Structures, SCA Gallery, University of Sydney, curated by Nicholas Tsoutas

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These paintings continue my interest in working with ambiguous, semi-abstract shapes and objects in creating a metaphysical visual language of structures and conglomerations of ‘unnamed things’. These ‘things’ though are often relational to actual encountered phenomenon, as in this series of paintings, which were painted after touring ancient sites of religious significance in India, Thailand and Cambodia. Whereby, the decomposition of old temples and shrines, in effect, creates new structures or ‘piles’ of broken bits of temple stone, statues and icons, which still maintain a spirit of place and embodiment. Be they of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist or other origin, the original context of these structures are not prominent in my inquiries, as the least descriptive and more open for interpretation they remain, the more interesting and regenerative for my art processes they are. The intriguing and perhaps paradoxical complexity of such a position though, is that these actual structures would of course not exist without their initial reason for being – as religious sites loaded with symbolism and busy with compelling esoteric rituals. This aside, other more mundane but no less captivating sites of inspiration for me have included the humble theater of human domestic activity – piles of blankets on a bed, dishes on the sink, etc. Or the human figure – abstracted by clothing or carrying of objects. Aside from individual objects physical relationship to each other, of significance to me is the outline or silhouette created by their gathered compilations (structures) which always offer potential for ongoing interpretation and expression.

 

Photography by Ian Hobbs