THE AUSTRALIAN FUGLINESS / GALLLERY ONE

Patrick Heath

11- 28 February 2021

Patrick Heath, Home Front, 2021, 70 x 70, canvas awning collage

Patrick Heath, Home Front, 2021, 70 x 70, canvas awning collage

The Australian Fugliness looks at how identity is expressed through the ‘featurist’ suburban environment, examining the exterior surfaces and arbitrary distractions of this milieu.

The works explore the Australian suburban vernacular and its idiosyncrasies, and its penchant for veneer and decoration as a means of cosmetics, camouflage and distraction. 

These domestic ‘features’ (to quote Robin Boyd) might be considered expressions of vulnerability, offering protection against the uncomfortable existential and physical realities of the settler landscape as home. At once, they both conceal and reveal a superficial nature, a self-mythologised identity, reflecting how purported national values are merely skin-deep products. 

The artist acknowledges the Kaurna people whose stolen land he lives and works on.

 
 
 

Tributary Projects is supported by Ainslie + Gorman Arts Centres.

Tributary Projects acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land and waters in which we operate, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, as well as the Ngarigu people and others who traded on, traveled through, and connected with this country, and continue to do so. We pay our respects to their Ancestors and Elders and acknowledge that sovereignty of these lands was never ceded.