Pictures 2026
Catalogue / Memoir
Introduction
Pictures
Objects
Animations
PICTURES are both finished and ephemeral works made for animations.
1949---- 1950---- 1951---- 1952---- 1953---- 1954---- 1955---- 1956---- 1957---- 1958---- 1959---- 1960---- 1961---- 1962---- 1963---- 1964---- 1965---- 1966---- 1967---- 1968---- 1969---- 1970---- 1971---- 1972---- 1973---- 1974---- 1975---- 1976---- 1977---- 1978---- 1979---- 1980---- 1981---- 1982---- 1983---- 1984---- 1985---- 1986---- 1987---- 1988---- 1989---- 1990---- 1991---- 1992---- 1993---- 1994---- 1995---- 1996---- 1997---- 1998---- 1999---- 2000---- 2001---- 2002---- 2003---- 2004---- 2005---- 2006---- 2007---- 2008---- 2009---- 2010---- 2011---- 2012---- 2013---- 2014---- 2015---- 2016---- 2017---- 2018---- 2019---- 2020---- 2021---- 2022---- 2023---- 2024---- 2025---- 2026----
Put on her glasses, imagine her view
2026 My great grandmother's glasses
2025-2026 Making Matilda Allover Downunder interactive picture books
I come from a long line of strong women. The glasses belonged to my great grandmother Lillie, wife of Tom Roberts and mother of Caleb who married Nora (named after Nora in Ibsen's play The Dolls House.) Caleb was their only child. My father Noel was the first born of Caleb and Nora's three sons.
Matilda. A Germanic name meaning 'battle strong'. Matilda was the name of Tom Roberts's mother, my great great grandmother, described by Caleb as courageous. Like the courageous Galah (Eolophus roseicapilla) in Matilda Allover Downunder, the interactive picture book I made about a bird born with wings wrapped around the Hasselblad Eternal camera that can photograph the past, present and future, animate in geological time, and record dreams.
Art, science, education
On Saturday May 18, 2026 I interview Peter Towson who I'd met at a mutual friend's 80th birthday party in Sydney. Peter was introduced to me as someone in their 90s who had worked in Antarctica. So when I later recorded his story in the quiet of his home, I expected the main topic to be Antarctica. I was surprised to hear his story of lifelong working and learning, starting as a worker with the Redfern rail yards, earning two PhDs and teaching and practicing in the diverse fields of engineering, architecture, design, art history, and law.
Peter starts off telling me about Ken Reinhard, a pop artist who got him a job teaching art history in the National Art School, and then lecturing in structural engineering in the Faculty of Architecture at University of Technology Sydney.
As I write this now I reflect on my experience as a student at this time, at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School. The same school where my great grand parents, Tom and Lillie studied.
The school was the brainchild of Antarctic scientist John Law and sculptor Lenton Parr. Their vision was for students to learn about the world through art and science.
In my time Lenton Parr was Head of school. In our first year he gathered us together to explain that this was a school of Fine Art, and if your aim was to make money as an artist you needed to enroll in a commercial art school. We were urged to find our path in life and in art, to question everything, and resist directives from self-styled thought leaders in business, taste and fashion.
I felt deep resistance to the American Clement Greenberg who I felt had come to Australia to 'convert' us to Abstract Expressionism.
Then came the opposing push of Hard Edge painting, being pushed in Sydney by Ken Reinhard
I now read,
...it was noted by James Gleeson of the Sun-Herald (August 28,1966) that Reinhard, alongside Sydney Ball, was one of the first Sydney artists to turn their backs on abstract expressionism in favour of op-art inspired straight lines and hard edges. In 1967 Reinhard, alongside Sydney Ball and Col Jordan, shocked Sydney viewers with Engine, an exhibition of hard-edge and optical art at Bonython Galleries, which Kym Bonython heralded as a new era of 'internationalism', describing the three artists as 'revolutionaries'. Bonython elaborates,
"[They] deliberately negate any intense emotional response to their background or environment. They are art-scientists, ivory tower painters or sculptors, presenting the purest possible statement of their ideas behind closed doors."
I saw both schools of painting as fashions pushed by American salesmen as ways to fame and fortune.
I got the feeling there was division among the staff at the National Gallery of Victoria School of Art, about how to make and teach art.
Today as I write I wonder if the division I felt then was a lot deeper than the local Sydney-Melbourne rivalry. Was it the age-old battle between autocracy and democracy?
EVENTS
Palaeontologists have discovered an extremely well-preserved feather from an extinct bird in fossilised dinosaur faeces.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-09-11/preserved-feather-coprolite-t-rex-66-million-years-fossil/107125056?utm_source=abc_news_web&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_web
April 29: Banksy erects a statue in central London overnight.
Ref. Wikipedia 2026
The early part of the year saw escalating armed conflicts in the Americas and Middle East. In January, the United States launched a military operation in Venezuela that captured sitting President Nicolas Maduro, leading to a blockade of Venezuelan oil exports that contributed to a crisis in Cuba. In Syria, an offensive by the Syrian government led to the Syrian Democratic Forces eventually being integrated into the Syrian Army, while in Yemen, a counteroffensive by the Yemeni government led to the collapse of the Southern Transitional Council. In February, Pakistan launched airstrikes against Afghanistan, leading to an open war between both nations. In Iran, in response to authorities cracking down on protests, the United States and Israel began a war in late February with the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which resulted in widespread economic grief, fuel shortages and retaliatory strikes on Gulf nations, as well as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and a naval blockade.
The continued release of the Epstein files that began the previous year has influenced scrutiny, media coverage, and in some cases arrests of high profile individuals in politics, business, and academia in the western world. American businessman Elon Musk became the first person to have a verified net worth exceeding $1 trillion upon the initial public offering of his company SpaceX in June.
In politics, a conservative wave spread through Latin America, with right-wing victories in Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru while far right parties in Europe continued to gain ground in the United Kingdom and across the European Union, though the long ruling right wing government in Hungary lost power after ruling since 2010, and Portugal elected a centre-left social democrat over a right-wing populist in their presidential election.
In science and technology, the dominant headline has been NASA's Artemis II flyby of the Moon, the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972, sending the first woman, Black man, and non-American beyond low Earth orbit. Artificial intelligence has continued to advance, with increasing focus on scaling models, infrastructure, and commercial applications. While some high-profile projects such as OpenAI's Sora were discontinued, development of generative AI - including text-to-video models - has continued across the industry.
In sports, the 2026 Winter Olympics were the first Olympic Games to be officially co-hosted by two cities (Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy). The 2026 FIFA World Cup became the first edition to be hosted by three nations (United States, Mexico and Canada) and the first to include 48 teams, in addition to setting the record for the highest attendance in World Cup history; a short time later, a crisis in FIFA erupted following a proposal of creation of a commercial subsidiary, largely rejected by confederations.
In health, an epidemic of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda has been declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization.
Written by me, Lisa Roberts/Euphausia superba (Antarctic krill), on
02/09/2026
