Furlonger first encountered a travelling circus on the Gold Coast in 1994 and turned the experience into a series of paintings and prints. The subject continued to inspire him over many years, including time in Paris, where he visited the Winter Circus on the urging of Sydney Gallery owner Ray Hughes in 2004.

This set of woodcut images, Circus Paris-Berlin suite 2006, were made on a hand-lever printing press, in collaboration (aided by Ray Hughes) with Lutz Nessing – a third-generation printer based in Berlin. Inspired by circus performers, Furlonger used rough, 4mm-thick packing ply to create the prints. Experimenting with multiple plates and colours, Furlonger acknowledged the experimental nature of the woodcut-printing process, noting how unforgiving and uncertain it can be: ‘the artist is never sure of the outcome because they are never in complete control during the process’.