Featuring Mike Parr, Robert Owen, John Nixon, Dale Frank, Jenny Watson and Tony Clark.

Exhibition Dates: 19 April – 6 May 1984

A new armoury of artistic identification is stockpiled in the galleries now: an Emblematic that resumes a craft of imagery forging the personal as a facade of "dumb" insignia, a token panoply replacing the obsolete conceits of the public artist. The repertoire of "private symbols" that heralds the "poiesis" of new figuration has already girdled reference to social context or public domain and stowed them as an embalmed bouquet of secretive metaphors. Yet it is difficult, strictly speaking, to call the declarative privacy of these images a mode of "symbolism", for what they call up or recall is only the endless chequer of that facade, not any obscure psychic totem. Identification is no longer a process of recognizing signatures as marks of creative origin, nor icons as symptoms of a protean sensibility, but rather is a matter of noting mottos that assemble as the imperatives of artifice and simultaneously disaccumulate as the aphasic memoirs of an emotionality passed away. Passion, fear, anxiety are no longer figures flashing on a textual surface, like sunspots or flares signalling a mutable nightmarish interior. Here and now, the drama of personal identity has nothing to do with the energetic exchange and communication between interiority and exteriority. On the contrary, and against all appearances, it is miraged in the irony of an Expression that stages Temperament in the ceremonial mannerism of the daydream, where dynamic correspondences collapse phantastically into inert singularity. 

Dreams and Nightmares can take us to the horizon of the visionary, where, as emblematics supplant semantics, we would witness a pristine subjectivity winking out at the very moment of its most spectacular, emblazoned resurrection.

