Three Sixty Five

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Three Sixty Five explores the highs and lows of an aerosol artist over a one year period. During the Wet Season of 2012/13 Sauce and Ainslie Rose spent too many days cooped up inside and spent long mornings talking over coffee about ‘what would be really cool’. It was from these heartfelt conversations the pair decided they needed to be the change and not the problem, and thus, The Sauce Studio was created. The Sauce Studio was meant to be the catalyst Murwillumbah and the Northern Rivers needed in regards to aerosol and contemporary art.

 

Still Lifeless, oil on canvas, 122cm x 91.5cm. Sauce, 2014.


Since opening last March, Sauce and Ainslie Rose have used the workshop and showcase to meet new friends and create new artworks, but it hasn’t been all beer and skittles for the creative couple. A large part of the challenge has been navigating through the bureaucracy associated with public art and murals. Sauce has worked with over eighty schools and has over a decade of professional experience, but he is still dictated to by public servants who know little if anything about public art. The bureaucracy isn’t usually site specific, that is, most large scale organizations and councils have the same level of paperwork and inane demands, however recent experiences with councils have taken the bureaucracy and flagrant stupidity to a new level.

#exhibitionthreesixtyfive, aerosol on found object. Sauce 2014.

This paper-trail full of maintenance schedules, risk management plans, design briefs, and selection criteria may be a part of everyday life for the myriad of Cultural Development Officers, but it doesn’t denote high quality art, nor extrapolate cultural innovation; except when this is used as inspiration for an exhibition. It is these experiences of tribulation and encumbrance which has fueled this creative output. This exhibition serves as a metaphor for the challenges faced by a professional aerosol artist. The Sauce Studio arose out of dissatisfaction for the hegemonic demands of traditional gallery expectations and tokenistic public art projects and this celebration one year of operations in Murwillumbah exemplifies the positivity and success.  


Retrospective Self-portrait, acrylic on canvas, 76cm x 30cm. Sauce 2014.


From the Wreck, acrylic on canvas, 183cm x 91.5cm. Sauce, 2014.

Overcast Enlightenment, oil on canvas, 70cm x 50cm. Sauce 2014.

Back in Black

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It’s not everyday that Sauce is given permission to paint whatever he wants on a wall. In fact, most of his work is subject to a design brief and a rigorous consultation phase. So when his mate from Redland City suggested it was time to refresh an old piece, it was only a matter of time before the task was completed. Since it wasn’t a professional job, Sauce indulged in a few rums and kicked back with the boys in between painting. The results speak for themselves. 



Stains of Modernity

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Stains of Modernity explores the post-industrial and Neo-Liberal agendas where ideas and people become homogenized for aesthetics and convenience. But the people want more; in studios and back alleyways, the people are rebelling. This exhibition uses materials forms and textures which are the epitome of modernity while resisting against the synthetic matrix which is an accumulation of the boom, bust and lust for the forever new. Aerosol is a paradox, making it the perfect tool for resistance, the single biggest weapon against alienation and the stagnation associated with the ever urbanizing environment. One person and a can is all it takes to leave a political statement or a subcultural communication with like minded participants. For too long Hip Hop culture has been exploited by marketing gurus for global profits. Stains of Modernity is paint on walls and sculptural forms emerging from the underground; its a response to the built environment and the bureaucracy which dictates our existence.

 

 

High Modernity, Post Modernity, Post Modernism, Post-Post Modernism, these are the times we live in. Pontificating about art and high culture will only go so far, it doesn’t address the bigger issues and is inaccessible to the wider population. Art is more than oils on canvas which are hung in well lit and over funded galleries. Graffiti embodies the notion of doing art as an act of expression as opposed to the more palatable and tamed visuals of the gallery market. Graffiti is more than just paint on walls from some young hoodlums. It’s a part of a culture and a way of life. Humans have been making their marks on walls from the beginning of history and the typography scrawled over the urban environment is just an extension of this.

