Wattamolla flowers is a sculptural work by Marian Drew acquired for the Parliament House Art Collections. It is from an edition of five and is part of her ‘rock, fruit, flower’ series created in 2023.

The unusual reflective materiality of the work is a notable new direction for Drew’s longstanding practice of making photographic prints on paper. The artist draws upon her interest in geology and photographic representation.

The artist says,

I kept thinking about these geological scales and a different way of inhabiting the space-time continuum so visible there. I see the camera as a basket for collecting. The single perspective of the camera hangs the rocks, a vast landscape, all within a frame. It is an historical and perspectival armature.¹

Marion Drew
Marian Drew (born 1960) is a Brisbane-based photographic artist. After graduating from the Canberra School of Art in 1984, Drew was awarded a scholarship from the Government of Germany to study experimental photography at Kassel University. Since then, she has represented Australia in the First Asia Pacific Triennial in 1993, Dubai Photo in 2016, Musée du Quai Branly, PhotoQuai, Paris in 2011, and the Pingyao International Photography Festival, China in 2010. Drew has held over 40 solo exhibitions in Australia and internationally; and has had her work included in over 100 group shows. In 2006 the Queensland Centre for Photography published her monograph, Marian Drew Photographs and Video.²

References
1. "Catalogue of works, Marian Drew: rock, fruit, flower", provided by Onespace Gallery 2023.
2. Marian Drew Studio, “About”, accessed March 24, 2025. https://www.mariandrew.com.au/about