Ted Colless 1984

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Dale Frank Self portrait at being crowned the father of a contemporary Australian drawing at 25 flies, 0; pencil on paper; 290 x 305 cm; enquire
Dale Frank Self portrait at being crowned the father of a contemporary Australian drawing at 25 flies, 0
pencil on paper
290 x 305 cm
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984; from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape; oil on canvas; 45 x 57.5 cm; enquire
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984
from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape
oil on canvas
45 x 57.5 cm
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984; from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape; oil on canvas; 45 x 57.5 cm; enquire
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984
from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape
oil on canvas
45 x 57.5 cm
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984; from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape; oil on canvas; 45 x 57.5 cm; enquire
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984
from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape
oil on canvas
45 x 57.5 cm
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984; from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape; oil on canvas; 45 x 57.5 cm; enquire
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984
from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape
oil on canvas
45 x 57.5 cm
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984; from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape; oil on canvas; 45 x 57.5 cm; enquire
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984
from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape
oil on canvas
45 x 57.5 cm
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984; from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape; oil on canvas; 45 x 57.5 cm; enquire
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984
from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape
oil on canvas
45 x 57.5 cm
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984; from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape; oil on canvas; 25 x 36 cm; enquire
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984
from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape
oil on canvas
25 x 36 cm
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984; from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape; oil on canvas; 25 x 36 cm; enquire
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984
from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape
oil on canvas
25 x 36 cm
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984; from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape; oil on canvas; 30 x 41 cm; enquire
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984
from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape
oil on canvas
30 x 41 cm
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984; from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape; oil on canvas; 18 x 24 cm; enquire
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984
from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape
oil on canvas
18 x 24 cm
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984; from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape; oil on canvas; 18 x 24 cm; enquire
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984
from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape
oil on canvas
18 x 24 cm
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984; from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape; oil on canvas; 18 x 24 cm; enquire
Tony Clark Sacro-Idyllic Landscape, 1984
from the series Sacro-Idyllic Landscape
oil on canvas
18 x 24 cm
John Nixon Self Portrait (Architectonic Composition), 1984; acrylic and charcoal on hessian; 290 x 245 cm; enquire
John Nixon Self Portrait (Architectonic Composition), 1984
acrylic and charcoal on hessian
290 x 245 cm
John Nixon Self Portrait (Architectonic Composition), 1984; acrylic and enamel on hessian; 290 x 245 cm; enquire
John Nixon Self Portrait (Architectonic Composition), 1984
acrylic and enamel on hessian
290 x 245 cm
Mike Parr Clocal Corridor (O Vio Prote/ O Vio Proto/ O Vio Loto/ O The 'the') Self Portrait as a Pair or Self Portrait as a Pun, 1983; charcoal and graphite on photographic backdrop; 183 x 1097 cm; enquire
Mike Parr Clocal Corridor (O Vio Prote/ O Vio Proto/ O Vio Loto/ O The 'the') Self Portrait as a Pair or Self Portrait as a Pun, 1983
charcoal and graphite on photographic backdrop
183 x 1097 cm
Mike Parr Clocal Corridor (O Vio Prote/ O Vio Proto/ O Vio Loto/ O The 'the') Self Portrait as a Pair or Self Portrait as a Pun, 1983; charcoal and graphite on photographic backdrop; 183 x 1097 cm; enquire
Mike Parr Clocal Corridor (O Vio Prote/ O Vio Proto/ O Vio Loto/ O The 'the') Self Portrait as a Pair or Self Portrait as a Pun, 1983
charcoal and graphite on photographic backdrop
183 x 1097 cm
Mike Parr Clocal Corridor (O Vio Prote/ O Vio Proto/ O Vio Loto/ O The 'the') Self Portrait as a Pair or Self Portrait as a Pun, 1983; charcoal and graphite on photographic backdrop; 183 x 1097 cm; enquire
Mike Parr Clocal Corridor (O Vio Prote/ O Vio Proto/ O Vio Loto/ O The 'the') Self Portrait as a Pair or Self Portrait as a Pun, 1983
charcoal and graphite on photographic backdrop
183 x 1097 cm
Mike Parr Clocal Corridor (O Vio Prote/ O Vio Proto/ O Vio Loto/ O The 'the') Self Portrait as a Pair or Self Portrait as a Pun, 1983; charcoal and graphite on photographic backdrop; 183 x 1097 cm; enquire
Mike Parr Clocal Corridor (O Vio Prote/ O Vio Proto/ O Vio Loto/ O The 'the') Self Portrait as a Pair or Self Portrait as a Pun, 1983
charcoal and graphite on photographic backdrop
183 x 1097 cm
Jenny Watson Swan-me, 1984; oil, acrylic, pastel, charcoal, ink and feathers on fabric; 245 x 183 cm; enquire
Jenny Watson Swan-me, 1984
oil, acrylic, pastel, charcoal, ink and feathers on fabric
245 x 183 cm
Jenny Watson Swan-me, 1984; pastel, conte, charcoal on watercolour paper; 152 x 122 cm; enquire
Jenny Watson Swan-me, 1984
pastel, conte, charcoal on watercolour paper
152 x 122 cm
Robert Owen This is not a landscape, 0; from the series Invention of Automatic Devices (The View from the Sacred Mountain); charcoal on Stonehenge paper; 127 x 170 cm; enquire
Robert Owen This is not a landscape, 0
from the series Invention of Automatic Devices (The View from the Sacred Mountain)
charcoal on Stonehenge paper
127 x 170 cm
Robert Owen The Sleepers, 0; from the series Invention of Automatic Devices (The View from the Sacred Mountain); charcoal on Stonehenge paper; 127 x 200 cm; enquire
Robert Owen The Sleepers, 0
from the series Invention of Automatic Devices (The View from the Sacred Mountain)
charcoal on Stonehenge paper
127 x 200 cm
Robert Owen That which emerges hides the other, 0; from the series Invention of Automatic Devices (The View from the Sacred Mountain); charcoal on canvas; 167.5 x 259 cm; enquire
Robert Owen That which emerges hides the other, 0
from the series Invention of Automatic Devices (The View from the Sacred Mountain)
charcoal on canvas
167.5 x 259 cm
Robert Owen I and the dark pearl drink and drift together, 1984; from the series Invention of Automatic Devices (The View from the Sacred Mountain); charcoal on canvas; 167.5 x 259 cm; enquire
Robert Owen I and the dark pearl drink and drift together, 1984
from the series Invention of Automatic Devices (The View from the Sacred Mountain)
charcoal on canvas
167.5 x 259 cm
Robert Owen Holding down a shadow, 0; from the series Invention of Automatic Devices (The View from the Sacred Mountain); charcoal on Stonehenge paper; 127 x 183 cm; enquire
Robert Owen Holding down a shadow, 0
from the series Invention of Automatic Devices (The View from the Sacred Mountain)
charcoal on Stonehenge paper
127 x 183 cm