This Hip Hop culture is evolving over time and is a part of the urban identity. It is this identity which creates a new history and a new narrative. Hip Hop grew out of the disquiet of New York and the American streets during the 1970s. It’s often associated with crime and violence, but true Hip Hop is anything but violent. It’s about battling to be the best and earning respect from your peers by honing your craft and perfecting your style. It’s peaceful, respectful and skillful. Flash-forward to now, and Australians have their own take on Hip Hop. It’s more about mates, larrikins and beer. The music talks more about politics and BBQs than bitches and homies, but there’s still a good dose of competition and testosterone. And graffiti is just one of the four elements which is celebrated and elevated by this competition. By eradicating graffiti and aerosol art from our streets, marginalizing it and calling it a crime is sheer ignorance.

 

The beginning of modernity saw immense change and the industrialization of the Western world. This industrial change is responsible for the creation of the aerosol can and the colours which are now accessible and neatly packaged. Modernity also reinforced the bureaucratic and hierarchical social structures which seek to marginalize and denigrate anything with unique thought, thus making graffiti the best weapon against this concrete and urbane landscape. Graffiti is as old as time itself, and now the tools are pre-packaged and readily available.  

Redefined

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Some days in the Northern Rivers you just, can’t understand why there are so many closed minds and cliché groups. As a professional artist, who has moved back to the area I have really struggled to find my voice amongst the naysayers and the pretentious creative types who have taken over. I’ve spent the past decade building my professional mural business and I have nearly twenty years of experience in working with aerosols and and creating public art, but the doors of the gallery are still jammed shut. To find somewhere to create my art, I have to traipse up hills and search over the countryside to find a place to paint, when in reality there are plenty of great public places which would be perfect for a professional mural. And that doesn’t even begin to cover how the Treasures of the Tweed is devaluing my profession. Some days in the Northern Rivers, you just wonder where it all went wrong; it’s a great place to live, but a difficult place to work

Outside Inn

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Outside Inn is an exploration of the accepted norms of suburbia and the sub-verse subculture of graffiti. Artists Kosie and Sauce struggle to find the perfect environment to practice their art due to the battle lines drawn by several local councils. The current political climate demands grey walls replace commissioned murals. As a result, these two artists have been forced to fit the mould of the gallery and display their works to the select few. Outside Inn is a depiction of suburbia, it could be any neighborhood around working class Brisbane. The straight fence, perfectly painted doors and neat lawns are all representations of the Australian dream. What the politicians didn’t account for was the expression of art which breaks trends and barriers.


A big thanks to Lee Hutton photography.

Ravenous Machine

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I am very excited to announce I was selected as one of nine finalist in the 2012, Sheffield International Mural Fest. This will be my third consecutive Mural Fest and I am hoping to defend my title after last years success. The picture below is the miniature I painted as an entry. For the competition, I will apply this design to the wall provided in Mural Park, Sheffield. The organiser stated this year, there were a record number of entries including many from overseas. I am looking forward to catching up with some old friends and meeting some new faces while working amongst such a high calibre of mural artists. 

This year the poem is titled Food Bowl by Lorraine McNeair: “The golden bloom of fertility lies on the land/And feeds us with flavour.”

The whirling, whizzing, wheezing wheels of modernity steam into the bucolic landscape, in search of food to feed the bloated masses. This pictorial narrative explores the collision of the rural landscape and the urban sprawl by depicting their current state of existence.

Acrylic on board 96cm X 42cm.

 

Final Glow

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The correlation between graffiti art and the natural environment may be difficult to grasp immediately as graffiti art is typically linked with the inner-urban city environment, however this creation could be seen as a parallel universe where the ultimate mystery bursts from the earth in one final glow. This landscape concept is easily recognised however the abstract element asks us to look further, to question reality and see what may or may not coexist.  

Acrylic on canvas 76cm X 30.5cm 

Bush Sauce

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Whilst bushwalking I discovered an interesting find. The “Bush Sauce” plant or  Saucerusstylus a member of the native gumtreeusmaximus family combines a fern-like foliage with a hardwood bark texture growing to several metres in height. Evolving to suit climatic conditions this specimen displays masses of brightly coloured, bird attracting flowers in early summer and produces tasty berries for a nutritious bush sauce. This genuine species is often imitated by noxious weeds however sap-sucking, aphid infested posers are no match for the original.