Picnic at Hanging Rock
my art, prints :: posted on January 23rd, 2008
“Picnic at Hanging Rock”, 2008, aquatint, etching, lithograph and ink, 59 x59cm print size
The story of a group of school girls missing in the strange formation of rocks on Mount Macedon in Victoria has intrigued many readers. Written by Joan Lindsay in 1967, the story is based in 1900 and follows the girls from a strict private school to a picnic and adventure into the rock formation. The final chapter for the book that solved the mystery was taken out before publishing, which left a readership with an uncertainty about whether it was based on fact and an unnerving sense of wanting to solve the disappearance. Very clever! It has become a bit of a myth really, and it was in that context that I was working on a print.
The rock formation is quite special, being… “Said to be the best example of a volcanic plug or mamelon in the world. It consists mainly of soda trachyte rock (solvsbergite), found only outside this district in Norway and Sweden. Since its formation, the mamelon has been exposed to considerable weathering and erosion, resulting in a conglomeration of unusual rock formations that can now be seen on the site” (from the Hanging Rock website).
The novel is written in the form of a false document, implying that it is fact rather than fiction, and Lindsay refused to reveal that it was fictional when she was interviewed. The final chapter was published after her death as “The Secret of Hanging Rock” which contains the short chapter solving the mystery, and lots of other information to pad out to a book size. Mystery, it seems, is perhaps sometimes about having the strength to resist disclosure and maintain a sense of surety to cast doubt in the mind of the listener…
