In Banks, which one is mine? we quickly recognise the faces of both Captain Cook and Joseph Banks. Both men wear the unamused expressions by which we have learned to identify ‘great men,’ but what are they doing with golf clubs? And then the details start to register—cane toads abound around their feet, one couple even fornicating; St Andrews clubhouse, mecca of contemporary golf, nestles gracefully in the middle distance; kangaroos forage on the course; and cattle graze near a windmill behind a picket fence. This is bizarre, but as a smile forms on the viewer’s face, so also does a question start to present itself about the story here.
Based on a well-known golfing image, L.F. Abbott’s (1790) The Blackheath Golfer, which became the first golfing poster produced, Hank’s linocut depicts a dandified gentleman out for a game of golf attended by his manservant carrying a bundle of clubs. The original image contains a grand country house, the windmill, and the picket fence. Hanks reproduces the composition exactly, but maps his face (the one familiar from our history books, Nathaniel Dance’s 1775 portrait) onto the golfing dandy and the equally recognisable image of Banks’ face (from Joshua Reynolds’ 1773 portrait) onto his manservant. The grand country house becomes St Andrews, and other smaller details are added to invite closer inspection—note Cook’s belt buckle.
-Elin Howe
Banks, Which One is Mine?, 2013
$2,000 – $2,900
In Banks, which one is mine? we quickly recognise the faces of both Captain Cook and Joseph Banks. Both men wear the unamused expressions by which we have learned to identify ‘great men,’ but what are they doing with golf clubs? And then the details start to register—cane toads abound around their feet, one couple even fornicating; St Andrews clubhouse, mecca of contemporary golf, nestles gracefully in the middle distance; kangaroos forage on the course; and cattle graze near a windmill behind a picket fence. This is bizarre, but as a smile forms on the viewer’s face, so also does a question start to present itself about the story here.
Based on a well-known golfing image, L.F. Abbott’s (1790) The Blackheath Golfer, which became the first golfing poster produced, Hank’s linocut depicts a dandified gentleman out for a game of golf attended by his manservant carrying a bundle of clubs. The original image contains a grand country house, the windmill, and the picket fence. Hanks reproduces the composition exactly, but maps his face (the one familiar from our history books, Nathaniel Dance’s 1775 portrait) onto the golfing dandy and the equally recognisable image of Banks’ face (from Joshua Reynolds’ 1773 portrait) onto his manservant. The grand country house becomes St Andrews, and other smaller details are added to invite closer inspection—note Cook’s belt buckle.
-Elin Howe
