The ranger, Sea hund (hound),
and Wachter dein kultur
(Guardian of culture)

Danie Mellor’s ancestral land, the rainforest of north Queensland, is the source of artistic inspiration for his works. These three slipcast dogs represent a form of mapping, with the artist fashioning them to illustrate three basic views of the topography of his mother’s home country around Cairns.

While the dogs are a standard cast of the German shepherd species, their appearance and size suggest the distinctive breed of dingo found in the Atherton Tableland (Canis familiaris). Mellor was prompted to produce these works after seeing museums full of Indigenous Cape York artefacts during a trip to Europe.

The first dog, The ranger, is painted with a light green glaze and carries a fern motif on its back, while the second dog, Sea hund (hound), has black contours on a blue glaze to denote a seascape. It references Mellor’s time as a deckhand on offshore prawn trawlers before he began his art career. The final dog, Wachter dein kultur (Guardian of culture), is painted with the earth colours of a geological map.

The dingo can be seen as a metaphor for Australia’s Indigenous people. Historically treated by Europeans as a despised pest, it is nonetheless an intelligent and persistent survivor. Together, the dogs echo a reference to the survival of culture for contemporary Indigenous artists.

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See also . . .

Learn about the artist Danie Mellor.