Reg Mombassa playfully captured Sydney suburbs in his design Bush suburbs, which was translated into a tapestry by the ATW in 2002.

Mombassa (AKA. Chris O’Doherty) is a painter, printmaker and designer well known to Australian audiences, not only through his design work for the lifestyle label Mambo but also as a former member of the band Mental As Anything. His imagery depicts suburban environments and the outback as well as iconic Australian views such as backyard barbeques. Bush suburbs is based on an amalgam of suburbs in Sydney, and the scene reflects a charmed world of perfect order, each element merrily – if not comically – in its place. The stereotyped suburban bungalows are adaptations of the houses Reg remembers as a child that his father built.

The design for this tapestry was selected because of the qualities it shares both with the great tapestries of the past, and the grand mural paintings of Stanley Spencer (who also drew inspiration from medieval tapestries). The flat picture plane, the firmly articulated graphic nature of the work, its decorative and narrative qualities, and its powerful representation of everyday life, have all made for a strong and moving tapestry on a mural scale.

Reg Mombassa is represented by Watters Gallery in Sydney.