‘People love to say “so and so changed world history” as if to say if Gutenberg wasn’t born then we would still be buying handwritten newspapers, or if it wasn’t for Billie Jean King women tennis players would still be playing tennis in wedding dresses. People like the comedy/tragedy that we can solve systematic problems with biographical solutions. We like to think the big systems which dictate our lives like time, other people, attraction, government, the market etc, can be altered by the type of person we are and the way we behave in our lives – our biography.
We choose, or rather we create historical figures who perform the impossibility of pitting their biography against the system. We find comforting those historical figures whose mistakes (death) were to us foreseeable and so to us avoidable.
A story about someone you know is more interesting than about someone you don’t. By using historical figures in a painting there is already a platform of familiarity to start from. Historical figures in art function the same way biblical figures in religious culture do, Greek gods in literature do, and totems in indigenous art do, they can be used as surrogates to criticise contemporary behaviour while offering contemporary people the comfort of plausible deniability. History painting feels like gossip because it has the accessibility of a moral pantomime where no-one feels judged and everyone can judge.’ – Cameron Hayes, 2023
ARTISTS TALK – Saturday 3 June 2pm
Image above: Cameron Hayes In the South Pole the explorers were so afraid of not having enough food for winter …
Image above: Cameron Hayes She died in the child welfare tribunal, he died in an adult bookshop 2020-21 oil on …
Image above: Cameron Hayes Angry angels help Adam with the first dictionary 2020 oil on canvas 198 x 254 cm …
Image above: Days of Summer 2008-23 hand-coloured woodcut with lapis lazuli on paper edition unique 44 x 59 cm “…I was …
In the Arnhem Land community of Ngukurr, elder Clarry Rogers is worried plans to allocate water to new gas fracking and …
This beautiful painting from Marina Strocchi‘s current exhibition, The vineyards of Madden’s Lane was one of a selection of the …
Image above: Still Life: West Australian gum blossoms 1985 synthetic polymer paint on hardboard 122.7 x 91.5 cm Vicki Varvaressos, …
John Wolseley The life of inland waters – Durabudboi river (detail) 2015 – 2018 watercolour, graphite and woodcut on paper …
Image above: Rona Green Petal 2023 hand coloured linocut edition 57 38 x 28 cm Photography by Tim Gresham Printmaker …
Image above: Kevin Mortensen and Stuart Purves at Australian Galleries Melbourne, 2016 All at Australian Galleries are deeply saddened to …
Image above: Sue Anderson Swift 2022 multi coloured lithograph edition 12, 59 x 42cm unframed The Victorian Forest Alliance recently held …
Congratulations to Camie Lyons on her latest commission of sculptures and works on paper for the Trenery flagship store in …
Image: Jenny Rodgerson Self portrait with mudras 2023 oil on linen 165 x 107 cm Congratulations to Michelle Hiscock and …