My Tribe is Extremely Violent sees Derek Cowie confronting his own uncomfortable colonial heritage and those dominant western principles of individualism through a suite of cartoonish portraits.
Cowie depicts a cast of fair-skinned, red-nosed men and women clad in absurd but historically accurate sartorial displays of private wealth and status, eyes closed in sorrow or blindness or perhaps inebriated torpor. For Cowie, this rampant individualism coupled with a prevailing economic system that emphasises consumer choice above all else, will ultimately herald the devastation of our natural environment and subsequent societal collapse.
Working across various mediums and styles, Cowie’s practice delves into obscure art historical and cultural resources, unerringly motivated by strong environmental concerns. Cowie often depicts familiar forms and utilitarian objects – including teacups, milk jugs, and upturned chairs – as symbolic carriers of meaning, many of which have appeared in his work over several decades, developing into his own kind of iconography or visual system. Cowie’s shattered plaster works are a recurring motif in his practice, beginning with the earlier series Destruction of National Treasures, whereby the artist carefully constructs and then actively obliterates visual representations of European history.
Derek Cowie (b. 1956, Ruatoria, New Zealand) was raised in Dunedin and now lives and paints in Wellington Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Cowie exhibited with Peter McLeavey Gallery throughout the 1980s before moving to London where he worked as a scenic painter for the National Theatre and as an award-winning visual artist for film and television, before eventually returning to Wellington in 2015. His work is represented in several public collections including Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
