This Year
The title of my show is taken from a newspaper headline “This Year, be prepared”. It suggests the unfolding of 2020 where human beings have had to rethink our own existence. Bushfires, a global pandemic, impacts of fishing and plastics, religious and political control, and the BLM/Indigenous and Trans Lives Matter movements internationally, are currently demanding deep and complex responses. Yet, like many others, I am aware that we are on repeat, as desire for fashion and commodity continue to compete with these concerns. It is what bubbles to the surface that really strikes a chord: struggles for more awareness of environmental destruction, human rights, sovereignty and the health of the planet and each other. These are not new issues, but the speed of their fruition is driving us all to new anxieties. — Brook Andrew, 2020
This Year originates in a series of collages Brook Andrew recently made from an extensive archive in his Melbourne studio. In frantic actions of cutting and pasting the artist combined disparate elements of printed matter, from contemporary newspaper headlines, fashion magazines and mid-century comic books to historical anthropological texts and an original edition of engravings from the complete works of British satirist William Hogarth (c. 1860). The juxtaposition of contemporary sources with the historical, and the popular with the academic, reveals the ways in which the media and visual culture continue to nurture obsessions with capital, race and catastrophe – and influence modes of being that sway from hope and joy to ignorance and despair. The creation of This Year draws from a method that the artist has developed in previous works including the print series Danger of Authority (2009), the video work SMASH IT (2018), and in his museum interventions that convene the old with the new. His aim is always to open up - split apart and out - the notion that there is one linear timeline or trajectory for humanity, of which our responsibilities are increasingly out of control.
This new body of work began with the intimate collage, as sculptured paper. Three series complete This Year: original collages trapped within sculptural forms made from glowing neon, timber and Perspex; blown-up C-Type hand printed metallic photographs; and massive re-sized collages created from a range of printmaking methods and mixed media. Andrew embeds his own practice in collaboration and This Year is no exception; he has worked alongside long-time collaborators Trent Walter, Mark Chapman, Stewart Russell, Danica Miller and Sandra Barnard.
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Exhibition Dates: 25 September – 24 October 2020
Brook Andrew
This Year, 2020
installation view
Photo credit: Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Brook Andrew
This Year, 2020
installation view
Photo credit: Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Brook Andrew
This Year, 2020
installation view
Photo credit: Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Brook Andrew
This Year, 2020
installation view
Photo credit: Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Brook Andrew
This Year, 2020
installation view
Photo credit: Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Brook Andrew
This Year, 2020
installation view
Photo credit: Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
This year, raking over..., 2020
screen print, photoprint, digital print, textile, paper and neon
308 x 161.5 x 9.5 cm
This year, mislaid plans..., 2020
screen print, photoprint, digital print, textile, paper and neon
287.5 x 297 x 10 cm
This year, of change..., 2020
screen print, photoprint, digital print, textile, paper and neon
250 x 205 x 9.5 cm
This year, missing witness..., 2020
C-Type hand printed metallic photograph
159 x 129 cm
Edition of 3 + 2 APs
This year, the parable..., 2020
C-Type hand printed metallic photograph
159 x 129 cm
Edition of 3 + 2 APs
This year, Aboriginal Princess..., 2020
C-Type hand printed metallic photograph
129 x 159 cm
Edition of 3 + 2 APs
This year, drop your weapons..., 2020
C-Type hand printed metallic photograph
129 x 159 cm
Edition of 3 + 2 APs
This year, activist listening..., 2020
C-Type hand printed metallic photograph
159 x 129 cm
Edition of 3 + 2 APs
This year, hold to madness..., 2020
C-Type hand printed metallic photograph
159 x 129 cm
Edition of 3 + 2 APs
This year, colour, race and empire..., 2020
C-Type hand printed metallic photograph
159 x 129 cm
Edition of 3 + 2 APs
This year, justifiable cause..., 2020
C-Type hand printed metallic photograph
159 x 129 cm
Edition of 3 + 2 APs
This year, historic plight..., 2020
C-Type hand printed metallic photograph
159 x 129 cm
Edition of 3 + 2 APs
This year, still unconscious..., 2020
C-Type hand printed metallic photograph
159 x 129 cm
Edition of 3 + 2 APs
This year, ambition..., 2020
C-Type hand printed metallic photograph
159 x 129 cm
Edition of 3 + 2 APs
