Headline artist Morrison Polkinghorne counts numerology highly in his latest installation.

Deviating from painting, Morrison Polkinghorne’s latest installation is videography of numbers. He films lips of artists, family and friends to count numbers tallying a half million lotus impressions painted during his decade living in Cambodia. He then reassembles the close ups to create a videographic art installation.

In the prior pandemic days, when much of the world sought protection under veils, Morrison reveals Cambodian artists’s lips counting from zero to a trillion trillion. This is in recognition, and tribute, to the numerology recorded in all  artworks. Fittingly for a man raised in Alice Springs, Morrison’s holistic paintings are inspired equally by both Aboriginal dot paintings and French Pointillism, then deviating to classic Japanese and Chinese landscapes in monochrome, painted with artisanal ink he personally distills from lotus petals.  

The procedure is holistic, incorporating geographical, flora and fauna elements  from where his art emanates, and spiritual in the incorporation of sacred donations, such as re-using dying flowers donated to shrines, and stones gathered around ancient temples. After distilling his inks, he then incorporates elements such as lotus stems, fallen twigs and feathers to paint his pieces.Then he painstakingly counts each impression, each stroke, and notes the numerical significance of each piece.