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FRONT GALLERY

THIS GAME OF OURS
by Julie Burke

'This Game Of Ours' examines a dichotomous poetry within Australian sporting and cultural iconography and landscape- everyday symbolic imagery both venerated and abhorred for the guts, the glory, the loyalty, the affable larrikinism, the adrenalin, the exposed dirty deeds, the tyranny of gambling addiction and an impermeable discourse of masculinity.

Julie's drawing reflects this polarity by often working with the left and right hand simultaneously, whereby subject and process combine to create an immovable past tense and material history that displays itself in the explicit residue of manual labour; drawing, play by play, hides nothing and reveals all, immediately.

BACK GALLERY

WAYS OF SEEING
by Hugo Mathias

"Ways of Seeing” is a new body of paintings which explore iconic consumer products and the subjective narratives we associate with them.  I've incorporated a linear illustrative style alongside elements of realism. This provides different literal ways of painting the objects, becoming a metaphor of interpretation.

Firstly, I associated these products with an Australian or New Zealand national identity. I wanted to challenge some of these problematic ideas through a visual message, so I began crushing the objects and painting them. If mass produced consumer products can invoke a national identity, I considered my work as a form of iconoclasm.

Talking with viewers, I realised there was a wide range of interpretations of my paintings. Each were the viewers own subjective narratives which they chose to impart on the work. I realised these interpretations were determined by our own knowledge of, and associations with, the products.

Technically, I have painted some parts in oil to play into the high brow association of the medium. This method aims to ask if a banal object such as a tin can deserves to be painted with the venerated oil paint. I try to balance this pretense of patronising power by also incorporating parts painted in the more accessible acrylic paint. This demonstrates the falsity of the social hierarchy of materials, ultimately questioning our preconceptions of Western visual art itself.

By having one’s own interpretation of the painting, this demonstrates that each of our experiences within the visual arts is unique. It also creates a conversation amongst ourselves about different “ways of seeing” the paintings. Perhaps via this dialogue we can better understand each other’s “ways of seeing” the world. 

SIDE GALLERY

NATURALLY DIGITAL
by MÜSS

‘Naturally digital’ explores the ever increasing use of digital technology in art, that has spawned a new generation of artists that would rather create an oil painting that looks real, but is made on a tablet- or a pencil drawing, that’s made on an iPad.

MÜSS turns this on its head, creating paintings that look digital, yet are in fact completely hand-painted. From afar, the crisp lines and flat colours give the illusion of a digital image, but come closer and you’ll see signs of the natural process creep in, bringing the image to life in a way that digital art just can’t reproduce.

UPSTAIRS GALLERY

HOW MANY TEARS DOES A SPIDER CRY?
by Frances Cannon

Through playful imagery using ink and coloured pencil, artist Frances Cannon explores complexities of modern life through the lens of her alter ego, Carol the Spider.