A Blast From The Past
Melbourne owns post industrial chic. It’s dealt with. Forget it. It’s over for the rest of us. Melbourne sucked it up and spat it out across shops, cafes and bars. South Melbourne, Fitzroy and Brunswick are strewn with vintage stainless steel, angular brushed metal furniture, factory light fittings, and Industrial Gothic Banner Std Pt 55 (true type) lettering; all symbols of a bygone time. Men in a man’s world symmetry, robust functionality and gun metal gloss paint. The prize find being a pair of Ukrainian steel hospital bed side tables.
Like so many, I love it this genre and its expanse of looks. I always have. I love the institutional shape of grey and greens the straight line graphics and the symmetrical shapes. It’s an aesthetic which influenced me during my ‘wonder years’ and is something that I will always associate with the magic transition from the predominantly American movements of Abstracts Expressionism to Pop Art. A transition delivered through the influential work of Rivers, Rauschenberg, Rotella, Blake and then my hero – Johns. My A-level dissertation on his work provided the final piece of my early 90’s art education; I felt I needed nothing more.
So this ever present blast from the past has made a very quick impression on me and has rekindled old passions, but Melbourne is increasingly like that. It’s full of nostalgia from the Victorian rose fronted cottages to the palm laid seafronts and the old school sprayed up alleys. It’s a city saturated with aesthetic adventures – opportunities not to be missed – indulgences - maybe not such a good thing for an artist still creating their own unique visual language. There’s no doubt that these temptresses are stretching my practise it’s hard to keep on track and not get swept along with a multitude of experimental opportunities.
As the work continues to flow, local influences seem to be becoming more and more evident. This is most clearly illustrated in a series of Australia paintings I feel drawn to make. With a break in shows now it is a chance to take stock and be more considered about the content I’m using whilst still digesting and recording the city’s new visual delights.
