Sunday 17 June 2007

Big Things from Down Under


I did something the other day that I’d never done before.

I went to the post office and bought a first day cover of a newly issued set of stamps.

Must have been my inner nerd coming to the fore.

However these are not just any old stamps. These are lickable works of art by none other than Reg Mombassa.


His series of five stamps is called Big Things.

Why?

Because they feature some of Australia’s biggest landmarks.

No, not Ayers Rock or the Sydney Opera House.

Mombassa’s Big Things are those concrete oddities that induce cultural cringe across our sunburnt land.

I’m talking about the big sheep, big banana, big pineapple, big crayfish and the big guitar.

As naff, ugly and utterly dumb as these big things are, they are very much part of the Australian psyche.

So it’s a big good onya mate to Reg Mombassa for taking these blights on our great Australian landscape and immortalising them.