Floresta - Little Remains but the History Expressed in the faces of the Amazon, Jo Dickson, 1993
SRAG collection. Photograph by Sandra McEwan.
Jo Dickson (1971–) is an artist, interior and building designer. During visits to her grandmother’s property near Stanthorpe her grandmother taught her about painting and art. Specialising in printmaking, painting, clay sculpture and pottery, her work has been exhibited in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, England, USA and Canada and has been acquired for international collections.
After finishing school Jo spent a year in Brazil as an exchange student, sparking her interest in South American Pottery. She saw Sting with Amazon Chief Raoni campaigning to protect the forest and its people, which inspired this work.
Jo describes this work: "I heard it's possible to print on clay using certain types of photocopiers, by turning the machine off and removing the printed paper from inside the machine before it is heat-set. Then it is turned onto wet clay, to which the toner image sticks when you peel the paper off. When fired in a kiln the toner turns sepia and fixes to the clay. As with a lino print, you have to reverse the image so it is the right way round, especially if you have words. In this case, the words in the background of the sculpture are the result of many hours of research on the Amazon issue, hand scribed painstakingly into the oxide stain. "