Diane Allison — The Twilight of such Days

The art of collage lifts to exciting heights, as Diane Allison unveils new works. But dark clouds loom, and Diane turns to Shakespeare for her exhibition’s title – The Twilight of such Days.

This body of 53 pieces tackles serious issues. A master of collage, Diane shatters stereotypes as she re-arranges old masterpieces to “bring something famous from another time and give it a contemporary twist”. In Sliced, Diane disrupts the languid recline of Botticelli’s Venus which portrays women as passive and decorative. The target in Upstanding is men in military regalia oozing command. “I am trying to capture the evolution of how we see ourselves.”

Diane also explores the dangers facing our planet. In smaller digital collages the famed bird illustrations of John Gould become ominous. Dianne wraps Tasmania’s rare forty-spotted pardalote in threatening imagery ranging from roads to maps of disappearing habitat. Oceans come under the microscope in Sound and Waves with pages hand-torn from old books suggesting the disruption of climate change.

But Diane dedicates her biggest collage to suburban sprawl. In Cul-de-Sac, endless roads spiral out of control as she warns about “the expansion of the urban world snaking out through the environment.” And there is no doubt Diane’s powerful messages echo the sentiments of Shakespeare in Sonnet 73 where a dying man looks back with longing on things that will soon be lost: “In me thou see’st the twilight of such day.”

Diane Allison’s The Twilight of Such Days exhibition runs from August 11- 28.