Tea Leaf Paradox

Brisbane artist Bruce Reynolds was commissioned in 2010 to create a series of site-specific works for the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre’s expansion onto Grey Street. The project spans multiple media – linoleum (Tea Tree Paradox), painting and photography (Fortune), and architecturally integrated reliefs in plaster and polyurethane foam (Unfolded).

Together, these works form Pamphlet, a collection named after Thomas Pamphlet, the convict and castaway who, after being marooned in Moreton Bay, guided explorer John Oxley to the Brisbane River. Across the series, Reynolds interweaves references to early European settlement, the surrounding landscape, the site’s industrial past, and the contemporary life of the Grey Street precinct.

For Tea Tree Paradox, linoleum is the defining material in Reynolds’ practice, treated as both image and object. Once a common feature in Australian homes, this repurposed ‘lino’ carries traces of the architectural and human histories from which it was reclaimed. Reynolds cuts, inlays and collages these fragments onto wooden panels, building richly patterned surfaces.

The material’s domestic origins and manufactured colour palette allow Reynolds to explore themes of architecture, memory and labour; while its physical depth gives the work a sculptural quality. Rather than using linoleum for printmaking, he draws on its tactile and graphic qualities to blur the line between painting, relief and construction. The result is a body of work that feels grounded and layered, archaeological in spirit, and alive with rhythm and historical resonance.