Rob McHaffie’s Preserve this fruit is highly representative of the artist’s practice in which he presents small vignettes of observed everyday life: portraits of characters both real and imagined. His vibrant paintings skilfully simulate the appearance of collage: each of the compositions’ elements derived from various source materials or pages of magazines. This award winning work—the first by McHaffie to be acquired by the Geelong Gallery—depicts a singular figure of an elderly man in profile in a style reminiscent of Asian shadow puppets and temple paintings.
The artist’s interest in these traditional art forms flourished during a 2011 Asialink residency at Rimbun Dahan, near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Following this he lived in Thailand for an extended period of time, where he worked with cut paper to create collages: ‘sketches’ that form the basis for his paintings. Just as the figure in this work is ‘constructed’ from paper cut from the pages of a magazine, McHaffie constructs an imaginary narrative between this elderly gentleman—representative of traditional Thai life—and the silk entrepreneur Jim Thompson, who in the years after the Second World War, reinvigorated the Thai silk industry.
As the artist states, ‘The figure in this painting is inspired by the traditional Thai folk painting styles that adorn the walls of great temples like Wat Pho [the Temple of the Reclining Buddha] in Bangkok. The old man represents the accommodating and good-humoured nature I have found in Thailand. He is part of a small narrative I was imagining about Jim Thompson first meeting with Thai locals. The conversation might go, “Hello Jim my name, I’m very interested in preserving your silk culture here.” The old man may answer, “You can preserve this fruit if you like”.’
The announcement of the prize-winning work was made by guest judge, Charlotte Day (Director, Monash University Museum of Art) at the opening of the exhibition on Friday 29 August, 6.00–8.00pm. Ms Day was joined in judging this year’s Prize by Geelong Gallery’s Director, Geoffrey Edwards, and Curator, Lisa Sullivan. Some 500 entries were received from around the country with 42 works by 45 artists selected to showcase the best of contemporary Australian painting practice.
Geoffrey Edwards said, ‘Possibly even more so than in previous years, the 2014 Geelong contemporary art prize confirms the astonishing vitality and sophistication of current Australian painting within a wider stream of contemporary visual arts practice including the increasingly prominent screen-based and other new-media forms.’ ‘Here in this exhibition we have both figuratively lavish and austere abstractions alike with aspects of the natural world featuring as strongly as social or political narrative,’ Mr Edwards explained.
Guest judge, Charlotte Day said Preserve this fruit, ‘reflects Rob McHaffie’s distinctive approach to painting involving processes of modeling and collaging. Although modest in scale, his paintings are sharply perceptive reflections on the paradoxes of contemporary life. As well as nodding to traditional Thai folk painting, this work can be appreciated as an allegory of Western and colonial attitudes to the East.’ Born in Melbourne in 1978, Rob McHaffie completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drawing), Victorian College of the Arts in 2002.
Geelong Gallery wishes to thank the Dimmick Charitable Trust for generously sponsoring this signature event, which assists with the development of the Gallery’s collection while fostering Australian artists and contemporary painting practice in general.
Geelong Gallery
Until 23 November, 2014
Victoria
Rob McHaffie, Preserve this fruit, 2013, oil on linen, 82 x 72cm
Collection: Geelong Gallery, Geelong contemporary art prize, 2014
Courtesy the artist and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney
