Strange Days

Full description

Background
This work sits within the field of painting, sculpture and installation. It exploits emotional, textural and chromatic intensity, oscillating between fear and power, complacency and dissent in order to explore the complex terrain of human subjectivity. By working through issues of the hyperreal and by association, simulation, my research seeks to rupture and transform our understanding of what constitutes ‘the real’. I ask: Given that a simulation can rob a referent of its historical markers, can the act of painting restore them through its time-absorbing making—or what Jean Baudrillard describes as our hold on meaning —as an effective way to anchor the simulation back to something intrinsically real?
Contribution
As a simulation, (a 1.1 replica cast of the original) this hyper realised figurine is defined by its form in relation to space yet simultaneously it examines the act of painting as a critical space from which to negotiate the regimes of representation offering a counter-position that argues for the value of coherence in the formation of human subjectivity. Significantly, the purpose of my research is to develop an innovative range of techniques and strategies that extend the possibilities of the medium, while providing an oppositional, and at times paradoxical, structure to the networks of our time.
Significance
This work was included in the National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition Hyper Real (2017-18) which charted the evolution of hyperreal art into the 21st century. The themes established by curators Jaklyn Babington & Otto Letze were the simulated body, the posthuman body, and (in regard to my own work) the coded body. It included key figures such as Duane Hanson (USA), Maurizio Cattelan (Italy), Berlinde de Bruyckere (Belgium), Ugo Rondinone (USA), Paul McCarthy (USA), and Marc Quinn (UK). An extensive catalogue, lecture series, video and learning component accompanied the show. This work is now part of the MCA collection in Sydney.