We are fortunate in Australia to have retained some relatively pristine wilderness areas, but climate change, deforestation and the destruction of the environment are rapidly altering our natural world.

The nascent global movement of rewilding, in areas such as Europe, is restoring lost ecological processes. Does our future include the rewilding of Australia in an attempt to restore a small part of the complex natural environments we are currently destroying? Spending time in the bush, the forests, the desert or a garden nourishes our souls, but also raises issues of the interplay between humans and the rest of nature – our violence and exploitation of the natural world.

Tasmania’s magnificent forests and Victoria’s old growth forests are unique and enchanting areas. Dripping, verdant, lush and green, these forests abound with ferns, strange luminous fungi and ancient Gondwanaland trees, festooned with dripping mosses and lichens.

Annie Burns’ work is engaged with ideas of mortality, a consideration of stereotypical imagery, and a passionate interest in the sublime natural world and our relationship with it.