​George Matoulas

 These images began with childhood memories of a slippery slide outside the Park Towers housing estate in South Melbourne. The slide was of a rocket but I made it into a bomb.

A collection I was re-housing at the time at the State Library of Victoria (Dunn Collection) had documented weapons inspectors. It probably came through some form of osmosis.

I had made a book with Peter Lyssiotis which dealt with social issues and some images of resistance fighters and that Eureka Flag project.

The palette is deliberately pastel and light. I see them as still lives following on from Pop traditions, why can’t a weapon be seen the same way as a bowl of fruit, flowers or landscape.

​The more I delved into the topic the more I was drawn to the issue of death and the depiction of death in art. This  brought out a realisation that they are more about time and less about war and violence.

​[George Matoulas CV]

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Bomb, 2013
Acrylic on linen
168 x 122 cm

Scythe, 2017
Acrylic on linen
168 x 122 cm

Swords, 2017
Acrylic on linen
26 x 122 cm

Grenade, 2016
Acrylic on linen
168 x 122 cm

From my cold dead hands, 2016
Acrylic on linen
26 x 122 cm

Booby trap after John Perceval with apologies, 2015
Acrylic on linen
168 x 122 cm

Spear, 2015
Acrylic on linen
122 x 26 cm