The work Mortgage Death Pledge was a finalist in the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery's signature program, Still: National Still Life Award. In 2017, this award was expanded from having a focus solely on still life painting to include artworks in all mediums. As a large scale, high quality and innovative photograph, this work signals an imaginative contemporary interpretation of the still life genre and a new direction for the gallery's collection. The still life genre is the specialist focus of the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery’s collection, with still life artworks identified as the first priority in the gallery’s collection policy, Section 2.4.2 (1): “Works in this section reflect still life genre, as per artworks acquired through the National Still Life Award (Still) as well as through donation, purchase, transfer and bequest.

Mortgage Death Pledge is firmly within the vanitas tradition of still life, using symbols such as skulls, dead animals (in this case birds) fruit, flowers and food to remind us of the vanity (in the sense of worthlessness) of worldly pleasures and goods and the passage of time, life and death. The tableau has been exquisitely assembled, staged and photographed to create a highly seductive visual impression. The artist statement, however, links the work to the contemporary Australian issue of housing affordability, stating “In the Middle Ages the word 'mortgage’ was a legal term meaning 'death pledge', and referred to the pledge ending (dying) when either the obligation is fulfilled or the property is taken through foreclosure. In modern Australia the possibility of owning a home is increasingly out of the reach of most ordinary people.  The only choice many have is to either never own and rent, or be indebted for life.” This combination of working strongly within the convention of still life genre together with current social commentary makes it a valuable addition to the gallery’s collection.

[Written by Jo Besley, 4 March 2019]

Photograph of a skull surrounded by flora, digital medium format photograph printed on platinum.