Nilsen’s witty new body of work has been inspired by the iconic imagery of Andy Warhol’s celebrity screen-print portraits.
Nilsen has responded with his own glamorous array of repetitious emu heads. Employing a combination of acrylic and screen-printed techniques including hand painted features, his emus appear as bizarre family portraits. Indeed emus are Nilsen’s totems.

The Mandandanji Neighbours series have been individually titled with various tribal group names in a direct reference to Hortons Map of Aboriginal Australia. Beginning with his own Mandandanji tribal name from South Western Queensland where he was born and raised, Nilsen links foreground and background colours with neighboring tribal group names, as a form of recognizing extended families. The premise being that emus appear and wander all over Australia - as has the artist.

Another work The Ten Goolburis is a blatent reference on Warhol’s The Ten Marilyns, harking back to his ongoing interest in exploring popular culture through Indigenous sensibilities.

The works have been produced as multiples in two sizes
70x70cm at $890 each
48x48cm at $630 each
Set prices available

Laurie Nilsen New Works
(acrylic and pastel on canvas) 2008
These are essentially illustrative works – Nilsen is a masterful draughtsman – depicting portraits of individual emus. The results, some of which he has captured on his mobile phone, reveal quirky and mad profiles of strange outback birds.

Laurie Nilsen: Birds on a Wire Ashley Crawford Australian Art Collector Issue 42 Oct-Dec 2007 pp149-153

This artwork highlights women’s issues – hence the title I’m a Widow by Choice.
It’s about women having more say in decisions affecting women. For instance, on the topic of abortion - How would a male know what it’s really like for a woman to abort, for whatever reason? That’s women’s business - not decisions to be made by men on moral grounds.

Laurie Nilsen Artist Statement 2007

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