Darren Sylvester’s carefully crafted sets and scenes, in which the line between reality and fiction is always intentionally illusory, are infused with existential yearnings and wry melancholy.
Dear Diary is a surreal spatial environment of exaggeration; each work is Sylvester’s “own Pinocchio”, a lie he wishes to come true. Four large-scale hyperreal photographs comprise intricate scenes of custom built-sets or theatre flats, photographed against a hand-painted backdrop of clouds, co-opted from public Instagram stories, while two rocking lounges rendered in plywood and plush upholstered wool mimic a Balenciaga sneaker.
Darren Sylvester, Shoobie doobie, 2021, two lightjet prints, 240 × 160cm, edition of 3 + 2AP; 180 × 120cm, edition of 3 + 2AP. Courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
Sullivan+Strumpf
24 March to 23 April 2022
Sydney
