VICTORIA HYNES explores the elements which combine to form the lush confections of Robyn Stacey’s still lifes.

A large, full watermelon, shiny and ripe, is stabbed open with a nineteenth-century silver knife, as a dripping slice sits waiting to be consumed. A fecund display of fruit and flowers is draped across an antique table, plates and baskets spilling over with their bounty. These visually sumptuous photographic montages by Sydney-based photographer Robyn Stacey are far from the images one envisions being taken from a museum collection, more associated with faded, dusty specimens than the lush, fleshy compositions displayed here.

Since 2000, Stacey has developed a singular obsession with photographing works from Australia’s oldest natural history collections. Her fascination with natural history began after viewing the vast and diverse collection of Alexander Macleay, who arrived in 1826 from Britain as Colonial Secretary of New South Wales. Macleay brought with him an extensive collection of flora and fauna from around the world, which he then added to with specimens from across the Asia–Pacific region. This important collection later formed the basis of the Macleay Museum, housed at the University of Sydney, and the Herbarium at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, as well as spawning the Australian Museum.

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Image: Robyn Stacey, The First Cut, 2009, series: Empire Line, type C print, 120 x 159.5cm. Edition of 5.