The exhibition, Limbo features the work of artist Robyn Walton who explores the idea of a sleep of reason, or limbo, using an everyman character in the form of a Bonobo chimpanzee.

Walton, who has resided in Western Australia since 2003, said she was interested in the parallels and boundaries of the human and animal worlds. “It is a common human belief that animals other than ourselves lack rational thought,” she said. “Many theories hold that we are the only species with the prescience of our own mortality; that is with consciousness and the ability to understand our place in the world,” she said.

“The Bonobo chimpanzee shares 98 per cent of human DNA and, like most other great apes, has been used in many roles to represent humans in advertising, on television and in film and in scientific exploration as ‘test humans’.  Imagining a limbo inhabited by our nearest relatives, the paintings and drawings in this exhibition question these roles and our ideas of consciousness.”

Heathcote Museum and Gallery Curator Soula Veyradier said Limbo was Walton’s fifth solo exhibition. “In Limbo, Walton experiments with various media, including bitumen, oils, inks and charcoal to contemplate the nature of being animal or human.”

Heathcote Museum and Gallery is located at Swan House, in Duncraig Road, Applecross. Open hours are 10:00am to 3:00pm, Tuesday to Friday, and 11:00am to 3:00pm on weekends. Phone 9364 5666 for more information.