Empire (Beach)

Gavin Hipkins’ photo-collage is an enlarged wood

engraving by renowned English illustrator Anton Lock

juxtaposed with a contemporary urban ‘patch’. The

engraving depicts Kealakekua Bay, the Hawaiian site

where Captain James Cook was murdered in 1779. The detail in the image is obscured by an overlaid woven decal, which appears to be an image of Yama, the Buddhist and Hindu Judge of the Dead. Rendered as the embodiment of death, the serpent’s tail is substituted for hair surrounded by a four-part nimbus in green, gold, black and blue. Instead of being a terrifying image, Empire (Beach) looks like a scene from a graphic Gothic novel.

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