Down, Under, On the Piss, Up
Andrew Burford, Jason Phu
Exhibition Opening: 7 December
7 December- 17 December
"Humour is the rarest of all gifts, for its spiritual content is a delight in the whole spectacle of life, whether that inspires laughter, horror or pity." - Norman Lindsay.
In their joint exhibition, an observational satire of the traditional Aussie pub environment, Andrew Burford and Jason Phu create an interactive installation to engage with the audience and with the recent past. The work will function as a working icon of Australian culture often derided as a lack of culture, a heart of darkness for the civilized man. Viewers will be encouraged to interact with the installation and figurative sculpture, and to sit down at the tables and take pictures, as a way to emphasise the spectacle nature of pubs that have recently been in the news. They thus aim to explore Australian masculine identity for its pitfalls whilst commenting on the cultural cringe to call into account the kind of pretension and eurocentrism that would deny some of the better aspects of pub culture (such as the element of live music that has been all but lost).
