Auckland collage artist Peter Madden draws much of his imagery from old issues of National Geographic. His surrealistic pictures, objects, and installations have been described as ‘microcosms’ and ‘intricate kingdoms thick with flying forms’. His metaphor-rich other-worlds manage to be at once morbid and abundant, rotting and blooming, creepy and fey. Madden describes himself as a ‘post-conceptual photographer’ and a ‘sculptographer’. ‘I suppose I am an altogether different collagist, maybe a collagist of difference’, he says. ‘Like an unlicensed eye surgeon, I cut along an edge of possibilities ever so carefully.’ Art critic Tessa Laird wrote, ‘not since van Gogh lopped off his ear has an artist’s knife been put to such good use’. The main work in his IMA@Surfers show is the installation The Last City, which he largely created on a residency at the IMA in late 2009.