial Australia was multi-racial from the outset. He had a relationship with fellow convict Anne Power. He was shot and killed four years after their daughter’s birth.

I was interested in what must have been the despair around his relationship and for me his story holds within it universal truths about love and loss and desire.

- Fiona Lowry, 2015