Karen Barbouttis: Fading Existence III 2024

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Karen Barbouttis works on antiquarian nautical maps, bringing them to life with exquisitely detailed pencil drawings of endangered animals pertaining to the area.

Fading Existence III

Many residents of the Woollahra Municipality would be familiar with the large anchor at The Gap, Watsons Bay, a memorial to the unidentified victims of the wreck of the ship the Dunbar. With a loss of 121 passengers and crew, and only one survivor, it is one of Australia's worst maritime disasters when it was driven into the reef at the foot of South Head on the evening of 20th of August,1857. The vessel was owned by Duncan Dunbar and one of a fleet of 52 vessels that travelled from England during the Industrial Revolution. Duncan Dunbar was one the most successful British entrepreneurs during this period that travelled the world for trade. Michael Rhodes, a relative of the Dunbar family, was writing a book, 'Duncan Dunbar and the age of Sail', and in his research discovered and gifted a treasure trove of maritime maps dating from the early 1800's, used by the Dunbar captains. Some were so rare they were donated to the Royal Navy to fill the gaps in their collection, others were restored and hung in a private museum in Malaysia, and others were offered to me for the purpose of giving them an extended life as artwork. These maps are original, the paper fragile, complete with captains' plots and markings. I chose to honour the flora and fauna native to the regions. My drawings are images that work to the beauty of the markings of the maps. They also look to an awareness of the diverse animal and plant life of these regions that still exist but are sadly declining at an ever increasing rate, not just to climate change, but to poaching, the illegal wildlife trade, and land and habitat destruction.