Beloved children's author Andy Griffiths immortalised with sculpture
Andy Griffiths, one of Australia's most-loved children's authors, has been immortalised in a new portrait at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
The 4-metre-high 3D-printed work by artist Ronnie van Hout, titled Andy Andy, captures how Griffiths' "inner kid" still runs riot while he's trying to be an adult.
"That kid has a lot of time to waste and to wonder and to just enjoy the ride, rather than trying to get to the end," Griffiths said.
The sculpture captures Griffiths perched in the branch of a tree, observing almost infinite versions of himself. (ABC News: Lish Fejer)
The author realised he was never going to write serious literary adult fiction early on.
"Whenever I picked up a pen, the child inside me would go, 'Ah, great, my chance to come out' and I would write funny, weird, strange stuff,"
Griffiths said.
A portrait with a punk streak
Griffiths and van Hout had never met before, but a shared love of punk music and absurdist humour runs through both their work.
Ronnie van Hout and Andy Griffiths share a love of punk music and absurdist humour. (Supplied: National Portrait Gallery)
The sculpture leans into that chaos, and the creativity that comes from it.
"Working on this project actually made me think about our connected, shared kind of imagery and histories, and all the things that have influenced me,"
van Hout said.
"It makes you think about what creates you as a person."
Brainstorm shows inputs for absurd output
Brainstorm by Ronnie van Hout features 130 objects, books, and music from Andy Griffiths' writing room. (ABC News: Lish Fejer)
Alongside Andy Andy is Brainstorm, which gives a peek into what objects, music and books turn the cogs of Griffiths' mind.
"I think my writing has a kind of kooky frequency that if you're a reader, you just pick up on it. It's how I walk through the world,"
Griffiths said.
He relates deeply to music that matches that "frequency", and hopes kids and adults alike will be inspired to think differently.
"You'll see records on the wall that you never knew existed," Griffiths said.
Brainstorm gives a peek into what music turns the cogs of Andy Griffiths' mind. (ABC News: Lish Fejer)
"You must now pester your parents to get it for you because this is a whole world of alternative thinking and music and art that I'm delighted to share and offer to any children or adults who are open to it.
"It can take you places you'll never imagine."
A bittersweet week
The unveiling lands just days after the death of Terry Denton, Griffiths' illustrator and creative collaborator of nearly 30 years, and the artist behind the Treehouse series.
"We were enablers of each other," Griffiths said.
Andy Griffiths says he and long-time friend and collaborator, Terry Denton, were great enablers of one another's weirdness. (Supplied: National Portrait Gallery)
"I was this young punk rocker with weird stuff that no-one would publish. And he said, 'Well, tell them I'll illustrate anything you do' because he saw in me a chance to explore that chaotic side of himself.
"I don't want to be glib because I miss him a lot.
"But his spirit is in those books, and I'm really happy about that — that he's going to live in kids' minds for quite some time to come."
Andy Andy and Brainstorm are on display at the National Portrait Gallery until mid 2027.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.