Man is the Only Animal That Blushes. Or Needs To
Description
Man is the Only Animal That Blushes. Needs To
by Rachel Wolfe
2025
oil on canvas
61 × 76.2 cm, unframed
Man Is the Only Animal That Blushes. Or Needs To reflects on the sanitised versions of Australian colonial history that can be inherited through childhood, and the discomfort that arises when those familiar narratives are later understood differently. At the centre of the work, the familiar figure of Goofy is transformed from cartoon character into something more human and vulnerable. Rendered in blushing flesh tones, his lowered head and awkward posture suggest contemplation, exposure and unease. Behind him, an adaptation of Eugene von Guérard’s View of Mount Wellington (1856) is recoloured in pinks and dark tones, turning the idealised colonial landscape into an ambiguous, almost theatrical space. Ceramic galahs hover overhead, while a fallen green apple introduces another familiar but unsettled symbol. The title is drawn from Mark Twain’s observation about flawed humanity. Here, the landscape itself becomes a kind of psychological blush, considering what happens when the histories we once accepted as familiar and benign become more difficult to reconcile with what we later come to know.
Framing
The work is unframed.