Prolific UK artist Stephen Bird showcases a new suite of paintings and ceramics at Olsen Gallery in Sydney, returning from a three-year stint exhibiting and producing around Asia, Europe and the UK.
Bird’s artistic practice, which continues to progress confidently forwards since beginning in the early 90s, has traced a narrative that explores ‘the tragicomedy of the human condition’ through a proliferation of intricately detailed and symbolically dense ceramic sculptures, plates and vessels. Juxtaposing religious iconography with depictions of the everyday, Bird’s works tease us with a cartoonish lightheartedness typical to an Australian sense of humour and express a sharp satirical outlook on the things we tend to take too seriously. Consistently fascinated with the comically absurd, Bird’s ceramics depart from tradition: they often turn the flat surface of a ceramic plate into a canvas for portraiture, or notebook for writing, or the form of a vase into the sculptural foundation for a bust. Furthermore, the actual figures depicted stare at us with eyes bulging in a strange hybridisation of the creepy and hilarious.
Stephen Bird, A Timless Myth, oil on canvas, 137 x 168cm. Courtesy the artist and Olsen Gallery, Sydney
‘When the sour turns to sweet’ takes its name from a psych-rock song by Genesis and displays a certain finalisation of Bird’s practice, in which he seems to have ‘reached the edge of certainty beyond which conscious knowledge cannot pass.’ Drawing on pioneering psychoanalyst Jung’s theory of archetypal symbols – that beyond our individual, conscious perception, there exists a great idealist coming-together of all categories of things, Bird’s practice has evolved in his new works, now merging figure and symbol into an archetype. Jung’s theory is a mode of thought that communicates harmoniously with the psychedelic poetry in the lyrics of Genesis’ music, and both are woven together expertly by Bird through the psychedelic apparitions in his new works.
Stephen Bird, Rogue Hero at Night, 2018, tin glazed earthenware, 52 x 43cm. Courtesy the artist and Olsen Gallery, Sydney
Look inside your mind
See the darkness is creeping in I can see the softness there
Where the sunshine is gliding in Fill your mind with love
Find the world of future glory You can meet yourself
Where the sour turns to sweet
– Lyrics by Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford
Olsen Gallery
Until 7 October, 2018
Sydney
