John Foster
Commentary - Prayer and Healing Service
1985 – 1987, Oil on hardboard, Length 12m, Height 2.4m
A collection of media images
This mural is a collection of media images. It was intended to be complementary to Four Seasons on the Farm.
It is laid out in seven horizontal lines: the second row down is about art; the third television; the fourth roads; the fifth are printed images, and the top and bottom rows contain images that did not fit into the other categories. The mural is laid out with the images connected to the border by wires, cables, and coloured lines. Later the border was the base for the Creation mural.
John gathered material for this mural for the whole three years that he was painting. There are many small jokes and puns, for example, ‘Contents Assorted’ was a label collected from food packaging, but also refers to the whole mural.
The construction of this mural was the same as the Four Seasons on the Farm, painted on whole sheets of hardboard with all the panels constructed before painting began. It is shorter than Four Seasons on the Farm, as it had to be finished before painting on the Commonwealth Games mural began.
Printmaking A series of 38 woodcut and lithograph prints accompanies this mural.
Series also includes:
- 38 print editions
The Prayer and Healing Service mural in progress