Terra Incognita: A duck-billed what? Milan Milojevic

Terra Incognita: A duck-billed what? is an exhibition of prints and 3-dimensional objects that continues to explore contemporary cultural identity and the complexities of a cross-cultural position. Milojevic is a first generation Australian of German/Serbian parents, and for four decades he has engaged with the dilemma of growing up and belonging to three countries  and finding a space ‘in between’, an imagined and unknown place constructed from collected stories of a homeland he never witnessed and is based instead upon memory, myth, fiction and fact.

The synthesis of fact and fiction play a pivotal role in his practice, content that is informed and inspired by the aesthetics and visual language developed by18th and 19^th century engravers and naturalist artists. The fictitious flora and fauna are constructed through a combination of digital and traditional print technologies.  Reference to engravings and woodcuts stems from  his interest in the role these early prints played in disseminating visual information through compendiums and encyclopaedias. They were the primary evidence of new terrain explored and this evidence was regarded as factual. Secondly, they imply a narrative, and due to their linear structure, enable seamless continuity in the juxtaposition of a range of disparate and diverse original sources. By coalescing the inherent properties of traditional print and contemporary digital media he has developed a hybrid practice.  This ‘hybrid’ approach to printmaking media synthesizes the form and content within his practice