'Artist Henrietta Manning has had a fixation lately..and its been to do with things dead. For the last 12 months bodies, including some alive have been her self-admitted passion.
But they're mostly dead..dead fish, dead birds, dead mice, skulls, carcass and bones.
Her works though aren't just snuff pics. In fact it's hard at first glance to actually make out that these things are dead. They are laid against lovely positive things, like flowery material, linen and silk. And that's the power of the work. Once you realise what it is you are looking at you might jump a bit. I certainly did seeing the carcass. It's probably the fact that it's on a lovely flower patterned cloth. It's the sort of thing you'd be more expecting to see teapots on than animal remains.
Henrietta Manning wants you to look closer. She wants you to see that the cute little mouse in the plate's pattern is actually a dead mouse ON the plate...or that the mask hanging on a nail is really a sheeps pelvis.
So in a way she's forcing you to observe the paintings closer...and as any art critic will tell you...it's by stopping and spending time on a painting...picking out the little hidden clues...that will give you the painters true intention.'

Phillip Kafcaloudes 'Artyfact' Script ABC Radio Sept 2003