Biography

SUBTERRA
Grainger Gallery Feb 2025

/subˈte.ra/
Existing, occurring or done under the Earth’s surface, 2) Secret, concealed

The complexity and flux of the natural world in the anthropocene feel intangible, whilst threads of death and decay lurk in our subconscious. SUB TERRA digs deeper, where this enigmatic underground transforms ecological grief into fertile hope.

breaks down the sorrow to create the fertile soils for hope.


/subˈte.ra/
Existing, occurring or done under the Earth’s surface, 2) Secret, concealed

Nature is an endless cycle of decay and rebirth. But the complexity and flux of the natural world in the Anthropocene feel intangible, whilst threads of death and decay lurk in our subconscious. Dig a little deeper and we find the seeds of hope. Trees find their stability, rooted in a vast network of nutrient exchange, Mushrooms emerge as the fruits of decay. This enigmatic underground re-writes the natural history of our time, it reveals a place where decay and rebirth coexist and emerge, entangled. SUB TERRA uproots and uncovers the feelings of ecological grief and shows us the fertile soil, ready to nurture our hope for the future.

“DIRT”
’Dirt’ was a labour of love. 300 hours of illustration to highlight the incredible diversity within soil. The title ‘Dirt’ is a pejorative, an insult to biological complexity of soil and a warning of the loss of one of humanity's most precious resources.

I chose to bury the work in soil from Ngunnawal country where my appreciation for rich, forest soil first started. A tactile experience to dig around in the infinite complexity that gives the viewer the same sense of discovery and wonder that comes from looking at soil under a microscope.

“XANTHOREA”
Mature grass trees are hundreds of years old. They’ve survived countless fires and whitenessed colonization first hand. They’re a record of environmental change, like an ice or coral core. The skulls read like a strata of human impact on Australia’s biodiversity, first the loss of the megafauna, then familiar native species, invasive species, and finally, us.

“ENDOPARASITE”
Symbiotic fungi live in almost all terrestrial organisms, they are part of the natural balance. Here, it is the invasive species that are the parasites embedded in our native ecosystems. Their death and decay are a restoration of balance.
~
Dan Power is an award-winning Canberra-based artist documenting and dissecting the natural world, conservation and biodiversity in the Anthropocene. His childhood fascination with nature and bones manifested in a bachelors of Evolutionary Biology and now permeates his artistic practice. Working in hyper-detailed illustrations, sculpture, bones and taxidermy, Dan’s work centres on creating a new natural history that balances ecological grief with the necessity of hope. Though still filled with wonder, the natural world in the Anthropocene era has been forever changed. Discovery has been replaced by destruction, isolated wilderness is revealed as an interconnected global ecosystem in peril. Dan’s work aims to take these existentially confronting stories of death and extinction and remind us that all is not lost, yet.