When you next visit the Queensland Art Gallery, spend some time at the QAG Cafe and introduce yourself to the delicious food-inspired characters in Visaya Hoffie’s imaginative site-specific mural The mysterious menagerie — a cast of characters involved in their own food adventures.
As you walk in, an adorable puppy finds itself amidst the spilled contents of an upturned bowl, while a frog-inspired figure looks on impressed as a bird bearing a massive bone swoops down toward its chicken friend who’s content swallowing a few simple morsels. A Corncob looks on as a cool sunglass-wearing dude swings a long lasso of spaghetti toward a sinister dog-like brute who’s keenly guarding their bone-island. Above, a little rabbit munches its way through a radish and below, a cantankerous Wombok figure frowns in concentration as they cook up their next mischievous plan, and at the end of your journey a newly-hatched trio of little creatures peep out from the shell of a Snow pea content in their hideout.
Visaya is a Brisbane-based artist who works across a range of media, her paintings, ceramics, sculptures and zines have been exhibited in galleries and pop-ups around the country.
Visaya Hoffie painting the QAG Cafe mural
Visaya Hoffie ‘The mysterious menagerie’
Concept drawings
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