Clifford Reynolds, a saxophonist who played in big jazz bands in the 1930s, ran a steam cleaning business in Orange NSW with his son Garry.
"It's tricky. Sometimes I'll use a bit and I'm like, oh they'd kill me if they saw me using this, or they would have a go at me for not joining it the way it should be joined," he laughed. "In 2011, I was in France and saw a steampunk fairy that had cogs and bits and pieces on it, which I was drawn too," Reynolds said.Arriving home in Australia, he says he investigated the genre further.
New York artist, curator and arts columnist Art Donovan, who wrote the catalogue essay for Wunderkammer, discovered Reynolds's artwork through the Instagram hashtag #steampunk. Artwork from the Evolution Series is reminiscent of a grandiose flower arrangement in a steampunk reality. "They would find specimens from faraway places, bring them back to court and present them in these glass domes so they weren't touched or stolen or damaged in any way," he said."I remember growing up and seeing these bits and pieces as a child so there's a personal connection in each piece."Next came the Evolution Series, then the Zodiac Series on a smaller scale. In 2018, after going to Japan he started to create the Sushi Series.