Daniel WallaceAre We There Yet?
Damien Minton Gallery
until13 September 2008
Left: © Daniel Wallace
The short cut Series (detail)
River rock pigment board and feathers on gum tree branches, 2100x 850mm (each approx)
Courtesy the artist and Damien Minton Gallery
Daniel Wallace's work is not quite like anyone else's. Painted in natural pigments on various 'found' surfaces, his paintings and objects are at first glance a playful take on Australian road signs and the iconography of the road, complete with silhouetted blackfellas, cute critters and ghostly gum trees. They go much deeper however, and you don't have to peer far below the surface to discover a dark underbelly. 'When the welcome is worn out' for instance, features an actual cupboard door, appearing 'trompe l'oeil' to be standing under a gnarled tree, on which perches an ominous black bird. The door opens to reveal an Aboriginal figure hanging from the tree. The exhibiition is laden with similar, and more subtle, references to Australia's treatment of Aborigines, and suddenly the title of the exhibition has new meaning. Wallace is tipped to go far, and his work is very reasonably priced, so get in there young collectors!
Hayden FowlerSecond Nature
Gallery Barry Keldoulis
until September 20, 2008
Left: not in current exhibition
© Hayden Fowler – Goat Odyssey 2006 looped digital video on DVD 15 min 10 sec, Nursling I - V 2006 digital type C prints 65.5 x 99.5cm photo credit: Michael Randall, Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney
Hayden Fowler is rather better known and couldn't be more different as an artist, being essentially a 'meteur-en-scène' who creates seamless high-res photographic images or videos, often situated in a featureless white space. Here the backgrounds are uniformly clad with bas-relief white plastic panels reminiscent of Star Trek interiors, and which are carried over in reality to a room where one of his cryptic interactions takes place on video. We don't pretend to understand Fowler, or his apparent obsession with domestic farm animals, but his work is always visually arresting, and throws back at us more questions than answers. Definitely worth a look.
More creature conforts soon.
A la prochaine.
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