Bonson shares stories of his Indigenous heritage through his work. SKIN is a celebration of his family's totem - The Saltwater Crocodile - and his personal view of the world. Whilst in his senior years at school, Bonson started to dabble with paint, creating textured black and white paintings in acrylics in what he describes as a 3D style. He applies his paint thickly creating works that are contemporary in appearance yet embody age old Indigenous traditions and meanings.
The idea is to recreate the scales of a saltwater crocodile, which my grandfather told me is my totem. The armoured skin of the reptile is shown by the built-up serrations of the paint and other materials applied by hand or directly from the tube. But it also works on different levels – it can be read as a close-up of a reptile’s skin and as a landscape both seen from a distance and as close-up details of rock’s and sand - Joshua Bonson
