What are some of your favourite works in the exhibition, Murray Cod: the biggest fish in the river?
I think it’s a really even exhibition. Part of its strength is that the works are complementary though I suppose there are some pieces that have particular meaning for me. The ‘hero’ image is the hand-coloured lithograph by Ludwig Becker. It’s quite exquisite. You can see his hand on the lithograph and it’s very different to the editioned works, which were created by fi nished artists and which are much broader. The Becker proof captures the tiny little fl ecks of a mature Murray cod. Becker has always been an important artist, he was the artist that got me into Australian history and art history. On the Burke and Wills expedition in particular, he produced some of the most signifi cant images from the exploration of arid Australia. Discovering Becker’s work in the [Museum Victoria] archive was central to getting momentum behind the exhibition. Becker’s image of the Murray cod stands for those notions of taxonomy that people understand inherently – you know, creating the really accurat
