NEW WORK
PHANTASMA MONOMACHIA
Highlighter, paint pen and pencil on paper
In this work, Blake’s precursor to A Vision of the Last Judgement (1808) is subjected to contagion.
His multitudes of the risen dead are transformed into variations of phantasms of the automatic line.
The forms arise, dissipate, consume and beget each other; hierarchy and taxonomy collapse. Simple forms born of air replace the anatomical density of Blake’s figures.
The eye is drawn to bisymmetry, but asymmetry erupts with organic exuberance as the hand takes over from the mind, and marginalia overtakes the centre; the vibrant, translucent colours of highlighter and paint pens recall the automatic line’s origin in writing.
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Magical Appropriations: Barry William Hale after Imants Tillers
This essay published in Art + Australia (Specialist publication) compares two artists. One is the canonical postmodernist Imants Tillers, whose canvas board works have been among the most theorised of Australian art. The second is Barry William Hale, whose younger art practice draws on magical practices to create images of demons and invoke spirits. The essay takes the appropriations of Tillers as a precedent for the invocations of Hale, establishing correspondences and differences between generations of Australian artists.
ARCANORUM 321
ARCANORUM 321 is creating a VR project. It consists of a series of scenes inspired by the results of magical operations using the text, as well as the myths of The Crata Repoa, an ancient Egyptian Magical Order. Featuring the artwork of Barry William Hale, sounds design of Scott Barnes, and software design of Scott Wilde.
MONSTER BRAINS - Stephen Romano curator in residence: Barry William Hale