Nathan Beard

Nathan Beard is a Perth-based interdisciplinary artist whose practice is primarily engaged with culture, memory and biography, particularly through the prism of his diasporic Thai-Australian lineage. This trajectory has rewarded the artist a feature in WA Focus; the Art Gallery of Western Australia’s (AGWA) annual program dedicated to displaying recent and new work by local artists.

Through sculpture, installation, photography and drawing, Beard examines issues of cultural politics and construction of identity while dissecting narratives of displacement and loss, evoking existential themes of nostalgia and mortality. As he investigates the duality of his inherited background – the dichotomies of East versus West – he challenges what it means to grow up “Australian” with an innate sense of “Thainess”. His interest in the exchange between himself and his maternal ancestors infuses his work with a unique autoethnography that draws audiences into his complex, yet poignant, network of influences and family ties.

Beard’s work explores the transitory, cyclical nature of life – from beginnings to end, within time and space. Anemone (2014-2017), two photographs printed on diaphanous sheets of silk, document a floral wreath displayed on the artist’s late uncle’s coffin in Nakhon Nayok, Thailand in January 2014. Traditional Thai funeral rituals last for several days, and these garlands wither throughout the duration of the ceremony. One image is presented in sharp focus and the other abstracts the flowers into a translucent, lenticular colour field. Here, Beard reconstructs the momento mori tradition to lend permanence to this fleeting tribute in the form of a shrine – a vibrant aesthetic of these funeral customs that contrast wildly with the sombre tone of Western funerals. The presentation of the images on a suspended wooden frame, undulating in response to each surrounding movement, “gives them an ethereal physical presence in the space”, says the artist.

Jenepher Duncan, WA Focus coordinating curator says, “Beard’s aesthetic range imbues his images with a haunting quality, a sense of grace deriving from his familial piety and respect for the cultural influences that have shaped both his understanding and appreciation of inter-cultural connections, as well as his art.”

An evocative series of mixed media prints, titled Ad Matres, hold a central focus in the exhibition. Beard salvaged old photographs, mainly of deceased relatives, found in his mother’s abandoned home in Nakhon Nayak, covered in what the artist describes as “a thick layer of dust carrying a patina of neglect”. By adorning these family portraits with Swarovski crystals, reminiscent of various death masks and runway fashions or ‘70s rock icons, with traditional Thai culture, the artist draws directly from the kitsch of commercialised ‘orientalism’. Beard’s intention is “to nurture a personal engagement with the memory and legacy of my mother’s family, utilising an aesthetic that slyly references contemporary crafts and ephemera, like crystal encrusted smartphone covers that are ubiquitous in South East Asia.” These portraits, he remarks, “collapse the past with the present, bridging tradition with modernity from a personal and universal perspective.”

Beard demonstrates the permeable boundaries of two cultures through his own sense of belonging, history and self-discovery. This double consciousness connects the works within the exhibition to broader, more universal themes that resonate with its Australian audience and their own ‘bedazzled’ identities.

 

Art Gallery of Western Australia
Until 28 May, 2017
Western Australia