2010 ALASDAIR MACINTYRE: BLOOM

EXHIBITION IMAGES

“Bloom” examines the nature of aesthetics, combined with my current thoughts on sociological and moral issues that face the human animal in the twenty-first century, particularly relating to current situation in Australian society. Once again, I have called upon my own self-representational “alter-ego” character “Aecap” to manifest my feelings in this area.

I have found that there are certain invisible yawning chasms opening up in society, that are rendering many individuals powerless and rudderless, and in many cases, without hope. A good example of this is the manner in which real estate value increases are welcomed by many, without the consideration that the negative result of this is that tens of thousands of people will now never be able to afford to own their own home. One person’s “investment” property is another person’s rent-rut trap. Is it a fair society that allows some to own many houses while others will never own a home in their own lifetime?

The conscienceless destruction of character-laden homes to erect hideous and charmless multi-unit dwellings in all of our major cities is destroying the soul of the towns, and their populations. The effects of the Global Financial Crisis have not been as savage in Australia as in other countries, but still there are those that are suddenly... and now forever destined to be, left behind.

This body of work could easily have been entitled “Brick”, as these feature prominently in every piece, dwarfing both the protagonists and antagonists, and relegating their view of the world to a grey, closed environment with no horizon in sight. I feel that the “Bloom” of the exhibition title, gives the body of work a direction, and hope... however small.

Often as an artist, as I encounter these situations (which seem to accrue more and more detrimental interest as the tide recedes), I turn to art and the canon of art history for consolation. It is all there, and has all gone before in art history, to both the artists and their subjects... the only elements that are different are the fashions and the light fittings.

Artists as varied as Francisco Goya, Alfred Kubin, Francis Bacon, Yoshitomo Nara and (of all people) Chris Burden, have been very useful to me. Bacon in particular, with his enclosed spaces and claustrophobic atmospheres, is an artist to whom I owe a great debt, despite there being very little to link our physical art practice together.

“Bloom” is very much a manifestation of my current feelings on all of these matters, and in many ways, my art has once again proved to be a cathartic process of expunging myself of the negative feelings that I accrued over the past eighteen months.

Alasdair Macintyre, April, 2010