In 1989 George Gittoes travelled to the Philippines and spent several months travelling and meeting Filipino artists, including Nunelucio Alvarado. Gittoes stayed with Alvarado's family and together the artists went on excursions, making studies of canecutters and other subjects. Gittoes brought a sample of Alvarado's work back to Australia and exhibited his own with Alvarado in Sydney and Melbourne (1990–91). At the time of the 'First Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' (APT1) at Queensland Art Gallery in 1993, Alvarado visited Brisbane and afterwards stayed with Gittoes's family for several months at Bundeena, near Sydney. Among their collaborative works is the ambitious composition, King of the beasts. Gittoes has said:

While working together at Bundeena in the period leading up to the show ('Legless bike'). we decided to design a large work and performance piece for the opening night. We collaborated on the ideas for this piece and it was clear in our minds what we were going to do but the work on the night was drawn without reference to preparatory studies or sketches.

The performance was titled 'Art Talks'. We both wore shirts with 'Art Talks' embroidered on the back. An actor, Charles Freyberg, also took part in the performance. While Charles presented a monologue and underwent three character and costume changes, Nuni and I drew the work using brush, hands and acrylic. A time limit of 90 minutes was set up for the completion of the drawing but we completed it to a satisfactory level in 75 minutes.

The symbolism related to a family threatened by the monsters of War, Hunger and Greed — hence the title of King of the beasts. I drew the three monsters — Leo the lion, a concrete soldier and the Somali Buddah. All images from my recent work in Somalia. Nuni drew the peasant family of a man, a woman and a child. We shared the background details but Nuni drew the large snake completely on his own.

Both Nuni and I returned for just a few hours in the period following the opening and made a few minor improvements.¹

Endnote:

1. George Gittoes, Letter to Anne Kirker, 9 November 1993.