"I found an old photograph of Fred Conquest and Jemima the Goose in a junk shop and bought it at once, I googled his name and it turned out that he was an animal impersonator in the early 20th century and it fired my imagination. So I turned him into an Island - in my series Fantasy Islands.

It’s deliberately a bad cut out to give it more of the feeling of cut and paste collage. I tore the shape of the goose from a German newspaper, Die Welt, to mimic Dadaist artists like Hannah Höch and George Grosz. I added some feathers and a few vegetables and fruit, echoing a still life composition. I photographed the assemblage over head in my studio and composited it on a sea background and added a reflection.

This series is about the Archipelago of Fantasy Islands which were discovered long ago by the fictional character, explorer and collector,Count Muldivo Mentor”.

Paul Biddle