Ourselves as Zoe. A dream, a web, a puzzle

After graduating from the South Australian School of Art in the mid-1980s, Adelaide-born artist Anna Platten established herself as one of Australia’s most highly regarded contemporary figurative painters. In the imaginary worlds of magic realism, the artist examines universal themes such as the role of women in society, sexuality, motherhood and the transience of life.

Rooted in tradition and celebrated for its exceptional virtuosity, her painterly approach is complemented by a deeply intuitive creative impulse. Platten describes how this vision appeared to her through a dream experienced at sunset: Everything clearly appeared as represented here, except for what exactly the young woman in the pink of youth was doing with her hands. As in the dream I am present and representing age, sitting before a black cave, the negative of my white-wearing self. My huge bonnet is an enclosure for my multitude of thoughts.

The tip of my pencil is the connection to the world and everything in life, while the tip of the painter’s brush traces the edge of where the known world ends.

While commencing this work, this cave was seen as death and the Anna-shaped space where I would one day go. I attended the birth of my soon-to-be niece, Zoe, and realised that it is from a dark and mysterious space that life too begins.

Tracey Lock, Curator of Australian Paintings and Sculpture