JULIAN MEAGHER 'BLUE RIBBON'

24 NOVEMBER - 23 DECEMBER 2011

CHALK HORSE

“The male body is understood as phallic and impenetrable, as a war-body simultaneously armed and armoured, equipped for victory.”

-Catherine Waldby, 1995

 
Notions of acquired and inherent masculinity are constantly being played out in Julian Meagher’s work and the paintings in this exhibition are no exception. Staying loyal to his attraction to surface imagery, ongoing narrative and sourcing subject matter from both the natural and manufactured worlds, Meagher is using his art to apply naturalist examples to anthropological questions about human nature and society. With a painting style that adopts oil paints, and executes them as though they were watercolours, we are presented with field studies that create a portal through which we may contemplate instances of cultural reckoning in both intimate, personal chronicles and broader historical and environmental contexts.
 
Meagher presents his subjects removed from their diverse and complex histories, and amasses these specimens as isolated entities for our contemplation. Birds and portraits are equally atomised, like butterflies in a box. Blue Ribbon is a titular nod to Meagher’s favourite beer, Nastro Azzurro, but it has other resonances (the top quality ice-cream, a show ground bull, the Italian playing strip, and of course merely as a reference to the famous royal and celestial colour). The major pieces in this show, also called ‘Blue Ribbon’, question the place of alcohol and transgression in male rites. Within these “festivals” what does a particular brand mean; would John Howard ever have drunk chardonnay like Paul Keating?
 
Portraits this time are an important genre. All the men portrayed, besides Boonie, are friends and fellow team mates of Meagher. The “portrait of a young man” is a common genre, a mark of promotion in society, a calling card. All these men are in their early thirties, flushed with a certain youthful success, like Holbein’s thirty-something ambassadors. But can men be so certain of their role and position in society now?
 
The small heroes of this exhibition are undoubtedly the Birds of Paradise, the exuberant birds renowned for their colourful and excessive plumage and theatrical choreography that they employ in order to attract a mate. The superfluous, and potentially endangering, ornamentation of these creatures complies with Darwinian theories of ‘Sexual Selection’ whereby males develop alluring characteristics in order to achieve reproductive success. Essentially these birds are not only in competition with their peers and same-sex rivals; they are in competition with themselves, on a quest to “win the girl”.
 
Another genre that Meagher excels in is still-life. What have orchids to do with Boonie? Orchida- is the greek word for testicles and the flower was named that because to the ancients the roots resembled balls; they were ground down into goat’s milk (Satyr?) as an aphrodisiacal drink. As Norman Mailer points out, masculinity is not something given, but something gained. It is through Meagher’s work that these “small battles” are undertaken; they are a performance of masculinity, continued and pursued.
 

- Kat Sapera, 2011

Blue Ribbon, 2011, Oil on Linen, 150 x 180cm.

Blue Ribbon II, 2011, Oil on Linen, 150 x 180cm.

Tim (King of Saxony), 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Tim, 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Jason (Parotia Wahnesi), 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Jason, 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

David (Seleucidis Melanoleuca), 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

David, 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Oliver (Parotia Wahnesi), 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Oliver, 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Alex (Lophorina Superba), 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Alex, 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Any Old How, 2011, Oil on Linen, 71 x 51cm.

For Prime Minister, 2011, Oil on Linen, 71 x 51cm.

PREVIEW: JULIAN MEAGHER 'BLUE RIBBON'

24 NOVEMBER - 23 DECEMEBER, 2011

CHALK HORSE

Blue Ribbon, 2011, Oil on Linen, 150 x 180 cm.

Tim - King of Saxony, 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60 cm.

Matthew Tumbers 'Spirit Hand Wandering'

18TH - 22ND OCTOBER, 2011

CHALK HORSE

THE WEATHER MAN

Matthew Tumbers’ hand rendering reveals a tight concentration that explodes with an intuitive approach to image making. The result is a powerful and influential alternative to conceptual art and popularised relational aesthetics.

Tumbers said in 2001 “it is difficult to make serious art in a period like this . . . if you are burdened with a goofy nature.”

For Tumbers though, the burden of his goofy nature is always tempered by an innate belief in the gestural, the intuitive and subconscious narratives that swim in his world. Where another may use mixes of known nouns, these abstract tools are his weapons of choice for expression. This sensitivity obliterates any ironic subtleties and creates a connectivity that was less apparent in his more detached tone conglomerates of the late nineties.

The profundity of the works lies in their genuine contemplation of the natural world wearing the goggles of the first child gazing in wonder at the fruits of the universe by the sea. One of the paintings included in this exhibition ‘National Parks for Caves’, exemplifies these concerns; a field of eggshell & grey brushstrokes references art historical archives of the abstract and successfully generates a depth of field via classical architectural construction to form a central yellow glow hole that envelops the viewer. Here, the primary subject of most Western painting - the human figure - is long gone, but spiritually close at hand. The sense of space generated in Tumbers’ mystic landscapes is like a transcendental meditation turning your brain inside out to find caves of experience and nature within.

In this exhibition Tumbers delivers a more minimalist approach compared to some of his previous exhibitions, guiding us into more ambiguous waters. With this comes time to reflect and swim with the tide of his intoxicating yet measured strokes. The rhythm of his riddle gives us more questions than answers about our identity in the ecosystem not only of nature but also in art. These paintings are in the same instance overworked and yet totally submerged in the act of painting.

As a kind of anomaly himself, Tumbers holds a sceptre to guide us through aesthetic philosophy buoyed through his compelling trance-like approach that is a wave, a nod, a thumbs up to the painterly.

- TIMOTHY VERNON MOORE, 2011

Duck Egg Blues, 2011, Acrylic, gouache, watercolour, pencil & ink on archival quality watercolour rag.

Black Zoo, 2011, Acrylic, gouache, pencil & ink on archival quality watercolour rag.

Dusk Eavesdropper, 2011, Acrylic on archival quality watercolour rag.

 

 

 

Rose Line, 2011, Acrylic on board.

Hand Held Totem, 2011, Mixed media.

 Planking, 2011, Mixed media.

To see more of the exhibition and Matthew Tumbers, visit Chalk Horse.

Opening night: Nothing is true, everything is permitted 07 July 2011

Photography by Aimee El Sharpe