“Faint recollections we lived there” is centred around a pianola roll I have written and illustrated, an opera about the new digital feudalism philosophy of “Longtermism” also known as “Effective Altruism”, enthusiastically embraced by billionaires such as Musk, Bezos, Mercer, Zuckerberg, etc. The show might or might not, lead some viewers to speculate on humanity’s drive for progress in directions which seem to be as much in favour of life as they are about destruction of ourselves as a species. “Faint recollections we lived there” transforms seemingly disastrous scenarios into landscapes of myriad entangled points and vectors through conflicting and parallel nuanced spaces, illusions, and surfaces. Paintings and text construct ways with and around meeting places such as Federation Square with its designed but never built Apple shop, and all screens on devices throughout the world, which I also see as meeting places. Paintings in this show are around, behind and in front of strips of recycled acrylic sheets, reminiscent of the surface of screens, which, however featureless, are membranes or textures with optical qualities, 3-dimensional material surfaces of imagination and creativity. Screens are also one of many portals availing lives we lead to the surveillance economy.
Images courtesy the artist and Jacob Hoerner Galleries